Poetry Project
Growth as a poet
My poem was always about smiling, but in the beginning it did not have any deep things in it. It was pretty simple but I knew that I wanted to make it more than what it was. My perspective did not change much; my lines in my poem just became deeper. For example one line was “Smile because it’s the first time you’ve ever seen a rainbow,” but I changed it to “Smile because it’s the first time you’ve ever seen a rainbow and the dazzling colors are seared into your vision.” I didn’t necessarily change my lines completely, I just added more to them. I have grown as a poet by knowing how and when to add deeper meanings to things.
In my very first draft my poem was pretty basic. “Smile because…. Smile because… Smile because...” and so on. But I wanted to add in some similes and metaphors to change it up a bit. I did so by adding in a simile or metaphor in-between each “Smile because” line. For example, in my first draft I had my lines like,
“Smile because your puppy is licking your face.
Smile because it’s the first time you’ve ever seen a rainbow.”
In my second draft, my lines changed into this,
“Smile because your puppy is licking your face,
A single smile helps lighten up the world.
Smile because it’s the first time you’ve ever seen a rainbow,
Your teeth are white crystals waiting to be shown to the world.”
I thought that this was really clever and that it would make the poem have a deeper feel and flow to it. I had come up with a bunch of similes, metaphors and phrases to put in. I ended up not liking the changes because it did not flow properly. It was choppy and you would lose the emotional feeling like 5 lines into the poem.
From my second draft to my third draft I made the most change. I change my poem back to just smile because but I made it into three stanzas and put a metaphor in the end of the first and second stanza. The biggest change was adding on to some lines to give them more detail. For example,
“Smile because your puppy is licking your face.
Smile because it’s the first time you’ve ever seen a rainbow.
Smile because you just got your braces off.”
I added to all these to make them have a deeper feel to them because they were just kind of bland.
“Smile because your puppy is licking your face, more excited to see you than ever before.
Smile because it’s the first time you’ve ever seen a rainbow and the dazzling colors are seared into your vision.
Smile because you just got your braces off and your teeth are whiter than ever.”
These changes benefited me significantly because it made the poem more detailed. This was the biggest change I made and I think it was the best change I made.
I made one change a couple days before exhibition that helped quite a bit will the emotional tome of the poem. I took out the metaphors at the ends of the stanzas and I pushed the whole poem together into one stanza. This helped with the flow of the poem, when I was practicing my poem I just couldn’t get into the poem as much as I could after I changed it. I took out the two lines,
“Smiles, as sweet as a flowers bloom on a spring morning.
Smiles, as thick on rosey lips, as ripples on the sea.”
This changed the emotional tone because I was able to add in more pauses, more dynamics, more emphasis, and other little things. This change improved my poem because I was able to play more with dynamics and pace and things like that. When I took those lines out the poem to me felt more inspirational. Which was part of my goal for my poem.
In my very first draft my poem was pretty basic. “Smile because…. Smile because… Smile because...” and so on. But I wanted to add in some similes and metaphors to change it up a bit. I did so by adding in a simile or metaphor in-between each “Smile because” line. For example, in my first draft I had my lines like,
“Smile because your puppy is licking your face.
Smile because it’s the first time you’ve ever seen a rainbow.”
In my second draft, my lines changed into this,
“Smile because your puppy is licking your face,
A single smile helps lighten up the world.
Smile because it’s the first time you’ve ever seen a rainbow,
Your teeth are white crystals waiting to be shown to the world.”
I thought that this was really clever and that it would make the poem have a deeper feel and flow to it. I had come up with a bunch of similes, metaphors and phrases to put in. I ended up not liking the changes because it did not flow properly. It was choppy and you would lose the emotional feeling like 5 lines into the poem.
From my second draft to my third draft I made the most change. I change my poem back to just smile because but I made it into three stanzas and put a metaphor in the end of the first and second stanza. The biggest change was adding on to some lines to give them more detail. For example,
“Smile because your puppy is licking your face.
Smile because it’s the first time you’ve ever seen a rainbow.
Smile because you just got your braces off.”
I added to all these to make them have a deeper feel to them because they were just kind of bland.
“Smile because your puppy is licking your face, more excited to see you than ever before.
Smile because it’s the first time you’ve ever seen a rainbow and the dazzling colors are seared into your vision.
Smile because you just got your braces off and your teeth are whiter than ever.”
These changes benefited me significantly because it made the poem more detailed. This was the biggest change I made and I think it was the best change I made.
I made one change a couple days before exhibition that helped quite a bit will the emotional tome of the poem. I took out the metaphors at the ends of the stanzas and I pushed the whole poem together into one stanza. This helped with the flow of the poem, when I was practicing my poem I just couldn’t get into the poem as much as I could after I changed it. I took out the two lines,
“Smiles, as sweet as a flowers bloom on a spring morning.
Smiles, as thick on rosey lips, as ripples on the sea.”
This changed the emotional tone because I was able to add in more pauses, more dynamics, more emphasis, and other little things. This change improved my poem because I was able to play more with dynamics and pace and things like that. When I took those lines out the poem to me felt more inspirational. Which was part of my goal for my poem.
Smile
Smile because your puppy is licking your face, more excited to see you more than ever before.
Smile because you just got an A on a big biology test.
Smile because your teeth are white crystals waiting to be shown to the world.
Smile because your favorite song came on the radio right as you got in the car.
Smile because you just got your braces off and your teeth are whiter than ever.
Smile because it’s the first time you’ve ever seen a rainbow and the dazzling colors are seared into your vision.
Smile because the aroma of a campfire on a summer evening floods into your nose.
Smile because it is raining outside and you have a girl to dance in it with.
Smile because it can be the most beautiful thing someone has if they show it.
Smile because it helps lighten up the world.
Smile because you only live once, so make it count.
Smile because you’re beautiful.
Smile because you can.
Smile because you just got an A on a big biology test.
Smile because your teeth are white crystals waiting to be shown to the world.
Smile because your favorite song came on the radio right as you got in the car.
Smile because you just got your braces off and your teeth are whiter than ever.
Smile because it’s the first time you’ve ever seen a rainbow and the dazzling colors are seared into your vision.
Smile because the aroma of a campfire on a summer evening floods into your nose.
Smile because it is raining outside and you have a girl to dance in it with.
Smile because it can be the most beautiful thing someone has if they show it.
Smile because it helps lighten up the world.
Smile because you only live once, so make it count.
Smile because you’re beautiful.
Smile because you can.
OpEd and Political Cartoon Project
1 Million Workers. 100 Million IPhones. 14 Suicides.
Mr. Shi was a former Apple employee. He worked six days a week and worked over twelve hours a day. On October 9, 2013, Mr. Shi was unable to make it to work and checked into a hospital, his family says. Soon after, he was pronounced dead of pneumonia. Mr. Shi had been working at Apple for only two months at this point. When Mr. Shi started at Apple he had gotten an exam to make sure he was healthy. The exam said he was healthy when he started working, so something must have gone wrong in the factory. Although his identification papers said he was 20, Mr. Shi was in fact just 15, which is under the legal age limit to work. (Barboza)
Many people are complaining that Apple has inhumane working conditions at their factories in China. Apple has said multiple times that they would improve their factories so that they are clean and humane, yet they still haven’t. Even though Apple factories provide jobs for thousands of people, the inhumane working environment outweighs its reward.
Apple has provided over 1,000,000 jobs for people in their factories in China. Apple has 13 factories spread across China. The typical income for someone who works at an Apple factory is around 4,800 US dollars a year. This may not seem like much to us but to people that are in poverty that is a lot of money. A typical, middle class, Chinese man or women uses on average, 32 US dollars a day. This includes food, transportation, and somewhere to sleep. (Lonely)
I believe that these Apple factories are indeed helping people in poverty, the factories supply so many jobs for people and that is unbelievable. People in poverty need these kinds of opportunities or else they will no chance of escaping. These jobs are extremely helpful, but they are also causing big problems.
Apple’s working conditions have been a problem since 2010, when 14 workers changed the way Apple was viewed by the public. Employees working at Apple factories are working more than twelve hours a day and are working standing up with no breaks except for a 30-minute lunch break. There were six deaths at an Apple factory in 2013 from pneumonia, which happened from the working conditions at the factory. These six people had been working at Apple ranging between one to four months at the times of their deaths. (Barboza)
While us greedy Americans purchase our fancy IPhones and IPads, people that work at the factories in China are dying for poor working conditions and are being brutally overworked. For every IPhone that is purchased, that is contributing to those peoples’ suffering in China. These stories are not one of a kind, these are just a few of the many tragic experiences that these workers have.
In 2013 a young lady had to take a break from school, so she decided to work at Foxconn, an Apple assembly factory, while on break. During her first day, an older worker advised her to leave Foxconn but Chen stayed as she waited to return to school. The first three weeks consisted of her affixing more than 4,000 stickers onto Ipad screens by hand, making her work more than 65 hours each week on an assembly line. "It's so boring, I can't bear it anymore," she told CNN. "Everyday is like: I get off from work and I go to bed. I get up in the morning, and I go to work. It is my daily routine and I almost feel like an animal." (Whitney)
In 2010, fourteen Apple employees committed suicide at an Apple factory in Longhua, located in southern China near Hong Kong. These people were being overworked, underpaid and were getting sick from the environment at the factory so they all decided to kill themselves. This mass suicide caused a massive uprising from families, other workers, and many other people across the world. At this point, Apple had promised that they would update their factories’ conditions and they would change the way their employees are treated.
Apple had to come up with some sort of solution because workers kept threatening that they were going to commit suicide. Apple’s “solution” was to put up nets around the bottoms of their factories to catch anyone who would jump to kill themselves. This caused even more problems for Apple. This “solution” made people outraged because Apple would only do this if they thought that more people would commit suicide. The public does not approve of this “slavery.” There are in fact, thousands of people who are boycotting Apple products.
A simple solution to solve this issue is to boycott Apple products. If the public is not purchasing Apple products, then Apple factories will have to change the way their factories run because they will not have the money to run them if people are boycotting their products. The only downfall to boycotting Apple products is that many people that work in the factories will lose their jobs. That means hundreds if not thousands of people would be without jobs. That would devastate that part of the world.
Apple has lied to us many times, and we can’t change if they will lie or actually tell the truth, but there is one lie that Apple’s Dan Viederman said that has changed everyone’s life. “We are aware of no other company doing as much as Apple to ensure fair and safe working conditions.” Yes, by building nets around the factory to stop people jumping off the roof...Dead slave = no profits.
Work Cited
Barboza, David. "Worker Deaths Raise Questions at an Apple Contractor in China." The New York Times. The New York Times, 10 Dec. 2013. Web. 02 Feb. 2015. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/11/technology/worker-deaths-raise-questions-at-an-apple-contractor-in-china.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1422900183-bMIPwT%2B9B4dm1x7ke3eU5Q
"'Exhausted Workforce' in Apple Factory." BBC News. N.p., 8 Dec. 2014. Web. 11 Feb. 2015. http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30540538
Kahn, Jordan. "Apple Says 'no Other Company Doing as Much' in Response to BBC Supply Chain Profile." 9to5Mac. N.p., 18 Dec. 2014. Web. 11 Feb. 2015. http://9to5mac.com/2014/12/18/apple-says-no-other-company-doing-as-much-in-response-to-bbc-supply-chain-profile/
MailOnline, Mark Prigg for. "BBC Accused of Bias over Expose of Apple Working Conditions in China: Broadcaster Clashes with Tech Giant after Secretly Filming Workers Asleep on IPhone 6 Production Line."Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 19 Dec. 2014. Web. 11 Feb. 2015. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2879860/BBC-accused-bias-expose-Apple-working-conditions-China-Broadcaster-clashes-tech-giant-secretly-filming-workers-asleep-iPhone-6-production-line.html
"Money and Costs in China - Lonely Planet." Lonely Planet. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2015. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/china/money-costs
Whitney, Lance. "Apple Supplier Employee Describes Working Conditions - CNET." CNET. N.p., 7 Feb. 2012. Web. 11 Feb. 2015. http://www.cnet.com/news/apple-supplier-employee-describes-working-conditions/
Word Count: 930
In this project we chose a globalization issue to research about and then we had to write a OpEd about it and we had to make a political cartoon about it. I choose to research about the working conditions at Apple factories in China. I had to do all my research independently, then I had to write my OpEd. As we were getting to the end of finishing our final drafts we started on our political cartoons. We worked on creating them, then we refined them.
After this project I have a way better understanding of globalization. I understand global issues and how products move throughout the globe.
In my first cartoon I free handed the whole thing and did no coloring or shading. Throughout my drafts I used a ruler to draw the straight line so it would look more professional and clean. I also tried using color in some of my early drafts to see if I wanted to color it. In the end I used a ruler for everything that was to be straight and I colored the whole this so that there was no white space.
The writing for this assignment was different because I had to do all of my research independently, and when I chose what topic I wanted to write about I did not have any information about the topics so I had to research everything. In this type of writing I had to get my point across from both sides, but I still had to pick one side to fight for more and I had to make my paper between 750 to 1000 words, and that was a challenge within itself. When writing a paper like the one above, it is very hard to not go over 1000 words because you just want to type and type about the issue you picked and yet you can't because you only have so much space. So that means your paragraphs have to kind of be short and to the point, and through this project I think I got pretty good at that. That is something that I can apply to future assignments so that they don't drag on for to long.
Art Project
WAR IS HELL
My art is based on the people who have lost their lives in war. Lots of people die in war, and they are not much different from you and me. I chose to make this because my good friend just died in the war. I understand how painful it is to loose someone to the war. He always told me that War Is Hell.
The helmet on the gun is a fallen soldier. The tallies on the stock of the gun tell how many comrades were lost. The boots once worn by this soldier sit there, motionless. The soldier’s dog tags dangle from his empty magazine. The bloody combat knife stands up against his rifle, like he once did. The soldier always kept an Ace Of Hearts in his shirt pocket for good luck. The rose is from his wife and daughter; they left it for him. This man had finally seen the end of all hell.
My art is based on the people who have lost their lives in war. Lots of people die in war, and they are not much different from you and me. I chose to make this because my good friend just died in the war. I understand how painful it is to loose someone to the war. He always told me that War Is Hell.
The helmet on the gun is a fallen soldier. The tallies on the stock of the gun tell how many comrades were lost. The boots once worn by this soldier sit there, motionless. The soldier’s dog tags dangle from his empty magazine. The bloody combat knife stands up against his rifle, like he once did. The soldier always kept an Ace Of Hearts in his shirt pocket for good luck. The rose is from his wife and daughter; they left it for him. This man had finally seen the end of all hell.
Zero
A WWII Short Story
I don’t understand why I’m here, in this prison, rotting away. We have been here for twenty-eight days. Josh, Nick, Emily and I are slowly dying in this disgusting place. When I am sleeping at night I can hear the pitter-patter of the rats in our cells. They treat us like we are a different kind, like we aren’t human. My name is Anne, Anne Williamson. I am 24 years old and I am sitting in a German prison waiting for my death to come.
“Why are we here?”
“I don’t know Nick.”
“Where is Josh?”
“Josh is in the shop working.” Josh has been working hard to get us a good reputation. We are from Little Falls, a small farm village outside of Stalingrad. The Germans captured us when they raided our town.
I watch as Josh is brought back to the cell. Josh stares back at me with a little bit of happiness in his eyes. Josh is thrown into the cell, and then the guard locks the cell and walks away. He leans next to my ear and whispers into my ear.
“I know how we can get out of here.”
I slowly pull away from him and I look at him. The sweat runs down his face as if he just went for a swim, his hands shook as his attention jumped around the room, watching all the guards. I grab his hands and I smile, “we really can get out of here?”
“Yes,” he says quietly, “You, me, Emily and Nick.”
“How are we supposed to do that?”
“Tomorrow morning a few guards have to go to the farm to pick up some food for the prisoners. They want me to go with them, and they said that they need three other people to help also. Nick, Emily, you, and me. On the way to the farm we are going to have to hijack the car and get rid of the guards. Then we can take a car back home to get mum and pa. Once we get them we can get out of this hellhole.”
“How do you know that mum and pa are still alive?”
“I don’t but we must hope. Hope is the only other thing we can trust.”
Before we were brought to this evil place I was able to walk outside my front door to greet my friend in the sunshine. After six days of snow the sunny breeze felt amazing on my face. As we started to walk towards her house we heard rustling in the bushes. So we stopped and started walking slowly towards the noise. All the sudden we see a big, brown, beautiful deer poke her head up. She stood there and stared at me motionless, she was looking into my eyes as I was into hers. I watched her trot away back into the white, snowy forest. I had never seen a deer before. Everyday I think about that moment, that moment of freedom. That was the last day I saw the sunlight. That was my last day of my freedom, as I knew it.
“Lets do it,” I say to Josh. I look at Nick and say “Nick, we are going to leave this place tomorrow.” He looked at me with these eyes, eyes of joy and happiness.
************************************************************************************
I can’t sleep; the outside world clouds my thought process, occasionally leaving, but always returning. My mind is cluttered with the other people that are imprisoned here. They are also Russian, and they are trapped here until the war is over or even until they die.
One guard opens the cell, “Ready?” he says.
“Yes” Josh says while nodding his head. He turns and looks at me, “Come on. Don’t be scared.”
I get up with Nick and Emily and we start walking down the long hallway of prisoners. The thought of escaping keeps racing through my head. I look around and see one cell door that is open. As we pass I look in and see five guards beating a prisoner. The blood curdling screams rattle my brain. I think about what would happen to Josh if his plan didn’t go well. Would the guards kill him? Would they beat him to death? I can’t bear to see that happen to him.
We get thrown into the back of a moving truck with two armed guards. We sit in silence for about 11 minutes and then Josh starts eyeing me. He leans into my ear and whispers to me.
“Hey! What are you saying to her?” the guard says standing up.
“I was just asking her how she was doing.” Josh says with a big fat smile on his face. Josh always had that smile when he was lying. I look at Josh and nod my head. He didn’t ask me how I was doing; he asked me if I was ready. I am.
Josh leaps up at the standing guard and grabs his knife off his belt and aims it at the other guard’s heart killing him instantly. He wraps his cuffs around the remaining guard’s neck and starts to strangle him. The guard drops his gun while trying to fight Josh off of him. Josh is very strong; the guard’s neck starts to cut from the chain on the handcuffs. The guard slowly sinks to the floor.
Josh looks at me, then scrambles for the cuff keys. He takes his cuffs off. Then he takes off Emily’s, then Nick’s, then mine. I look at him while he is taking my cuffs off, “Did you have to kill them?”
“Yes, I did,” he says, “Listen, People are going to die, we are going to have to kill people if we want to survive. You and Emily have to help me. I can’t do this on my own.”
The truck stops, Josh reaches down for the guns and hands them to Emily and me. Then he goes over to the guard with the knife in his heart, he then pulls it out and wipes the blood off of the sharp blade onto the guards pants. Josh was always a good knife thrower. Dad taught him how to throw when he was younger. Josh always could hit the bulls-eye.
The doors swing open and Josh leaps out at one guard and Emily shoots the other one. I just stand there watching as these people are killed. I have never liked death. My friends died when the Germans raided our village. I have never been the same.
We all run over to an abandoned car and hop in. Up ahead is a building that is guarded by German soldiers, where they stash all of their weapons. “We need more that just two guns,” Josh says while staring at me with a dead emotion.
“He’s right, there is no way we will get far with two guns and a knife. And we don’t have much ammo ether.” Emily says while putting her hand on my shoulder.
“Emily, you’re crazy! And you too Josh!”
“Emily is right. We won’t get far, and we will have to fight to make it safely back home.”
Josh and Emily are right. I don’t want them to be right, but they are. “Fine, we will go. But we have to be careful.” I don’t want any of you to die; I could never live with that.
We drive up slowly to the building; I roll down our windows and we start shooting. We probably shot off at least half of our bullets. I have never shot a fully automatic before. We had guns on the farm when we were little but they were just shot guns. We all scramble out of the car. Josh grabs the keys to the shed off one of the dead guards while Emily and I carry the bodies to the bushes.
“Whoooohoooo!” Josh screams. “We hit the jackpot!”
Emily and I run over to the shed and walk in. Emily looks at me with her mouth open. I have never seen so many weapons in my life, and I have seen a lot of guns. There are at least 300 guns in here. They have everything: machine guns, shotguns, snipers, handguns, grenades, tear gas, machetes, and more. We all grab as many guns and as much ammo as we can. We start throwing guns into the trunk of the car. Eight machine guns, six shotguns, two snipers, nine handguns, about two dozen grenades and tear gas, and a couple of machetes. We completely clean out the ammo. We all jump into the car and leave. We are going to do what it takes to get back to Little Falls.
“It’s getting dark Josh, we should pull off somewhere. Nick and Emily are already sleeping.”
“No, we can’t stop. We will be in little falls in the morning. Go to sleep, you need it. I’ll be fine.”
As I turn around and look at Emily and Nick, they are in a peaceful slumber for the first time in a very long time. There is the slightest smile on their faces, which says hope for all of us, and I can finally close my eyes and rest.
************************************************************************************
“Anne, Anne wake up we are almost home.” I open my eyes to see Josh shaking me.
“Why are we stopped?”
“Nick and Emily needed to take a leak.”
I watch Nick and Emily come out of the snow-covered trees together, talking about something. “I wonder how they are doing.”
“I think they are good, I asked them when we stopped,” Josh says looking at them.
“How are you guys doing?”
“We are good Anne, it’s just cold out here.” Emily says while rubbing her arms.
“Well we are almost to Little Falls, about twenty more minutes, lets get home then we can rest and warm up.” Josh says while getting into the car.
We get into the car and start driving home when a radio announcement comes on:
“Stalingrad is still under attack. Germany is still attacking. We are doing all we can to stop them. Men and women are trying their hardest to defend Stalingrad. Stay turned for more on the Battle of Stalingrad”
I think about seeing mom and dad, they were not taken from the village. I’m not sure why they only took some of us but they left my parents. My parents are alive; I’m going to see them. I start to tear up a little bit. I haven’t seen my parents in thirty days. The last time I saw them we were all screaming and running from the soldiers.
When the Germans attacked they started to destroy things. They took hundreds of prisoners in the process and also killed many others. The Germans are trying to take Stalingrad from us. The U.S.S.R and Germany had a Non-aggression pact saying that they wouldn’t attack each other. I guess Germany got greedy and wanted more power. They messed with the wrong country. Russia is strong. I know we won’t give up Stalingrad without a strong fight. I know we won’t lose Stalingrad.
************************************************************************************
We pull into town and I look around with my jaw on the floor. It’s gone. The town is destroyed. Obliterated. Massacred. Buildings are burnt to the ground; streets are torn up, bodies lie everywhere throughout the town. We stop the car and get out, I now know that my parents are not alive. I look at Josh; I run over to him and jump into his arms. The tears start pouring down my face. I grip Josh so tight he could pop like a balloon. I let go and look at him; his eyes are filled with tears. I look over to see Nick holding Emily in his arms. I could hear Emily’s sobs from where I was standing. Nicks face was covered with tears. I bend over and grab a handful of ashes. As I grasp the ashes with anger, they sprinkle through my fingers like warm sand.
Suddenly a voice echoes through the town, “Hey! Who are you?”
“Get in the car!” Josh says to us. We all leap into the car. “I can say the same to you.” Josh’s voice echoes back through the town.
“I asked you first.”
“We are a small group of people who were captured from this town, we escaped from the prison yesterday. We thought we could come back here because it would be safe. But I guess we were wrong.”
I watch people start walking towards us, they appeared out of thin air. There is about sixteen of them, they all have military weapons. One man walks up to Josh, “The name is Phillip. We are survivors, survivors from the attack. We fought the Germans because they were destroying our town, as you can see we weren’t able to save it.”
“My name is Josh, and that is my family, well what is left of it.” Josh says while pointing at the car. Josh waves me out; I get out and walk towards them griping my gun with all my strength. “This is Anne, my sister.” I watch the big man reach his hand out for a handshake.
“Nice to meet you Anne.” He says. I nod back at him as I shake his muscular hand.
“We have been holding off the Germans every few days, they keep coming back trying to exterminate us. They should be back soon and with more soldiers. You folks should get out of here while you ca-“
“No.”
Josh looks at me, “you’re crazy Anne, we aren’t staying, I can’t let you stay. I can’t let you get hurt.”
“I am staying here! Those bastards killed our parents! Mom! Dad! They destroyed our town! I don’t care if I die! I am staying here to fight! For mum and pa!” Josh looks at me with eyes filled of fear. Josh knows that I want to stay for mom and dad, and he isn’t stopping me.
************************************************************************************
As I walk up to the only standing building I think of the Battle of Stalingrad. My sister and other brother are in Stalingrad right now fighting the Germans. The U.S.S.R have women in their military now. One of which is my sister. The Germans attacked Stalingrad on August 23rd. Russia didn’t expect it. After a few months Germany started invading towns and villages around Stalingrad to try to get Russia to surrender.
“This is the only building that they didn’t destroy, you guys can stay in that first room on your right. Now that there are twenty of us we should be fine. More men means more Power.”
“Thank you Phillip.” I open the door and look inside; this was a hotel before the raid. There is a fridge, a sink, a queen sized bed and a full bathroom. I have never been inside a hotel room before. My family could not afford it.
All of the sudden sirens start to go off. Josh screams at me, “ Anne! Get over here! Now! With the guns!” I run over to the dresser and pull out the bottom drawer; I pull out a couple machine guns, handguns, and a couple grenades. I run over to the window and I distinguish the black cloud of soldiers’ crossing over the horizon, approaching us with great speed. Phillip comes running into our room with five other men.
“We are running low on ammo, do you guys have anymore?”
I run over to the dresser and wave Phillip over. I yank out the top drawer and pull out the two duffle bags and throw them at Phillip. “Need any guns?” I pull open the bottom drawer and look at the men. They all run over and grab as many guns as they can carry. Phillip grabs the duffle bags and we all run out of the room.
“We need to get to the roof, this way!” Phillip darts down the hallway towards the stairwell.
I sprint up the stairs with Josh ahead of me and Emily and Nick behind. We scurry onto the roof with all our gear. I watch one man be shot in the head. He falls onto his knees, and then slowly falls face first off the edge of the building. Nineteen. I count as we loose men. I count how many are left. Hopefully this battle ends with a few. Phillip tosses the duffle bags behind the sandbag barrier and starts shooting. I scamper over to Phillip and I start shooting at the approaching forces. As I’m shooting at the enemies I see multiple tanks inching towards us.
“Look out!” Josh screams at us.
I turn to look at him, all the sudden an explosion shoots me into the air. Everything seems to slow down; I now realize how demented war is. Before I thought war was fine. War was just some countries arguing. But war is a lie. Lots of people die in war. Lots of innocent people die in war. People believe that war will help solve problems but it just creates them. We were innocent people when the Germans took us to their prison and made us scared. Scared that we will rot and die in there. Scared that our own country will never come to save us. I don’t believe in war anymore. But I do believe that my country will avenge us. Avenge all of the people that the Germans killed. They will stop the Germans and make them pay.
************************************************************************************
“Anne! Anne! Get up! Now!”
I open my eyes to see Josh shaking me. I sit up in a pile of cement rubble. The building has been destroyed. Cold, pale bodies lay everywhere. I look around to see few men standing. Josh, Phillip, Emily, Nick, Bob and Frank, Phillip’s men. I stand up and dive behind some cover as a tank missile is launched at the rubble. I watch as the projectile annihilates a big pile of shattered cement. Bob was behind that cement. Six. I grab my rifle and start shooting at the Germans. I spray them with cold, hard, metal bullets.
Emily’s scream pierces my ears. I turn and look at Emily while she holds Phillip’s limp body. Emily looks at me with fear filling her eyes. I look at her as a bullet rips through her chest and she collapses to the floor with Phillip’s body falling on top of hers. Four. Frank and Nick charge towards the bodies to see if they are still alive. I can’t move. I just stand and watch as my friends and family are shot down. Nick and Frank slowly fall face first to the floor one, after the other. Two. I Look at Josh with tears filling my terrified eyes as the Germans grab me and put me in handcuffs.
************************************************************************************
The cloth bag sits loose on my small head.
“I’m sorry Josh.”
“It’s okay.” Josh whispers back to me. “I love you Anne. I love you.”
The gunshot rings through my ears. I listen as Josh’s body hits the floor. I feel the warm blood run under my jeans. One. The cold metal barrel of the magnum brushes against my forehead as my cold tears drizzle down my soft cheeks.
Zero.
“Why are we here?”
“I don’t know Nick.”
“Where is Josh?”
“Josh is in the shop working.” Josh has been working hard to get us a good reputation. We are from Little Falls, a small farm village outside of Stalingrad. The Germans captured us when they raided our town.
I watch as Josh is brought back to the cell. Josh stares back at me with a little bit of happiness in his eyes. Josh is thrown into the cell, and then the guard locks the cell and walks away. He leans next to my ear and whispers into my ear.
“I know how we can get out of here.”
I slowly pull away from him and I look at him. The sweat runs down his face as if he just went for a swim, his hands shook as his attention jumped around the room, watching all the guards. I grab his hands and I smile, “we really can get out of here?”
“Yes,” he says quietly, “You, me, Emily and Nick.”
“How are we supposed to do that?”
“Tomorrow morning a few guards have to go to the farm to pick up some food for the prisoners. They want me to go with them, and they said that they need three other people to help also. Nick, Emily, you, and me. On the way to the farm we are going to have to hijack the car and get rid of the guards. Then we can take a car back home to get mum and pa. Once we get them we can get out of this hellhole.”
“How do you know that mum and pa are still alive?”
“I don’t but we must hope. Hope is the only other thing we can trust.”
Before we were brought to this evil place I was able to walk outside my front door to greet my friend in the sunshine. After six days of snow the sunny breeze felt amazing on my face. As we started to walk towards her house we heard rustling in the bushes. So we stopped and started walking slowly towards the noise. All the sudden we see a big, brown, beautiful deer poke her head up. She stood there and stared at me motionless, she was looking into my eyes as I was into hers. I watched her trot away back into the white, snowy forest. I had never seen a deer before. Everyday I think about that moment, that moment of freedom. That was the last day I saw the sunlight. That was my last day of my freedom, as I knew it.
“Lets do it,” I say to Josh. I look at Nick and say “Nick, we are going to leave this place tomorrow.” He looked at me with these eyes, eyes of joy and happiness.
************************************************************************************
I can’t sleep; the outside world clouds my thought process, occasionally leaving, but always returning. My mind is cluttered with the other people that are imprisoned here. They are also Russian, and they are trapped here until the war is over or even until they die.
One guard opens the cell, “Ready?” he says.
“Yes” Josh says while nodding his head. He turns and looks at me, “Come on. Don’t be scared.”
I get up with Nick and Emily and we start walking down the long hallway of prisoners. The thought of escaping keeps racing through my head. I look around and see one cell door that is open. As we pass I look in and see five guards beating a prisoner. The blood curdling screams rattle my brain. I think about what would happen to Josh if his plan didn’t go well. Would the guards kill him? Would they beat him to death? I can’t bear to see that happen to him.
We get thrown into the back of a moving truck with two armed guards. We sit in silence for about 11 minutes and then Josh starts eyeing me. He leans into my ear and whispers to me.
“Hey! What are you saying to her?” the guard says standing up.
“I was just asking her how she was doing.” Josh says with a big fat smile on his face. Josh always had that smile when he was lying. I look at Josh and nod my head. He didn’t ask me how I was doing; he asked me if I was ready. I am.
Josh leaps up at the standing guard and grabs his knife off his belt and aims it at the other guard’s heart killing him instantly. He wraps his cuffs around the remaining guard’s neck and starts to strangle him. The guard drops his gun while trying to fight Josh off of him. Josh is very strong; the guard’s neck starts to cut from the chain on the handcuffs. The guard slowly sinks to the floor.
Josh looks at me, then scrambles for the cuff keys. He takes his cuffs off. Then he takes off Emily’s, then Nick’s, then mine. I look at him while he is taking my cuffs off, “Did you have to kill them?”
“Yes, I did,” he says, “Listen, People are going to die, we are going to have to kill people if we want to survive. You and Emily have to help me. I can’t do this on my own.”
The truck stops, Josh reaches down for the guns and hands them to Emily and me. Then he goes over to the guard with the knife in his heart, he then pulls it out and wipes the blood off of the sharp blade onto the guards pants. Josh was always a good knife thrower. Dad taught him how to throw when he was younger. Josh always could hit the bulls-eye.
The doors swing open and Josh leaps out at one guard and Emily shoots the other one. I just stand there watching as these people are killed. I have never liked death. My friends died when the Germans raided our village. I have never been the same.
We all run over to an abandoned car and hop in. Up ahead is a building that is guarded by German soldiers, where they stash all of their weapons. “We need more that just two guns,” Josh says while staring at me with a dead emotion.
“He’s right, there is no way we will get far with two guns and a knife. And we don’t have much ammo ether.” Emily says while putting her hand on my shoulder.
“Emily, you’re crazy! And you too Josh!”
“Emily is right. We won’t get far, and we will have to fight to make it safely back home.”
Josh and Emily are right. I don’t want them to be right, but they are. “Fine, we will go. But we have to be careful.” I don’t want any of you to die; I could never live with that.
We drive up slowly to the building; I roll down our windows and we start shooting. We probably shot off at least half of our bullets. I have never shot a fully automatic before. We had guns on the farm when we were little but they were just shot guns. We all scramble out of the car. Josh grabs the keys to the shed off one of the dead guards while Emily and I carry the bodies to the bushes.
“Whoooohoooo!” Josh screams. “We hit the jackpot!”
Emily and I run over to the shed and walk in. Emily looks at me with her mouth open. I have never seen so many weapons in my life, and I have seen a lot of guns. There are at least 300 guns in here. They have everything: machine guns, shotguns, snipers, handguns, grenades, tear gas, machetes, and more. We all grab as many guns and as much ammo as we can. We start throwing guns into the trunk of the car. Eight machine guns, six shotguns, two snipers, nine handguns, about two dozen grenades and tear gas, and a couple of machetes. We completely clean out the ammo. We all jump into the car and leave. We are going to do what it takes to get back to Little Falls.
“It’s getting dark Josh, we should pull off somewhere. Nick and Emily are already sleeping.”
“No, we can’t stop. We will be in little falls in the morning. Go to sleep, you need it. I’ll be fine.”
As I turn around and look at Emily and Nick, they are in a peaceful slumber for the first time in a very long time. There is the slightest smile on their faces, which says hope for all of us, and I can finally close my eyes and rest.
************************************************************************************
“Anne, Anne wake up we are almost home.” I open my eyes to see Josh shaking me.
“Why are we stopped?”
“Nick and Emily needed to take a leak.”
I watch Nick and Emily come out of the snow-covered trees together, talking about something. “I wonder how they are doing.”
“I think they are good, I asked them when we stopped,” Josh says looking at them.
“How are you guys doing?”
“We are good Anne, it’s just cold out here.” Emily says while rubbing her arms.
“Well we are almost to Little Falls, about twenty more minutes, lets get home then we can rest and warm up.” Josh says while getting into the car.
We get into the car and start driving home when a radio announcement comes on:
“Stalingrad is still under attack. Germany is still attacking. We are doing all we can to stop them. Men and women are trying their hardest to defend Stalingrad. Stay turned for more on the Battle of Stalingrad”
I think about seeing mom and dad, they were not taken from the village. I’m not sure why they only took some of us but they left my parents. My parents are alive; I’m going to see them. I start to tear up a little bit. I haven’t seen my parents in thirty days. The last time I saw them we were all screaming and running from the soldiers.
When the Germans attacked they started to destroy things. They took hundreds of prisoners in the process and also killed many others. The Germans are trying to take Stalingrad from us. The U.S.S.R and Germany had a Non-aggression pact saying that they wouldn’t attack each other. I guess Germany got greedy and wanted more power. They messed with the wrong country. Russia is strong. I know we won’t give up Stalingrad without a strong fight. I know we won’t lose Stalingrad.
************************************************************************************
We pull into town and I look around with my jaw on the floor. It’s gone. The town is destroyed. Obliterated. Massacred. Buildings are burnt to the ground; streets are torn up, bodies lie everywhere throughout the town. We stop the car and get out, I now know that my parents are not alive. I look at Josh; I run over to him and jump into his arms. The tears start pouring down my face. I grip Josh so tight he could pop like a balloon. I let go and look at him; his eyes are filled with tears. I look over to see Nick holding Emily in his arms. I could hear Emily’s sobs from where I was standing. Nicks face was covered with tears. I bend over and grab a handful of ashes. As I grasp the ashes with anger, they sprinkle through my fingers like warm sand.
Suddenly a voice echoes through the town, “Hey! Who are you?”
“Get in the car!” Josh says to us. We all leap into the car. “I can say the same to you.” Josh’s voice echoes back through the town.
“I asked you first.”
“We are a small group of people who were captured from this town, we escaped from the prison yesterday. We thought we could come back here because it would be safe. But I guess we were wrong.”
I watch people start walking towards us, they appeared out of thin air. There is about sixteen of them, they all have military weapons. One man walks up to Josh, “The name is Phillip. We are survivors, survivors from the attack. We fought the Germans because they were destroying our town, as you can see we weren’t able to save it.”
“My name is Josh, and that is my family, well what is left of it.” Josh says while pointing at the car. Josh waves me out; I get out and walk towards them griping my gun with all my strength. “This is Anne, my sister.” I watch the big man reach his hand out for a handshake.
“Nice to meet you Anne.” He says. I nod back at him as I shake his muscular hand.
“We have been holding off the Germans every few days, they keep coming back trying to exterminate us. They should be back soon and with more soldiers. You folks should get out of here while you ca-“
“No.”
Josh looks at me, “you’re crazy Anne, we aren’t staying, I can’t let you stay. I can’t let you get hurt.”
“I am staying here! Those bastards killed our parents! Mom! Dad! They destroyed our town! I don’t care if I die! I am staying here to fight! For mum and pa!” Josh looks at me with eyes filled of fear. Josh knows that I want to stay for mom and dad, and he isn’t stopping me.
************************************************************************************
As I walk up to the only standing building I think of the Battle of Stalingrad. My sister and other brother are in Stalingrad right now fighting the Germans. The U.S.S.R have women in their military now. One of which is my sister. The Germans attacked Stalingrad on August 23rd. Russia didn’t expect it. After a few months Germany started invading towns and villages around Stalingrad to try to get Russia to surrender.
“This is the only building that they didn’t destroy, you guys can stay in that first room on your right. Now that there are twenty of us we should be fine. More men means more Power.”
“Thank you Phillip.” I open the door and look inside; this was a hotel before the raid. There is a fridge, a sink, a queen sized bed and a full bathroom. I have never been inside a hotel room before. My family could not afford it.
All of the sudden sirens start to go off. Josh screams at me, “ Anne! Get over here! Now! With the guns!” I run over to the dresser and pull out the bottom drawer; I pull out a couple machine guns, handguns, and a couple grenades. I run over to the window and I distinguish the black cloud of soldiers’ crossing over the horizon, approaching us with great speed. Phillip comes running into our room with five other men.
“We are running low on ammo, do you guys have anymore?”
I run over to the dresser and wave Phillip over. I yank out the top drawer and pull out the two duffle bags and throw them at Phillip. “Need any guns?” I pull open the bottom drawer and look at the men. They all run over and grab as many guns as they can carry. Phillip grabs the duffle bags and we all run out of the room.
“We need to get to the roof, this way!” Phillip darts down the hallway towards the stairwell.
I sprint up the stairs with Josh ahead of me and Emily and Nick behind. We scurry onto the roof with all our gear. I watch one man be shot in the head. He falls onto his knees, and then slowly falls face first off the edge of the building. Nineteen. I count as we loose men. I count how many are left. Hopefully this battle ends with a few. Phillip tosses the duffle bags behind the sandbag barrier and starts shooting. I scamper over to Phillip and I start shooting at the approaching forces. As I’m shooting at the enemies I see multiple tanks inching towards us.
“Look out!” Josh screams at us.
I turn to look at him, all the sudden an explosion shoots me into the air. Everything seems to slow down; I now realize how demented war is. Before I thought war was fine. War was just some countries arguing. But war is a lie. Lots of people die in war. Lots of innocent people die in war. People believe that war will help solve problems but it just creates them. We were innocent people when the Germans took us to their prison and made us scared. Scared that we will rot and die in there. Scared that our own country will never come to save us. I don’t believe in war anymore. But I do believe that my country will avenge us. Avenge all of the people that the Germans killed. They will stop the Germans and make them pay.
************************************************************************************
“Anne! Anne! Get up! Now!”
I open my eyes to see Josh shaking me. I sit up in a pile of cement rubble. The building has been destroyed. Cold, pale bodies lay everywhere. I look around to see few men standing. Josh, Phillip, Emily, Nick, Bob and Frank, Phillip’s men. I stand up and dive behind some cover as a tank missile is launched at the rubble. I watch as the projectile annihilates a big pile of shattered cement. Bob was behind that cement. Six. I grab my rifle and start shooting at the Germans. I spray them with cold, hard, metal bullets.
Emily’s scream pierces my ears. I turn and look at Emily while she holds Phillip’s limp body. Emily looks at me with fear filling her eyes. I look at her as a bullet rips through her chest and she collapses to the floor with Phillip’s body falling on top of hers. Four. Frank and Nick charge towards the bodies to see if they are still alive. I can’t move. I just stand and watch as my friends and family are shot down. Nick and Frank slowly fall face first to the floor one, after the other. Two. I Look at Josh with tears filling my terrified eyes as the Germans grab me and put me in handcuffs.
************************************************************************************
The cloth bag sits loose on my small head.
“I’m sorry Josh.”
“It’s okay.” Josh whispers back to me. “I love you Anne. I love you.”
The gunshot rings through my ears. I listen as Josh’s body hits the floor. I feel the warm blood run under my jeans. One. The cold metal barrel of the magnum brushes against my forehead as my cold tears drizzle down my soft cheeks.
Zero.