Reflection

Paul and Tatsiana in real life

The movie had a deep impression on me. At first, I did not know that there was actually a genocide at that time. As I started watching the video, I could realize the seriousness of the genocide in Rwanda. The movie depicted the corpses and genocide so vividly and with detail, that I could feel gooseflesh.

I think the movie was intended to inform the viewers of what had happened in Rwanda. Like I did, there might have been a lot of people who never knew about the genocide. The movie teaches some lessons of sacrificing and values of families. As well, the Hotel Rwanda affects the viewers' heart and emotions by showing some cruel scenes such as the dead bodies on river side, children dying, men being chopped, and a man trying to kill the main character. The extreme scenes make viewers to be involved in the movie and have more attention.



The movie actually affected me wanting to find more about it and learn from it. After watching the video, I researched more about the genocide and read a lot of news on it. More I research it, more I feel sorry for the people. I could not believe that there was the massacre in 1994 which is so recent. If there were some more help and attention from the other countries, there might be less damage and loss of the population. 800,000 people are too many to die. In about three months, 800,000 people died by the rebels. I can't even imagine how it would be in Rwanda at that time. It would be a lot more than what's in the movie.

Genocide in Rwanda

I never knew that in 1994, which is recent, there was a genocide going on. After watching the video and researching on internet, I realized that the genocide is the most inhumane thing I've ever seen. The innocent people died by the Hutu soldiers and civilians. Approximately 800,000 people died during the genocide. About 10% of population was murdered, including children, women, and old people. I had to doubt myself when I was watching the video since I couldn't believe that the genocide happened in the 20th century.

When I was watching the video, I was very confused. The genocide basically happened because of the past history of the ancestors, and also some greed that the people had to conquer one party in the country. If they wanted to have power to control over the place or wanted the other party to step back, then they could have a debate or some other ways. Killing 800,000 people was so insane because they were living on a same ground for years and suddenly started killing weak people. Even the U.S. and other countries couldn't stop or did not stop the massacre. In some articles, the U.S. people said that they did not know what was happening. Although they didn't know what was happening at that time, they could give some force to the country after noticing what had happened. When they considered the time as late, the genocide was still happening.

In my opinion, the people would be very confused and scared when their neighbors and friends were dying. Even in the movie, there were two friends drinking at the hotel bar and one of them was Hutu, and the other was Tutsi. They were friends and close to each other. But after massacre, everyone became confused of what to do for themselves and for the friends.

The media was very important in the movie, probably also in the real situation. The radio for Hutus was always talking about how Tutsis are enemies to them and how Hutus should do to get rid of Tutsis. Hutus also gave a sign of beginning of the massacre by the radio. The civilians who were hiding in the hotel got false and some true information on the massacre by the radio. Moreover, Paul wanted the people to call everyone they knew to save themselves and say goodbye. He wanted them to make sincere and pitiful voice so that they can be wanting to help them. The reporters at the hotel went out to film the massacre and broadcast the scene that would affect the world. Paul thought that it can affect everyone in the world and they would be saved soon. But the reporter said that the people will just feel sympathy and eat dinner. I learned that the media can affect people in different ways. It can make the people to react physically and come forward, or it can make people just to know what is happening in the world but not care afterward because the news do not seem connected to themselves. I drew a lesson that the media can be an effective way of spreading certain news, but it does not necessarily affect people to be involved in the news.

Beautiful Dreamer

Beautiful Dreamer

-Stephen Foster

Beautiful dreamer, wake unto me,

Starlight and dewdrops are waiting for thee;

Sounds of the rude world heard in the day,

Lull'd by the moonlight have all pass'd away!

Beautiful dreamer, queen of my song,

List while I woo thee with soft melody;

Gone are the cares of life's busy throng.

Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!

Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!

Beautiful dreamer, out on the sea,

Mermaids are chaunting the whild lorelie;

Over the streamlet vapors are borne,

Waiting to fade at the bright coming morn.

Beautiful dreamer, beam on my heart,

E'en as the morn on the streamlet and sea;

Then will all clouds of sorrow depart,

Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!

The poem is a song for a lover. I think the "Beautiful Dreamer" is a woman who is very attractive and beautiful to the poet. When I read the poem one time, I thought it was just talking to a lover to wake him up with a soft, sweet voice or with love. But as I read the poem several times, I realized that the song is for a woman who is like a sun and the morning.

"Starlight and dewdrops are waiting for thee;" this line made me to think of her as a sun or a morning because starlight and dewdrops fade away when the morning comes and the sun rises.

"moonlight have all pass'd away!" it means that the morning is almost there, and still the poet is singing for the woman to wake him up.

But since the sun didn't rise yet, the man didn't wake up.

"queen of my song," this means that the audience of this poem, or a focus of this poem is on a woman or a lover of the poet.

"Gone are the cares of life's busy throng." means that the poet is not busy, and has enough time to spare unlike the other city people who are really busy and mean.

"Beautiful dreamer, out on the sea,
Mermaids are chaunting the whild lorelie;
Over the streamlet vapors are borne,
Waiting to fade at the bright coming morn."-> In this lines, it also talks about how the woman is like the sun that makes the bright coming morn. Also the poet describes of a witch at the sea, Lorelie, and the mermaids who chant about the witch.

"Then will all clouds of sorrow depart," This last line tells me to think of me a sun again since it explains how the clouds of sorrow would go away. This time, the poet used a metaphor, saying "clouds of sorrow". I think the whole poem can turn into an extended metaphor.

If the woman was compared as a sun, or a morning, then the life's busy throng can be the poet's other days when the woman is not beside him. Moreover, the mermaids are the others who admire the woman's beauty or sing for her. The dewdrops and clouds mean the moments when he is in "SLEEP" while she is not near him. Since the poem is a love song for a lover, I thought that the woman is being valued like a sun or a morning to the poet.

The Tiger in the Driveway

has escaped from the carousel and stands chained
to the trunk of a dogwood in the suburbs

fourteen miles from New York. Bright
in his new coat of paint, his stripes

blend with the mix of light and shade,
his likeness, and only slightly less dangerous.

Across the street, nearly hidden
in dense brushy rhododendron, a bronze swan

glimmers in dots of light like rain or little mirrors,
like medallions. When the light's right they reflect

the tiger, broken into pieces, flattened, tamed.
She doesn't like to hear his panting on hot days

but senses how the chain beneath his chin
chafes skin. Sympathy like light wind

cannot stir her feathers, weighted with metal.
Nights she imagines his slide silent as shadow

to the beds upstairs. Driven out (he is always
driven out), he dreams it's possible to slip

behind the stove or fridge; he spits
like a house-cat when the woman sprinkles water

on the grass and wets his clothes. He misses
his little blue jacket but not the saddle's

golden tassels and gilt trim, and he longs for music,
but not the children climbing and patting.

On long summer afternoons he might doze
in the shade of the garage where blades and spokes,

old bikes and broken mowers, gleam beneath coats
of grime and dust, brown furry frosting, he is manifest

desire and drips like bitten peaches, plums; tigers.
His fine eyes shine with bleack intelligence and blink

in all that dark, and then he stretches, pink
tongue curling. His breast heaves. Bars bow:

he is potential mouth and froth and leap,
brings smells like meat, the scent of mud from rivers

with him, bruises, streaks of old abrasions, chunks
of carrionand traces of wild grasses,

memories of fatty thighs of swans,
their gorgeous splayed black paddle feet.

C. Deena Linett




-I think this poem was writtne in a man's point of view.
He's probably seen a tiger and a swan on the way to his home.
He remembers of the past and longs for desire and something.
He feels a little bit of pity for the animals that are trapped and
tamed in human-ways, not wild enough like real animals.

I also feel pity for the tiger that is tamed and is very quiet unlike
the other tigers with freedom.

The poem can literally tell a story of a tiger that's caught in a zoo or an amusement park.

I thought the tiger was in a zoo or an amusement park, because he said that " he longs for music, but not the children climbing and patting. " It means that he was tamed enough not to eat the children up. Also "old bikes and broken mowers" tells me that the setting of the poem is in a rural area where the bikes and mowering machines are broken. Also if there is a mowering machine, then there is a lot of grass.

The poem might mean about a person who changens his/her own personality to fit in a community. Although there is a hidden desire inside of oneself, he/she should act like a tamed tiger so the others can approach near him/her. After all the work and change, the person longs for the past where he/she could be comfortable and confident. But now it's too late to change, because the time passed a lot that it's hard to go out of it.

"with him, bruises, streaks of old abrasions, chunks of carrionand traces of wild grasses, "this sentence describes of how the person who tried to fit inside of a certain community tried hard and cruelly. The bruises and abrasions are the scars that are left behind all the hard work. For me, the traces of wild grasses show that the person's been at one place (the certain community) for a long time, that he/she is not being able to come out of it again, because he/ she is "chained".

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea

In a beautiful pea-green boat,

They took some honey, and plenty of money

Wrapped up in a five-pound note.

The Owl looked up to the stars above,

And sang to a small guitar,

"O lovely Pussy, O Pussy, my love,

What a beautiful Pussy you are,

You are

You are!

What a beautiful Pussy you are!"

Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl!

How charmingly sweet you sing!

O let us be married! too long we have tarried:

But what shall we do for a ring?"

They sailed away, for a year and a day,

To the land where the Bont-tree grows

And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood

With a ring at the end of his nose,

His nose,

His nose,

With a ring at the end of his nose.

"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling

your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will."

So they took it away, and were married next day

By the Turkey who lives on the hill.

They dined on mince, and slices of quince,

Which they ate with a runcible spoon;

And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,

They danced by the light of the moon,

The moon,

The moon,

They danced by the light of the moon.

C. Jan Brett


I liked this poem because the poem tells a story like a fairy tale.
The owl and cat are expressed in the poem like real human-beings.
The poem is pretty easy to read for me, so it might be seemed enjoyable and easy for children too. I love this poem.

In a beautiful pea-green boat, for me, is said as if the animals in the poem are humans. For us, if we say that it's a pea-green boat, than it means that it's green, but in my opinion, it meant how peaceful and small they were like a pea. Not exactly similar size as pea, but similar.

But what shall we do for a ring?"
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bont-tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,

This part shows their journey to the other land to find their rings to get married.

I think it means how the people take a time until they get married.

Also it is like a journey to the people when they prepare for their marriage because the situation changed compare to the past. The piggy-wig maybe means the little bit of happiness that is found before the marriage.

So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill. This line tells us the main topic of the story. The two animals take a journey for their rings and now they are getting married. By the sentence, "who lives on the hill", I think it means how they climbed up with difficulty, but they didn't give up. Even after the journey for a long time, they didn't give up. It probably leaves a message saying, that us, humans, should endure until we get to the top. Like the animals described in the poem, people should take a time until they find happiness and climb up to the top together.