Sunday, October 28, 2007
Research Update
I found a secondary source that described Israeli's as "over-memorializing" the Holocaust. I had never thought of this aspect of my research before, but upon re-reading my primary text, I realized that the boy's concern for his shoes could simply be unnecessary, Israeli neurosis. Perhaps the Holocaust's impact on Israel is eternal, and Israeli's efforts to constantly memorialize it actually inhibit social progress. Maybe some subcultures "over-memorialize" and some "under-memorialize." Though I may not incorporate this at all, I feel more comfortable having a wide scope of research and then narrowing it, as opposed to beginning with a narrow scope. The latter is a myopic approach that does not yield itself to thorough, latitudinal research.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Presentation of "Shoes" by Etgar Keret
Analysis of Shoes by Etgar Keret
• Primarily, the story deals with the theme of memorializing the Holocaust while moving forward with life.
• At first the boy is hesitant to play with his shoes because he feels he will be indirectly harming his grandfather.
• Yet he “forgot, just like the old man at Volhynia House said people tend to do,” and plays soccer in his shoes.
• At the end, he remembers what he has done, but decides that his grandfather would have approved.
• In a way, this boy is a microcosm of Israeli society. Like him, Israelis do not actively remember the Holocaust on a daily
basis, yet its memory does motivate certain societal constructs.
--The mandatory service in the army propagates from willingness avenge
the deaths of the Jews that died in the Holocaust
--The divides in Israeli society between Holocaust-survivor immigrants from Europe and Sabras (the pioneers of Israel). When Djerby (a Sephardic—Middle Eastern—Jew) implies that the old man is a coward, Keret is alluding to the Sabra disdain for Holocaust survivors.
--The almost superstitious Israeli grudge against Germany and gentiles of Eastern Europe. Obviously, the old man’s refusal to by anything German epitomizes this fact. The boy’s ambivalence over wearing his new shoes mirrors the Israeli ambivalence over assimilation.
• Primarily, the story deals with the theme of memorializing the Holocaust while moving forward with life.
• At first the boy is hesitant to play with his shoes because he feels he will be indirectly harming his grandfather.
• Yet he “forgot, just like the old man at Volhynia House said people tend to do,” and plays soccer in his shoes.
• At the end, he remembers what he has done, but decides that his grandfather would have approved.
• In a way, this boy is a microcosm of Israeli society. Like him, Israelis do not actively remember the Holocaust on a daily
basis, yet its memory does motivate certain societal constructs.
--The mandatory service in the army propagates from willingness avenge
the deaths of the Jews that died in the Holocaust
--The divides in Israeli society between Holocaust-survivor immigrants from Europe and Sabras (the pioneers of Israel). When Djerby (a Sephardic—Middle Eastern—Jew) implies that the old man is a coward, Keret is alluding to the Sabra disdain for Holocaust survivors.
--The almost superstitious Israeli grudge against Germany and gentiles of Eastern Europe. Obviously, the old man’s refusal to by anything German epitomizes this fact. The boy’s ambivalence over wearing his new shoes mirrors the Israeli ambivalence over assimilation.
This is the Full Text of my primary source, "Shoes" by Etgar Keret.
Shoes/ Etgar Keret Translated by Marganit Weinberger-Rotman
On Holocaust Memorial Day our teacher Sara took us on bus Number 57 to visit the museum of Volhynia Jewry, and I felt very important. All the kids in the class except me, my cousin, and one other boy, Druckman, had families that came from Iraq. I was the only one with a grandfather who had died in the Holocaust. Volhynia House was very beautiful and posh, all made of black marble, like millionaires’ houses. It was full of sad black-and-white pictures and lists of people and countries and dead people. We walked past the pictures in pairs and the teacher said, “Don’t touch!” But I did touch one picture, made of cardboard, showing a thin, pale man who was crying and holding a sandwich in his hand. The tears came streaming down his cheeks like the divider lines you see on a highway, and my partner, Orit Salem, said she would tell the teacher that I touched it. I said I didn’t care, she could tell whoever she wanted, even the principal, I didn’t give a damn. It’s my Grandpa and I’m touching whatever I want.
After the pictures, they took us into a big hall and showed us a movie about little children who were shoved into a truck and then suffocated with gas. Then a skinny old man got up on the stage and told us what bastards and murderers the Nazis were and how he took revenge on them, and he even strangled a soldier with his bare hands until he died. Djerby, who was sitting next to me, said the old man was lying; the way he looks, there’s no way he can make any soldier bite the dust. But I looked the old man in the eye and believed him. He had so much anger in his eyes that all the rampages of all the iron-pumping hoods I’d ever seen seemed like small change in comparison.
Finally, when he finished telling us what he had done during the Holocaust, the old man said that what we had just heard was relevant not only to the past but also for what goes on nowadays, because the Germans still exist and still have a country. He said he was never going to forgive them, and that he hoped we would never ever go visit their country, either. Because when he went with his parents to Germany fifty years ago everything looked nice, but it ended in hell. People have short memories, he said, especially where bad things are concerned. People tend to forget, he said, but you won’t forget. Every time you see a German, you’ll remember what I told you. Every time you see German products, whether it’s a television set or anything else, you should always remember that underneath the fancy wrapping there are parts and tubes that they made out of the bones and skin and flesh of dead Jews.
On the way out Djerby said again that he’d bet anything the old man never strangled anybody in his life, and I thought to myself it was lucky that we had a made-in-Israel refrigerator at home. Why look for trouble?
Two weeks later, my parents came back from a trip abroad and brought me sneakers. My older brother had secretly told my mom that that’s what I wanted, and she got me the best pair in the world. Mom smiled as she handed me the present. She was sure I had no idea what was inside. But I recognized the Adidas logo on the bag right away. I took out the shoebox and said thank you. The box was rectangular, like a coffin, and in it were two white shoes with three blue stripes and the inscription ADIDAS on the side; I didn’t have to open the box to know what they looked like. ’Let’s put them on,’ my mother said and took off the wrapping, ’to make sure they fit.’ She was smiling the whole time, and had no idea what was going on. ’They’re from Germany, you know,’ I told her, squeezing her hand tightly. ’Of course, I know,’ Mom smiled, ’Adidas is the best brand in the world.’ ’Grandpa was from Germany, too,’ I tried to give her a hint. ’Grandpa was from Poland,’ Mom corrected me. For a moment she became sad, but she got over it in no time. She put one shoe on my foot and started to tie the laces. I kept quiet. I realized there was nothing doing. Mom didn’t have a clue. She had never been to Volhynia House. Nobody had ever explained it toפפפפher. For her, shoes were just shoes and Germany was Poland. I let her put the shoes on me and didn’t say a thing. There was no point in telling her and making her even sadder.
I thanked her again and kissed her on the cheek and said I was going out to play ball. ’Be careful, eh?’ my dad called, laughing, from his armchair in the front room. ’Don’t wear out the soles right away.’ I looked again at the pale hide covering my feet. I looked at them and remembered everything the old man who had strangled the soldier said we should remember. I touched the blue Adidas stripes and remembered my cardboard grandfather. ’Are the shoes comfortable?’ my mother asked. ’Sure they’re comfortable,’ my brother answered for me. ’These aren’t cheap Israeli sneakers. These are the same sneakers that the great Cruiff wears.’ I tiptoed slowly toward the door, trying to put as little weight as I could on the shoes. And so I made my way gingerly to Monkeys Park. Outside the kids from the Borochov neighborhood had formed three teams: Holland, Argentina, and Brazil. It so happened that Holland needed a player, so they agreed to let me join in, although they never accept anyone who’s not from Borochov.
At the beginning of the game I still remembered not to kick with the tip of my shoe, so that it wouldn’t hurt Grandpa, but after a while I forgot, just like the old man at Volhynia House said people tend to do, and I even managed to kick a tiebreaker. But when the game was over I remembered and looked at the shoes. All of a sudden they were so comfortable, much bouncier than when they were in the box. ’Some goals, eh?’ I reminded Grandpa on the way home. ’The goalie didn’t know what hit him.’ Grandpa didn’t answer, but judging by the tread I would say that he was pleased, too.
From The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God & Other Stories, (London: The Toby Press, 2004)
On Holocaust Memorial Day our teacher Sara took us on bus Number 57 to visit the museum of Volhynia Jewry, and I felt very important. All the kids in the class except me, my cousin, and one other boy, Druckman, had families that came from Iraq. I was the only one with a grandfather who had died in the Holocaust. Volhynia House was very beautiful and posh, all made of black marble, like millionaires’ houses. It was full of sad black-and-white pictures and lists of people and countries and dead people. We walked past the pictures in pairs and the teacher said, “Don’t touch!” But I did touch one picture, made of cardboard, showing a thin, pale man who was crying and holding a sandwich in his hand. The tears came streaming down his cheeks like the divider lines you see on a highway, and my partner, Orit Salem, said she would tell the teacher that I touched it. I said I didn’t care, she could tell whoever she wanted, even the principal, I didn’t give a damn. It’s my Grandpa and I’m touching whatever I want.
After the pictures, they took us into a big hall and showed us a movie about little children who were shoved into a truck and then suffocated with gas. Then a skinny old man got up on the stage and told us what bastards and murderers the Nazis were and how he took revenge on them, and he even strangled a soldier with his bare hands until he died. Djerby, who was sitting next to me, said the old man was lying; the way he looks, there’s no way he can make any soldier bite the dust. But I looked the old man in the eye and believed him. He had so much anger in his eyes that all the rampages of all the iron-pumping hoods I’d ever seen seemed like small change in comparison.
Finally, when he finished telling us what he had done during the Holocaust, the old man said that what we had just heard was relevant not only to the past but also for what goes on nowadays, because the Germans still exist and still have a country. He said he was never going to forgive them, and that he hoped we would never ever go visit their country, either. Because when he went with his parents to Germany fifty years ago everything looked nice, but it ended in hell. People have short memories, he said, especially where bad things are concerned. People tend to forget, he said, but you won’t forget. Every time you see a German, you’ll remember what I told you. Every time you see German products, whether it’s a television set or anything else, you should always remember that underneath the fancy wrapping there are parts and tubes that they made out of the bones and skin and flesh of dead Jews.
On the way out Djerby said again that he’d bet anything the old man never strangled anybody in his life, and I thought to myself it was lucky that we had a made-in-Israel refrigerator at home. Why look for trouble?
Two weeks later, my parents came back from a trip abroad and brought me sneakers. My older brother had secretly told my mom that that’s what I wanted, and she got me the best pair in the world. Mom smiled as she handed me the present. She was sure I had no idea what was inside. But I recognized the Adidas logo on the bag right away. I took out the shoebox and said thank you. The box was rectangular, like a coffin, and in it were two white shoes with three blue stripes and the inscription ADIDAS on the side; I didn’t have to open the box to know what they looked like. ’Let’s put them on,’ my mother said and took off the wrapping, ’to make sure they fit.’ She was smiling the whole time, and had no idea what was going on. ’They’re from Germany, you know,’ I told her, squeezing her hand tightly. ’Of course, I know,’ Mom smiled, ’Adidas is the best brand in the world.’ ’Grandpa was from Germany, too,’ I tried to give her a hint. ’Grandpa was from Poland,’ Mom corrected me. For a moment she became sad, but she got over it in no time. She put one shoe on my foot and started to tie the laces. I kept quiet. I realized there was nothing doing. Mom didn’t have a clue. She had never been to Volhynia House. Nobody had ever explained it toפפפפher. For her, shoes were just shoes and Germany was Poland. I let her put the shoes on me and didn’t say a thing. There was no point in telling her and making her even sadder.
I thanked her again and kissed her on the cheek and said I was going out to play ball. ’Be careful, eh?’ my dad called, laughing, from his armchair in the front room. ’Don’t wear out the soles right away.’ I looked again at the pale hide covering my feet. I looked at them and remembered everything the old man who had strangled the soldier said we should remember. I touched the blue Adidas stripes and remembered my cardboard grandfather. ’Are the shoes comfortable?’ my mother asked. ’Sure they’re comfortable,’ my brother answered for me. ’These aren’t cheap Israeli sneakers. These are the same sneakers that the great Cruiff wears.’ I tiptoed slowly toward the door, trying to put as little weight as I could on the shoes. And so I made my way gingerly to Monkeys Park. Outside the kids from the Borochov neighborhood had formed three teams: Holland, Argentina, and Brazil. It so happened that Holland needed a player, so they agreed to let me join in, although they never accept anyone who’s not from Borochov.
At the beginning of the game I still remembered not to kick with the tip of my shoe, so that it wouldn’t hurt Grandpa, but after a while I forgot, just like the old man at Volhynia House said people tend to do, and I even managed to kick a tiebreaker. But when the game was over I remembered and looked at the shoes. All of a sudden they were so comfortable, much bouncier than when they were in the box. ’Some goals, eh?’ I reminded Grandpa on the way home. ’The goalie didn’t know what hit him.’ Grandpa didn’t answer, but judging by the tread I would say that he was pleased, too.
From The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God & Other Stories, (London: The Toby Press, 2004)
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Rhetorical Analysis I
With irreverent and cynical colloquialisms, Loewen wages literary rebellion against the heroified perception of Woodrow Wilson. His candor of speech attempts to awaken the reader to the historical truth.
Passage I/468
All twelve of the textbooks I surveyed mention Wilson’s 1914 invasion of Mexico, but they posit that the interventions were not Wilson’s fault. “President Wilson was irged to send military forces into Mevico to protect American investments and to restore law and order,” according to Triumph of the American Nation, whose authors emphasize that the president at first chose not to intervene. But “as the months passed even President Wilson began to lose patience,” Walter Karp has shown that this version contradicts the facts—the invasion was Wilson’s idea from the start, and it outraged Congress as well as the American people. According to Karp, Wilson’s intervention was so outrageous that leaders of both sides of Mexico’s ongoing civil war demanded that the U.S. forces leave; the pressure of public opinion in the United States and around the world finally influenced Wilson to recall the troops.
Textbook authors commonly use another device when describing our Mexican adventures: they identify Wilson as ordering our forces to withdraw, but nobody is specified as having ordered them in! Imparting information in a passive voice helps to insulate historic figures from their own unheroic or unethical deeds.
Passage II/475
[Answering the question, “Why don’t they let the public in on these matters?”]
Heroification itself supplies a first answer. Socialism is repugnant to most Americans. So are racisms and colonialism. Michael Kammen suggests that authors selectively omit blemishes in order to make certain historical figures sympathetic to as many people as possible. The textbook critic Norma Gabler has testified that textbooks “should present our nation’s patriots in a way that would honor and respect them”; in her eyes, admitting Keller’s socialism and Wilson’s racism would hardly do that. In the early 1920s the American Legion said that authors of textbooks “are at fault in placing before immature pupils the blunders, foibles, and frailties of prominent heroes and patriots of our Nation.” The Legion would hardly be able to fault today’s history textbooks on this account.
Passage I/468
All twelve of the textbooks I surveyed mention Wilson’s 1914 invasion of Mexico, but they posit that the interventions were not Wilson’s fault. “President Wilson was irged to send military forces into Mevico to protect American investments and to restore law and order,” according to Triumph of the American Nation, whose authors emphasize that the president at first chose not to intervene. But “as the months passed even President Wilson began to lose patience,” Walter Karp has shown that this version contradicts the facts—the invasion was Wilson’s idea from the start, and it outraged Congress as well as the American people. According to Karp, Wilson’s intervention was so outrageous that leaders of both sides of Mexico’s ongoing civil war demanded that the U.S. forces leave; the pressure of public opinion in the United States and around the world finally influenced Wilson to recall the troops.
Textbook authors commonly use another device when describing our Mexican adventures: they identify Wilson as ordering our forces to withdraw, but nobody is specified as having ordered them in! Imparting information in a passive voice helps to insulate historic figures from their own unheroic or unethical deeds.
Passage II/475
[Answering the question, “Why don’t they let the public in on these matters?”]
Heroification itself supplies a first answer. Socialism is repugnant to most Americans. So are racisms and colonialism. Michael Kammen suggests that authors selectively omit blemishes in order to make certain historical figures sympathetic to as many people as possible. The textbook critic Norma Gabler has testified that textbooks “should present our nation’s patriots in a way that would honor and respect them”; in her eyes, admitting Keller’s socialism and Wilson’s racism would hardly do that. In the early 1920s the American Legion said that authors of textbooks “are at fault in placing before immature pupils the blunders, foibles, and frailties of prominent heroes and patriots of our Nation.” The Legion would hardly be able to fault today’s history textbooks on this account.
Friday, October 12, 2007
The Search for a Primary Source
Friday 10/5/07: At meeting with Ms. Bates, I decided that I will most likely use a piece of literature as my primary source. I have many options, but so far, my favorite idea has been a collection of short stories by an Israeli author named Etgar Keret.
"15 minute auditions":
1) "The Nimrod Flipout" by Etgar Keret is a collection of short stories by an Israeli author. It presents a plethora of topics in significant depth because it explores not only the conflicts of Israeli society, but also the conflicts of human nature in general. Surprisingly, Keret does not examine conflagrations of Israelis and Arabs as much as he describes the Israeli mentality. His presentation of the mandatory service requirement's effect on Israeli society demonstrates how the fighting mentality has pervaded Israeli society. However, many of his characters are disillusioned with the army and rebel against its strictures. While Israelis stereotypically accept their army service with patriotic gusto, Keret creates characters that simply don't care for nationalism.
Another patterned theme of Keret's stories is his vilification of the Israeli hi-tech industry. In Israel, hi-tech is the highest grossing aspect of the economy. Yet all of Keret's businessmen are missing something, whether it be in their marriages, friendships, or with life in general. As a part of my paper, I would explore the social implications of the Israeli business world as presented by Keret.
Finally, Keret's stories encompass many of the far-reaching implications of the Holocaust on Israeli society. Some of his characters feel inundated with Holocaust memorializing and lost sight of the tragedy. Other facets of his stories explore the subtle dichotomy of perspectives on the Holocaust between Jews from eastern Europe and those from the middle east. When survivors from Europe first emigrated to Israel after WWII, many of the Jews already there regarded them as backbone-less cowards who submitted themselves like "sheep to slaughter" to the Nazis. These Middle Eastern Jews, who were pioneering the Kibbutz concept, had the self-image of staunchly independent, fiery nationalists. This ideology contrasted with the emaciated, sullen survivors who were beginning to arrive in Israel.
After explaining this primary source, I have realized the bevy of themes and patterns I have to choose from with this topic. However some these ideas, especially the Holocaust theme, are featured more prominently in another work of Keret's short stories, "The Bus Driver who Thought He was God." I will definitely use both of these sources in my paper. Nevertheless, I will still keep an eye out for other topics (not necessarily literary) that would be interesting primary sources for this paper. The Starbucks example particularly fascinated me, especially since I have always thought the ubiquitous, pseudo-trendy set-up of a Starbucks to be silly and contrived. If I do not have a better idea by the end of the weekend (10/15/07), I will stick my Israeli society topic.
**Ms. Bates: Sorry for posting after the due date. I did not see this assignment on the blog because ensuing assignments "buried" it on the webpage, and I did not read telesis close enough.
"15 minute auditions":
1) "The Nimrod Flipout" by Etgar Keret is a collection of short stories by an Israeli author. It presents a plethora of topics in significant depth because it explores not only the conflicts of Israeli society, but also the conflicts of human nature in general. Surprisingly, Keret does not examine conflagrations of Israelis and Arabs as much as he describes the Israeli mentality. His presentation of the mandatory service requirement's effect on Israeli society demonstrates how the fighting mentality has pervaded Israeli society. However, many of his characters are disillusioned with the army and rebel against its strictures. While Israelis stereotypically accept their army service with patriotic gusto, Keret creates characters that simply don't care for nationalism.
Another patterned theme of Keret's stories is his vilification of the Israeli hi-tech industry. In Israel, hi-tech is the highest grossing aspect of the economy. Yet all of Keret's businessmen are missing something, whether it be in their marriages, friendships, or with life in general. As a part of my paper, I would explore the social implications of the Israeli business world as presented by Keret.
Finally, Keret's stories encompass many of the far-reaching implications of the Holocaust on Israeli society. Some of his characters feel inundated with Holocaust memorializing and lost sight of the tragedy. Other facets of his stories explore the subtle dichotomy of perspectives on the Holocaust between Jews from eastern Europe and those from the middle east. When survivors from Europe first emigrated to Israel after WWII, many of the Jews already there regarded them as backbone-less cowards who submitted themselves like "sheep to slaughter" to the Nazis. These Middle Eastern Jews, who were pioneering the Kibbutz concept, had the self-image of staunchly independent, fiery nationalists. This ideology contrasted with the emaciated, sullen survivors who were beginning to arrive in Israel.
After explaining this primary source, I have realized the bevy of themes and patterns I have to choose from with this topic. However some these ideas, especially the Holocaust theme, are featured more prominently in another work of Keret's short stories, "The Bus Driver who Thought He was God." I will definitely use both of these sources in my paper. Nevertheless, I will still keep an eye out for other topics (not necessarily literary) that would be interesting primary sources for this paper. The Starbucks example particularly fascinated me, especially since I have always thought the ubiquitous, pseudo-trendy set-up of a Starbucks to be silly and contrived. If I do not have a better idea by the end of the weekend (10/15/07), I will stick my Israeli society topic.
**Ms. Bates: Sorry for posting after the due date. I did not see this assignment on the blog because ensuing assignments "buried" it on the webpage, and I did not read telesis close enough.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Rhetoical Patterns from "Handicapped by History" by James W. Loewen
Throughout “Handicapped by History,” author James W. Loewen uses rhetoric to contemptuously highlight the altering effects of “heroification.”
“This chapter is about Heroification, a degenerative process…that makes people over into heroes” (463).
“Through this process, our educational media turn flesh-and-blood individuals into pious, perfect, creatures without conflicts, pain, credibility, or human interest” (463).
“Heroification so distorts the lives of Keller and Wilson that we cannot think straight about the” (464).
“Keller, who struggled so valiantly to speak, has been made mute by history. The result is that we really don’t know much about her” (464).
“To ignore the ignore the sixty-four years of her adult life or to encapsulate them with the single word humanitarian is to like by omission” (464).
“But she was a radical—a fact few Americans know, because our schooling and mass media left it out” (466).
“But my students seldom know…two antidemocratic policies that Wilson carried out: his racial segregation of the federal government and his military interventions in foreign countries” (466).
“...textbooks wriggle to get the hero off the hook…” (468).
“Some textbooks go beyond omitting the actor, and leave out the act itself” (468).”
“Surely textbook authors want us to think well of the historical figures they treat with such sympathy. And, on a superficial level at least, we do” (477).
“This chapter is about Heroification, a degenerative process…that makes people over into heroes” (463).
“Through this process, our educational media turn flesh-and-blood individuals into pious, perfect, creatures without conflicts, pain, credibility, or human interest” (463).
“Heroification so distorts the lives of Keller and Wilson that we cannot think straight about the” (464).
“Keller, who struggled so valiantly to speak, has been made mute by history. The result is that we really don’t know much about her” (464).
“To ignore the ignore the sixty-four years of her adult life or to encapsulate them with the single word humanitarian is to like by omission” (464).
“But she was a radical—a fact few Americans know, because our schooling and mass media left it out” (466).
“But my students seldom know…two antidemocratic policies that Wilson carried out: his racial segregation of the federal government and his military interventions in foreign countries” (466).
“...textbooks wriggle to get the hero off the hook…” (468).
“Some textbooks go beyond omitting the actor, and leave out the act itself” (468).”
“Surely textbook authors want us to think well of the historical figures they treat with such sympathy. And, on a superficial level at least, we do” (477).
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