So this blog is so I can type all of my thoughts about projects out and everything that comes to mind can be saved and I can access it from anywhere. Maybe, it will be of some help for you too.
The project I have to do today is a 4 to 5 page "research" paper. (research is in quotations because its really your opinion). The professor wants us to be able to form an opinion based on what we read about a topic and compare it to another topic that is similar to the original topic. The book we are using during this course is put together by Lee A. Jacobs and is called "A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers" and it's the ninth edition. We need to use our ideas and the writings in the book for this first essay. No outside help (i.e internet, other books, other people's thoughts, etc) is allowed during this assignment.
What am I doing for this assignment? That's the question I've been asking of myself for the past week. It's now the night before the assignment is due and instead of writing the paper, I'm here blogging about it instead. I'm blogging my ideas about the assignment and my topic so I can think a clearer path about my topic and how exactly I would like to go about writing this paper.
My paper topic is comparing Hannah Arendt (total domination) and the movie Schindler's List. They both have in common the Holocaust and totalitarianism. Hannah Arendt speaks of different aspects of how human beings were treated in concentration camps. She is strongly against the form of government which is known as totalitarianism.
*Totalitarianism: a concept used by some political scientists in which the state hold total authority over the society and seeks control over all aspects of public and private life wherever possible.*
The scene with Ralph Fiennes.
-Commander of the Concentration Camp
He confronts his prisoner, a beautiful young Jewish woman, also known as Helen Hirsch You listen as he gives her a long "talk", while Helen is simply terrified and stands completely still and silent while he continuously rambles on about how he is sexually attracted to her. She can not move due to fear, as she has every point to do so. While he believes it to be only a light-hearted flirtation with the thought of a possible sexual affair.The entire encounter for Helen is a question of life or death.
The part that shows totalitarianism to me is the fact that she is scared of him. That she stand completely still not saying a single word and staring off into nothingness. That her question about the whole thing is clearly is life or death.
Arendt continued on about how the Holocaust is unimaginable because of the reason of life or death being in the question. She continues on saying that we will never fully understand it due to the fact that all the survivors struggled with returning to the world with the living. Which in that case caused it to be impossible for the survivor to believe in their own past experiences. Going from being stripped away of everything all the way down to your own clothing, to living a normal life again, was a type of what I would say "culture shock" for the ones that did survive.
The scene with Amon Goeth and Oskar Schindler.
- war profiteer, womanizer, & Nazi Party member
Schindler towards the end of the movie, asks Goeth if he can buy his prisoner, Helen Hirsch, for his list he had made. Goeth refused. He explained to Schindler that he would never let her go and he would be taking her to Vienna with him to grow old with. Schindler then tells him that he could never do that. Goeth then shows his true feelings for Helen by saying he would never allow for her to be sent to Auschwitz. His alternative to that would be shooting her in the head "mercifully" instead.
Amon at this point shows his true inner conflict and essential cruelty. Totalitarianism is apart of this scene as well because of the decision that is made without Helen even being aware of it. Goeth, the Commander of the Concentration Camp has stated that he would choice whether she lived or not. He has stripped her from the ability to speak for herself whether she would like to go to Auschwitz or just die "mercifully" according to Amon. He is showing control of Helen as a thing rather than a human being.
This is the beginning of the research that has been done, and now I will be going and actually writing my paper, if you see this and have some thoughts to add to it, even if its after today, I would love to hear some thoughts.
Thank you for the time of reading my notes for my first blogged assignment.
-Danielle
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