The+Devil's+Arithmetic+Synopsis+Page

Lit Circles May 29, 2008 http://www.centropa.org/

http://www.hgitner.com/img/pris/camp.gif - this is a link for a picture of a concentration camp.

In class after we read the section of the book we assigned and talked about the homework we completed we started to come to some conclusions about the EQ. We talked about the idea that religion brings the worst and best out of people. Some of the ideas that we had was that it brings the best out of people because some people feel safe when they have a strong belief in something. We also came to a conclusion that religion brings the best out of people because when some people have a strong belief in their religion or anything in general in people it could bring them happiness, completeness, and order in their lives. An example of how people religion brings happiness to their lives is a time when people went to church upset and after church they acted like nothing every happened. Some other ideas that people had about how religion brings out the best in people is sometimes religion influences them to pursue things and sometimes makes them think like they are worthy, also it influences people to help other people and influence them to succeed. We also talked about how religion brings the worst out of people. It brings the worst out of people because when people join a colt they automatically kill someone who is not in the same colt. Some people think that their belief is the only belieif and will do anything to get everyone to think that way. We also talked about how some people feel separated from their family because of religion. In our book, The Devil's Arithmetic, the main character Hannah feels a bit separated from her family because she doesn't like to celebrate the same holidays year after year. She doesn't get the point. She doesn't feel connected to the holidays and the religion like the rest of her family. As we were talking about this we came up with some of ideas and connected it back to us and our lives. One person in our group brought up how they don't feel as connected to their religion as their parents.

6/2: After reading another section assigned/chosen by the group, we have came up with important things to add in order to help us understand the E.Q. and the section that we read. There were many new things to learn from this section that lead to us come up with research back up what certain things ( important used based on what was going on in the Holocaust, concentration camps or Jewish religon) mean, and coming up with questions which the answers to these questions should be answered in the group. One of the main questions asked during todays discussion was: "Is it easier to manipulate a group of people or just one person? Why?" (Jordan). Many people in our group believed that it was easier to manipulate a group of people because "once group is manipulated, so are the rest of the people". Some people also said"based on the amount of power a certain individual or group of people have over another, depends on they can force them to believe in what they believe in", or "People can be influenced more by higher power". But there were some doubts in the conversation that were talking about. Some people believe that it wasn't so easy to manipulaste a person at all whether its one or more people. Some said that " there are people who stick to what they believe in". But most of the people in our group who belived it was easier to manipulate a group had connections to back it up with:

A.S. (Activating Schema): Text to Text: A cault was influenced to believe that God loves whores and having sex in a major factor in the religon

A.S.: Text to World: Gangs (crips, bloods etc.) are groups that are influenced that when they fight/kill other members of other groups just based on the colors they wear or "represent" that it is "proving them worthy" to be in the group and that it is "cool" and such a "good thing".

June 9, 2008

After reading another part of __The Devil's Arithmatic__, we got into our lit circles and began discussing our ideas and the Holocaust in general. We started off talking about the questions that the philosipher wrote. This didnt last a while because we returned to the topic of discussion from the class before, the idea of gangs being a religion. This idea was introduced by Jordan. His main idea supporting this was that gangs are similar to religions because everyone in the group is working towards a common goal or has similar ideas. We spent some time talking about several different gangs and if they were like religions. Some gangs that we discussed were the bloods and crips. It turns out that they are somewhat similar to religions. Finally, to end our discussion, we talked about how the holocaust was like a gang. After this part of the dicussion, we noticed that the holocaust had many characteristics of a gang. This made us realize that the the holocaust almost followed its own religion. The main topic of our discussion was if people behave differently in groups than as individuals.

June 18, 2008

We talked about the EQ: What things bring the worst and best out of people. We discussed how fear brings the best and worst out of people. For this instance it showed how fear brought the best out of people. This shows that it brings the best out of people because Gitl and Hannah were both very scared of what was happening to them and scared about their future in the concentration camps. But, Gitl was still thinking about Hannah and her health and trying to take car of her and settles her down so nothing happens to her and she does anything because she is so scared. In the concentration camps if you screamed or spoke back to the Nazi’s, which most people did because they thought things were bad and they were scared, they would be killed. Gitl kept Hannah safe during this time of fear for the both of them. We also talked about the book. We discussed how the character Rivka was patrayed in the book. We talked about how she very wise, but she is only wise about the concentration camps. She knew a lot about the concentration camps because she experienced a lot and was there for a very long time. It doesn't seem like she knows a lot about anything else but, she wants to make herself and others to beleive that she wiser then she actually is. Rivka has a big impact on Hannah/Chaya's life. She affects her because she gives her advantages that only the luckiest of people will ever get. This is probably what helped Hannah/Chaya survive in the concentration camps and not die or get killed.