Donald Duck

1. How are the Germans (and Japanese) portrayed in the opening sequence? How is irony created?
   The Germans and Japanese are portrayed and big and the best and the others or weak, irony is created because that wasn't always the case as they don't look like it.
2. How is propaganda and the effect of propaganda portrayed with the introduction of Donald Duck?
   Propaganda is portrayed with the introduction on Donald Duck by having all the Nazi stuff around him, and example of this is his clock with no numbers only Nazi symbols.
3. How is irony continued into the breakfast scene?
   Irony is created into the breakfast scene is that they're not allowed coffee in the master race.
4. How is Naxi Germany portrayed in the opening shot at 3:30?
   Nazi Germany is portrayed as the greatest race on earth.
5. What is ironic about the song lyrics regarding work and what is happening in the scene?
   ...
6. What does the conveyor belt portray regarding the lifestyle of Germans?
   That they need a lot of bombs and they get people to sit there and make them.
7. Why do you think that there aren't actually any people that force Donald to work? We only see the ends of bayonets and a speaker. I think they only use bayonets symbolise that they only associate themselves with people by danger.
8. What is ironic about the vacation?
   The irony about the vacation is that its only for about 10 seconds then he had to work again.
9. In the dream sequence, how are the Germans portrayed? Why?
   The Germans are portrayed as bombs to show their danger. they do this because they evil.
10. What do the pajamas when we see Donald in his bed tell us?
    That he loves America and is proud to be American.
11. What is the Statue of Liberty used to convey?
    The Statue of Liberty is used to convey his American pride.
12. How is Hilter portrayed at the end of the film? What is it about his face that is important?
    He is portrayed as a little cowardice man that couldn't lead a race.
13. Why is this a representation of propaganda? Why is it actually ironic considering the way the Nazi's are portrayed?
    This is a representation of propaganda because they are proud to be a Nazi and wish to express it, its ironic because its almost like they need to prove it to themselves.
14. Who are the villains, victims, and heroes?
    Villains - Nazis
    Victims - Donald duck
    Heroes - America/statue of liberty
15. How are the portrayed?They are portrayed as being the 'bad' people pushing Donald Duck around which also makes him the victim, but then at the end of the clip is shows Donald Duck with his American pride saving him from the dream.

Visual Techniques in Life is Beautiful

key words/focus:
camera angle (low, high, eye-level), vectors, lighting, composition

(4:20) How are camera angles used when Joshua says 'Thank you' (not in German)? Which angles are used to view each of the characters? What does each of these angle signify?
This shot is a high angle shot because it is looking down at the food and Joshua. The high angle is less dominate to Joshua because he is below eye level.
(4:45) What shot distance and angle is used to show Guido's concern for Joshua when the German waiter leaves the room? Describe the composition)
An eye level shot with a medium length shot because it has some background of the door. This is a long shot. We have geometric shapes and with a balance of shapes on each sides. On the other hand Guido is not symmetrical and it is not balanced, With a close up shot.
(4:46) How is shot of Guido contrasted to the shot of the German waiter walking away to tell someone what has just happened? Describe the composition and compare it to the previous shot of a concerned Guido.
Everything on the German side was very sharp and neat when on Guido everything was unbalanced.
(5:02-05) How is the shot of the German's contrasted to that of Guido teaching the children to say 'Thank You'? The German's have a low angle shot with very strong posture, to represent the power of the Germans. On the other hand Guido has a high shit with Guido leaning over making him less dominate with kids around him. This is contrasting the two types of people because Guido is very movable when the German is Very stiff.

Visual Techniques

1. 
2. How are vectors used in this image? What effect does it have? The vectors that are most obvious to us are the lines created by the Nazi flags both sloping down to the focal point (Hitler).  This vector has the effect on creating Hitler as the most important figure in the picture.
3. Describe the composition of the image and what is tells us about the Nazis and Hitler. In this photo we have Hitler in the middle ground which give us a sense of Symmetry and line which lead us to the focal point which is Hitler and how he is separated from his party and all the soldiers. Also in the background the symmetry that the crowd seems to go on forever which give us a sense of infinite power.
4. How is symmetry used? What effect does it have? Symmetry is used in this picture as it represents the formality of the Nazi Germans. We can see in the photo that all the Nazi's are all in lines perfectly in form which give us a sense that they were very precise and disciplined. 
5. What effect does this picture being in black and white have? The absence of color represents a absence of emotion. The contrast of the black being the soldiers and the white being the public we get the sense of an evil and the crowd look like they are looking to the Nazi's for leadership and salvation. Also the sense of time and lack of color and absence of life distances the us from the photo due to the still image effect that the photo has.
6. Discuss the use of line in this image. What effect does it have? The use of lines of the soldiers frame Hitler. Also the line which connects the banner lines and the lines from the carpet make a X marks the spot right on Hitler which give us a further sense of focal point for Hitler. 

Chapter 4 Boy in Striped PJ's

• (pg 31) How does the author continue to use juxtaposition in regards to the two housing situations? (the Jews and Bruno's family) The traditional juxtaposition of the Holocaust story was the Juxtaposition of the Jews and Nazi's. Once again the Author places another juxtaposition in when the family is placed in a house which is even though described as horrible by Bruno and Gretal it is still a house and the Jew's in a dirty concentration camp. Even though the Nazi's view the Jews as so different to themselves they are actually not even though they went through so much to separate by means of the huge fences both around the house and around the camp.
• What is it about the children that makes it difficult to understand exactly what they see through the window and just how bad it is? As the reader we cant really tell how bad the situation is with the Jews in the concentration camp becuase of the lack of knowledge of the kids. Bruno is the symbol of innocence and we get he sense that he doesn't fully understand whats happening at the camp becuase his perspective is 'why are all those people wearing striped pajamas'. Even though Gretal is a bit older and more knowledgeable we still get the sense that she is naive about the whole situation when she concludes that the Jews are dirty and disgusting becuase they haven't been taking regular baths.
• Summarise how Gretel describes what she sees. We get mixed signals about what Gretal sees and how she concludes about what she sees. From what I said in the previous question this is an example of a naive thought but when she tries to convince Bruno it is the countryside we can infer that she is trying to convince Bruno into a different conclusion to hide him from the truth.
• What does Gretel attempt to do when she sees the Concentration Camp? How does she attempt to understand what she sees? We get the sense that she is trying to understand what she is seeing directly from a educational point of view. As soon as she saw the empty land she thought of what she was being taught in Geography at school which can also be evidence of her trying to convince herself into believing something else to hide the horror of  what she's really seeing.
• Is her attempt successful? Does she convince Bruno that she understands? What does she eventually give in to? What does she say/or not say? (pg 32) 'Gretal looked at it again and nodded, because she was not so silly she insists on being in the right all the time when it was clear the argument stood against her' from this quote we get confirmation that she has unsuccessfully tried to convince Bruno that the land around their house and where they are living is a holiday house in the country.
• What can't the children do when they see the Concentration Camp that the adults seem to be able to do? Which group can understand what they see? Why do you think that this is the case? I think the Adults are able to understand what they see obviously becuase they either have some part in whats happening or they are going along with all the actions that are being taken against the Jew's. Part of the reason why the children cant understand what is happening becuase of the freedom of speech that was absent in Germany at this time. We can infer from this story so far that adults don't like being asked questions and we get evidence from this at the end of the chapter when Bruno asks his dad about the camp and all he says is 'they aren't really human and they don't have anything in common with you' from this quote we can understand why the children have no idea about whats going on because the Adults don't like it when people ask questions and have their say in whats going on.
• How does the author use understatement through the children's description of the Concentration Camp?

Chapter 3 Boy in Striped Pj's

1. Describe how Bruno and Gretel's relationship is introduced in the chapter. At the start of this chapter Bruno and Gretel's relationship is introduced as very weak as they are very different. Bruno describes Gretal as hopeless in the ways of the world and what makes Bruno not like Gretal as much is because she was older and he admitted to himself he was a little bit scared of her. And also she had a lot of nasty habits that he didn't like.
2. List quotes that show how the new house is described."I don't like it here" he said for the hundredth time. "As long as it's just for the foreseeable future and not for a month. I hate it here" "Gretel looked at her little brother and found herself agreeing with him for once" 
3. It was very hollow and he decided that he better not go jumping around this house too often or it might collapse around their ears. What is the significance of this quote?
4. What is Bruno's reaction to the new house? Bruno defiently doesn't like this house, during this chapter he is saying to his sister that he is glad that they are only staying in the house for a short amount of time becuase they both agree that it defiantly is not a very nice place. 
5. How does it compare to their old house? Both Gretal and Bruno agree that the new house is horrible compared to the old one and they want to spend as less time as possible.
6. How does Gretel relate to her father? Gretal relates to her father becuase we can infer she is very proper and very disciplined and she always see's parts of her life as a job to do. When the family moves into the new house Gretal evaluates that they are here for a job and once they have completed the job they will go back home. Gretal is lining up to her father and Bruno is lining up to her mother. Also Gretal is very similar becuase she likes to control Bruno and she likes the idea of power which is very similar to her father as he has power over the Nazi soldiers. A parallel being made by the end of page 21 with Gretal's Dolls it gives us a sense that Bruno is being portrayed as a Jew and the dolls are solders and Gretal is the commander.
7. Does Bruno understand where they are? What makes you believe this? I don't believe that Bruno understands where they are becuase of his age representing innocence he doesn't understand whats going on. During the chapter we can tell this when he says none of the other children look all that nice, when he says this we know he doesn't understand why the family moved houses.
8. Does Gretel understand where they are? Explain. I think at the end of the chapter how she is described before she looks out the window and the last sentence "but after a moment her eyes adjusted and the sun disappeared again and she saw exactly what Bruno had been talking about" We can infer from this last statement that Gretal understands exactly what is happening which is why we are given such a dramatic lead up before she looks out the window.
9. How is Bruno's description of 'Out-with' represent a motif? What is darkly ironic about this? The dark irony of this motif is that Bruno thinks that 'out-with' means that the old owners have left to live in another place but as the reader and our knowledge of history we can infer that either the old owners were not good enough for the job and were killed or they were Jewish owners and they had been taken away or killed by the Nazi's.
10. Read pgs 27-29. How are Bruno's and Gretel's reaction to 'the children' Bruno sees through the window different? What does this tell us about these two characters and their perception/understanding of where they are? Once again we are given evidence that Bruno is still the innocent character becuase he reacts the way a young kid would by using his mother's rules like 'don't judge a book by its cover' we can understand that Bruno doesn't understand why the kid's are there. In comparison to Gretal we as the reader get the feeling with the dramatic lead up to her looking out the window that she is shocked and horrified on whats happening and we get the sense that she understands exactly whats happening where as Bruno is still naive about the whole situation.

The Boy in the Striped PJ's - Chapter 2

• Using quotes, how is the new house described?

Bruno describes the new house as boring, nasty and the complete opposite of his old house. "He put his face to the glass and saw what was out there, and this time when his eyes opened wide and his mouth made the shape of an O, his hands stayed by his sides becuase something made him feel very cold and unsafe"

• How does it compare to the house in Berlin? How is this an example of juxtaposition?

The comparison of Both Buno's houses is an example of a juxtaposition becuase Bruno's whenever he describes the features of his house he always contrasts it to his old house. Similarly in this chapter the old house and the new house become a symbol of two very different lives. Bruno describes his new house as the exact opposite being cold, isolated, boring and by comparing it so drastically to his old house the reader gets a sense that there is something drastically wrong with the house.

• How is Bruno's reaction and discussion of the new house taken by the other characters? What is ironic about the way people treat Bruno's comments regarding the new house?

The irony of Bruno's reactions and discussions is that he is very emotional about all the changes that are taking place and when he tells any of the adults they are very angry about his opinion and they ignore him but the Irony is that they all feel the same way about the house but Bruno is the only character expressing his feeling this is typical for a boy his age. This idea also relates to the situation at that time in Germany where freedom of speech wasn't really taken in account and people always had to follow the leaders of people in charges instructions.

• Do you feel empathetic towards Bruno's new home? Why/why not?

Yes I feel empathetic becuase I feel that the matter of moving houses for an adult of an adolescence person is a small matter but to Bruno who is at a very young age it is a very big deal and the fact that as soon as Bruno sees the house all of these strong emotions starting pouring out the reader starts to understand that there is something very wrong about what is taking place.   

Responding to a Poem

We watched, we weeped
we witnessed love torn apart
  Our hearts sank in our chest when you were ripped from the arms of your
parents and thrown into the fire.
  You were nothing more than children. We will remember

You were helpless, defenseless against the monstrous uniformed hoard who stole your identity and gave you nothing but a pair of pyjamas and a golden star. We will remember 

You had a future. You were going to be lawyers, rabbis, wives, teachers, mothers. 
You had dreams, aspirations, all which were taken away in the blink of an eye.

You were taken away in the dead of night like cattle in cars, no air to breathe smothering, crying, starving, dying. We will remember

Separated from the world to be no more. From the ashes, we will hear our plea. This atrocity to mankind will not happen again. For you were the children who's lives were stolen and dreams destroyed. We will remember