Reaction essay Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Reaction essay - Assignment Example The Holocaust Memorial is therefore symbolic of the murdered Jews that is why it was aptly named â€Å"Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe† (Michael Blackwood Productions, Inc., n.d., par. 2). I think that the ‘ort’ was a good idea to provide visitors and guests with the crucial information relating to the museum. This is necessary especially for people in future generations who could not have been appropriately informed of the historical events that transpired during this time. I still believe that the title is the most appropriate one given that even those who died of old age or disease in concentration camps also fall within this category; since they would not have been forced to be in these camps in the first place if the intention were not to murder them. Their dying of old age or of disease were just a matter of consequence. affirmation that people of the United States detest what had happened during the holocaust. Likewise, there is a need to commemorate the Jews who died and might have relatives who died during this time to manifest unity in remembering them. No national monument for the victims of slavery and genocide were erected in this country because it would not befit to show to the world that these discriminatory events and violations of human rights were actually perpetuated by people from this country. From the documentary video of Emmaly Reed, the viewers are given the prerogative to either believe what she is narrating or to dismiss this as virtually unsubstantiated (Cantrell, n.d. ). One could believe her given that there were other victims who relayed similar incidences and stories of harm that were apparently inflicted. On the contrary, given that she must have been two or three years old at that time, the events could not have been possibly remembered. Likewise, with the narration that she could have been subjected to various torture (hammering of nail on her skull or hanging and poisoning), given

The Moon is Dawn Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Moon is Dawn - Essay Example During World War II Steinbeck wrote some effective pieces of government propaganda, among them The Moon Is Down (1942), a novel of Norwegians under the Nazis, and he also served as a war correspondent. His immediate postwar work-Cannery Row (1945), The Pearl (1947), and The Wayward Bus (1947)-contained the familiar elements of his social criticism but were more relaxed in approach and sentimental in tone. The Moon is Down is Steinbeck's work of genius. It is the account of invasion of idealist soldiers from the provinces, powered by hostility principles, whose yearning to build their fortune sets in action measures both attention-grabbing and tragic. His representation of the invaders through showing their positive and negative traits during early-nineteenth-century was remarkable and enlightening. The book stays as a matchless and incomparable creation, one that brilliantly anticipates modern literature. Steinbeck originally wrote The Moon is Down set in a medium sized American town. Steinbeck submitted for approval to the [office of] the Foreign Information Service. Officials there rejected it because they feared that postulating an American defeat might be demoralizing. intro. p. ix Steinbeck revised the work and s... p. ix Steinbeck revised the work and set it in an unnamed country in Europe. The Moon is Down became a staple of the underground resistance in many occupied countries in Europe. The Nazi's banned it in the countries they occupied; yet many risked their lives to get it circulated. In Italy, if an individual was found with a copy, it was punishable by death. This was written as a propaganda piece in 1942 and smuggled into occupied Europe where it was then translated into several languages and produced and distributed under a very real threat of death. Set in a fictitious country (sort of Norway, kind of like France, etc.) invaded by an unstated but thinly-disguised Germany, The Moon is Down was wildly popular in occupied Europe. In this short novel, the citizens of this occupied town and their occupiers are portrayed as complex, fully-realized characters rather than as the interchangeable stock heroes or evil-doers of many war novels. Sitting safely at his typewriter in the U.S., it would have been easy for Steinbeck to portray the Nazis as evil incarnate but instead they have hopes, dreams and fears at least as complex as the good guys. The book does a fine job of detailing the conflicting emotions of both occupiers and occupied. "The Moon Is Down" was a work of propaganda written by Steinbeck and distributed to Nazi-occupied Europe as moral support for the conquered peoples. Some of the finer works of literature are propaganda pieces. There is nothing inherently wrong with propaganda; what determines its worth (besides its qualities as literature) is the content of its message. And the message contained in "The Moon Is Down" is that a free people may be physically conquered by brute force for a time, but that their spirits will never be subjugated, and