#All stories have a basis in truth

Every story that has ever been written has some basis in fact, which is inevitable. All authors understand that all the best stories come from their own experiences or another’s to make the best novel and to make the novel seem more realistic. It is important for us to realize that although a story may have many fictional aspects it is important to discern the fiction from the truth because the truth is where the message lies. In Maus we have seen the countless times in which Art Spiegelman uses his metaphor of animals in order to show that the Holocaust demonstrates the relationship of between predator and prey. In Volume 2, Chapter 2 Art Speigelman makes the creative decision of using masks to depict each character’s animal rather than just drawing them as the animal itself. It makes one wonder why he chose to do that. Countless times in class we have gone over the fact that, every single that is contained in the author’s book is on purpose none of it can be considered accidental. So it is safe for us to assume that Speigelman’s choice to uses animal masks rather than actual animals was done for a reason. So understanding that, I came up with my own conclusion for his choices. Like I said before, every story has a basis in fact; Speigleman’s fact comes from the history of the Holocaust. We have passed the point of the story in which he has established the basis of the story and here on out he is just telling the story. Here he decides to use the mask to remind us that the root of this story doesn’t come from fiction, the basis of this story happened to real people and it should be remembered as a genocide of an innocent group of people. Whether or not you like a story it is important to remember and honor the truth of it. 

#An Interesting Experience to Say the Least...

For someone like me with very little video creating experience, doing this project was an interesting experience. The first step in the process of creating my video was developing my question and getting a rough sketch of the things I would have to look for in order to answer my question.  After researching some background into my subject, Muhammad Ali and the Draft, I created my question. Next I proceeded to create a list of things that I need to research to answer my question. After realizing that was focusing way too much on his religious reason for evading the draft, I searched the more on his strive for civil rights. This led me to rewrite my research question. Once I collected my data, I was really confused because my research was all over the place; so my second step was creating a document and placing everything in chronologically and by drawing connection from my data come up with a conclusion for each part of the question as well as having a sufficient amount of background information in order to help the viewer’s put the event into perspective. The third step was filming the video, after a lot of stress and frustration I finished filming. I am going to honest and just say that I suck at filming; and doing a whiteboard which I have only seen done by professional camera people and never having done one myself it was challenging. It took me about a total of 5 hours to film my video because of my lack of experience. Then the final step was putting it all together. I had to familiarize myself with a new movie editor I had to download because I didn’t have iMovie, which at this point was the only editor I had used. The editing was pretty self-explanatory, and creating the detailed document linking all my data together really helped. The last challenge I faced was matching my voice overs with the videos because I did them at separate times. It did work out in the end, and I happy with the end product.

#Think about Perspective

        The Cold War is all about perspective. Not in the sense of who started it or who is at fault but considering the American containment policy. The American Containment Policy was enforced in order to stop the spread of communism to the rest of the world. There were many plans within the containment policy to stop communism, such as the Truman doctrine and the Marshall Plan. These two plans were focusing on rebuilding countries which have suffered greatly from WWII. These countries were easy targets for communism because they were economically suffering and so accepting communism would be an easy solution to fix their problem. Remember there is also a flipped side to the Containment Policy. So on the flipped side America made sure to make it known that if countries made the decision to become communist then they would be swiftly greeted by American Force. That being said we can see the desperation of America to end communism. Once again we see this idea of perspective up front it may seem like America s fighting communism, but in reality they are fighting to guarantee we remain the strongest influence in the world.  In the Cold War it is important to understand that many aspects of the war can be looked at from different angles, the Containment Policy and America’s motive to fight communism are just two examples.

#If You Don't Like It Change It

Maya Angelou once said, "If you don't like something change it". During the 1920’s this was the exact mentality White Americans had. During WWI it was encouraged that foreigners come to America because Americans were in dire need for soldiers and laborers to support the war efforts. However, after World War I many people were very uneasy about the wave of immigrants that were flooding into the States and so they decided to change it. Although America was a place for people to be free, many immigrants were treated unfairly because people didn't think they had the right to be American, as they looked, talked different than “normal”  Americans. This was the main reason that in 1924 the Immigration Policy of 1924 was instated. This policy put a quotas on the number of people from each foreign country was allowed in the state. The exceptions to this policy were Mexicans because California needed lots of laborers on the farms so no quota was placed on those people.  Also during this same time period Warren Harding ran for presidency and won by the first ever landslide. This landslide was a result of Harding reassuring the voters that he would return America to the land it used to be. At this time the idea of civil liberties belonging to everyone and everyone can be American was unnerving. Like Maya Angelou said, they didn’t like it so they attempted to change it.

# A Lack of Trust

In American History we can see the lack of trust, in the affairs between the Whites and the Native Americans. Throughout the dealings with Native Americans, the Whites have made no effort in trying to preserve the treaties signed by both sides of the group. Many times the Whites gave the N.A. no option except ti sign the treaties, as the N.A. didn't wanted to maintain peace. Many Native American chiefs have had to face the obstacles in living in lands that the Whites wanted, Chief Black is good example. Shortly after Black kettle signed a treaty that relocated his people to a reserve where they would be safe, the Americans discovered gold under the reserve. General Armstrong Custer was put in charge of ridding the reservation of the Cheyenne people. So, in 1868, General Custer killed Black Kettle and the rest of his people. It seems as though the treaties were created to convince the Native Americans to move off the land they were currently living on and go elsewhere. However, if the Americans found something the wanted where the Native Americans were, they would create another treaty to push them off again. In the end, the Natives would get the land the Americans didn't want or ended up dead. Although many of the Native Americans knew that the Whites couldn't be trusted, they were given no choice but to sign the treaties even though later it led to their own destruction. After the attacks on Black Kettle and his people, many powerful chiefs like Sitting Bull and Crazy never trusted another White again and refused to surrender, in any form, to the Whites. Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull became known for their courage to fight for their land, way of like and people. Even on land that originally belonged to the Native Americans, many Whites believed they had a right to take it away from the Natives because they were “uncivilized”.

#Fight for what you Believe in or.....Not???

They say that if you believe in something so strongly, than you should fight for it. We see countless people in history who did just that; Martin Luther King Jr., slaves, Gandhi, and JFK. It’s interesting to see how the passion someone has towards a specific topic, thing, person, or idea can push them to past the boundaries of right and wrong. If fighting for what you believe in means harming the lives of others, if so then why do tell you to fight for what you believe in? Why is there no specification? The Ku Klux Klan was formed in December of 1865. The essence of the Ku Klux Klan was to ensure the imbalance between Blacks and Whites. They hated Blacks and sympathetic Whites. In 1871, The Ku Klux Klan killed a republican judge for having sympathy on three Black men. Right after a mutiny ensued, the Ku Klux Klan killed 50 men who had already surrendered to the Klan. Shortly after the Klan dispersed and then resurfaces and became known as redshirts. According to the quote earlier discussed the actions of the Klan were justified. Even after the civil war the Ku Klux Klan still fought for slavery. The Klan’s actions although seem somewhat justified the way their actions were wrong. So, I believe that it all depends on how the fight is taken out, if it doesn’t put anyone in harm’s way then it’s fine. However, if it does, like the Ku Klux Klan, than it definitely isn’t okay.

#Why Poetry

       I think what draws people to write poetry rather than novels, is the emotional appeal. In poetry, the main chunk of analysis falls under diction and syntax. It seems that in poetry each word is chosen for a specific reason, so that it can spark a certain emotion or bring upon an easier understanding to the overall message. Poetry tends to be able to translate the words chosen into a specific emotion or a mix of them more effectively than a novel can. For a novel it is required to come up with a plot, characters, setting, POV etc. However, poetry lets you write straight from the heart and in that sense can be easier from some people to write than others. For some people poetry can be a resolution to inner struggle. Being able to understand their struggles can help them come to a resolution or at least acknowledge it and move forward. Emily Dickinson, unfortunately, was surrounded by death all throughout her life. Dealing with so many deaths must have been hard and so poetry may have been her way to come to terms with it as so many of her poems speak about death. You may be able to give the same message in a novel, but a poem is carefully structured and crested to give the message but can come off a lot stronger than a novel. This doesn’t have to the reason all poets prefer poetry; some might do it just because they prefer it.