Today in class Annalise did a presentation on forming a thesis through brainstorming. I found this really helpful in crafting my main ideas and getting my information together to write. Some of the tips that were on the presentation were to keep your thesis concise, clear, and relevant to what your writing topic/ideas are. After this presentation I am feeling better about crafting my thesis well. I have started it within my brainstorming process, however I have much more to do before my essay is complete. I still need a scholarly source of research that I need to search for. The rest of my sources I have already found. I will be using 3 letters from the Clara Breed collection, 3 letters from the Last Letters Holocaust website, the Dear Miss Breed book, the video “Love Letters to Strangers”, and a few others I am working on incorporating into my writing. I am focusing on the meaningfulness of letter writing as well as some common themes that overlapped from the Clara Breed letters and the Last Holocaust letters.
Additionally, in class we read and listened to “Address Unknown”. I found these fictional back and forth letters really interesting and engaging. I took notes on a few of the most shocking lines to me:
“The man is like an electric shock” – Martin says about Adolf Hitler
“Re-birth of a new Germany under our Gentle leader” – Martin writes about Germany
“You should wake from your musty sentimentalizing” – Martin writes to Max
“Does the surgeon spare the cancer because he must cut to remove it?” – Martin to Max
The whole story between these two men during this time was really fascinating to me- especially seeing both points of views in the letters back and forth from each other. The audio reading, similarly to one of the audios we listened to last week, once again really contributed to the authentic feel of the letters, which I appreciated.
Another part of the audio/reading that I found interesting was the parts about the character Griselle, Max’s sister. Her character is described as brave, and with “fine spirit.” She also openly and proudly says that she is in fact Jewish to her audience in one of her shows, which shows another huge aspect of her character. I was devastated to find out that she died, and even more angry that Martin didn’t help her.
