Dakota 38

3) The image that stuck with me the most was when they showed the picture of the 38 men who were hanged in Mankato because it put an image in my head about the pain that those men must have felt after walking up those stairs, or the fact that our president would execute people who were fighting for land that is rightfully theirs.

4)In Dakota 38, some of the core values such as respect and wisdom show up in the film. For example, in the beginning of the film, one of the Dakota members said "To walk in peace and harmony with every walk of life is what it means to be Dakota". This shows respect for what the tribe stands for and their customs, and it shows respect for everyone else because they are implying that peace and harmony is the center of what they do.

Precious knowledge

1)"I've never met a kid with a dysfunctional relationship with learning, but Iv'e met a lot of kids with a dysfunctional relationship with school"
I agree with this quote because children are naturally filled with wonder about the world, however simultaneously children are naturally bored easily so I believe the problem is not the kids refusal to learn, but rather the schools ignorance to the fact that students learn differently.

2)"When you grow up in a poor area you don't have the same chances as everyone else"
In regards to being children dependent  on their guardians, yes I agree. However in regards to the child's future, I disagree because the child has an opportunity to shape ones future by trying hard in school and knowing not to go down a poor path.

3) I think the first quote is powerful because it shows how the American education system needs to be reformed and how in order to do so we need to allow for some cultural diffusion, which may result in a loss of some American culture, but will unite in more so than ever.      

4) I question this quote because in my experience meeting people who built companies from nothing, or who came from very little money and eventually rose up to the top one percent, they had the same educational opportunities as everyone else. 

5) They gather around in the class room and have a civil discussion about grievances or issues that needs to be addressed and they all eventually unite behind a single cause. 

Still I Rise

1) Yes I do believe that this book is more an anti-war story rather than an anti-war book. I think this because he is not making the book for the sole purpose of anti-war movements, but rather telling a story about the atrocities of war and his experience with war.


2) Yes I agree that the phrase so it goes reduces the significance of death in that whenever an atrocity happens "so it goes" makes it seems as if it was just another part of the day.


3) No, I disagree in that I think that we should all have free will and not have things predetermined for ourselves and we should make our own destiny.


4)Yes I agree that there is more evidence that science fiction helped Billy re-invent himself in that he was able to use this to create new ideas without them having to be real.


5) I disagree in that they do serve a purpose other than to inspire Billy Pilgrims stories because they were used for other things.

Passage explication

In this passage, from Chapter 5 of Slaughter House Five, the author explores the comparison of science fiction to the rest of the books theme which is Free will and the destruction of war. In this comparison he uses stories and literary devices such as repetition to explain the importance of free floating ideas, and the horrors of war. At the entrance of the passage, the author is making an attempt at comparing free will to science fiction in that he starts of by saying "Rosewater who introduced Billy to science fiction". The author is trying to set precedence for support of free floating circulating ideas by allowing a out of the ordinary genre of books to be an acceptable form of literature. The author used repetition to prove that war is destructive and horrible. In the middle of the passage, he says "Rosewater, for-instance, shot a fourteen-year-old fireman, mistaking him for a German soldier. So it goes" He used the saying "So it goes" to numb the audience to the horrors of war every time a abhorrent event happens.  

Slaughter House Five Blog Post #1

I think Vonnegut explains the horrors of war in a unique comedic way in that when he is pitching a book idea to one of his friends he explains the climax in a sarcastic yet humorous manner. "The irony is so great. A whole city gets burned down, and thousands and thousands of people are killed. And then this one American foot soldier is arrested in the ruins for taking a teapot." I think he re-sensitizes us to what war really is and how it is not how we see it in the movies.

I am very real-freewrite

In Vonnegut's response to the Drake school board he displays his anger with them and uses different techniques to justify his actions.

In Vonnegut's response to the Drake school board he displays his anger with them in that he uses pathos logos and ethos to do so. For example, in paragraph four of the letter he listed all of his accomplishments throughout his life which is justification and qualification to make statements later in the letter. This gave him qualification in that he was talking about America, and American politics so he is justifying his accusations by putting an emphasis on him being a World War Two veteran.