Frayed Branches

Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz: A Holocaust Survivor’s Story   The stories that survive are the ones that define history. No truer does this ring than with the countless stories of Holocaust survivors that have been told in the decades since World War II. These testimonies are important, as they signify the darkest time in modern human history, a grim reminder of what evils humanity is capable of. The tale told in Alan Gratz’s Young Adult novel Prisoner B-3087 is one of these stories. Prisoner B-3087 uses the Holocaust survival story of Jack Gruener in order to showcase the horrors of the Holocaust in such a way that the target demographic of the book—middle and high schoolers—will understand the terror surrounding this point in history.   Called by his Polish name, Yanek, the novel follows Jack’s story from the time the war began when he was ten to his survival of the concentration camps at sixteen. The book chronicles the fall of his home in Kraków, Poland, Yanek’s separatio...

Movie “Monday”: Paris, Texas   Sometimes, a film doesn’t need to be about more than its characters to tell a story and send a message to its audience. The strength of a film that utilizes the subtle characterization of its leading cast is that it is able to develop them in such a way that the story flows well and keeps an audience engaged, no matter the speed of the story or what transpires. A film that manages to capture this with near perfection is the 1984 film Paris, Texas . A slow-moving road movie directed by German filmmaker Wim Wenders, the film stars Harry Dean Stanton as Travis Henderson, a man who loses consciousness in a building and is taken in by a German doctor. Very soon, it becomes clear that Travis’ situation is not all it seems: Upon the arrival of his brother, Walt, it is revealed Travis has been missing for four years and, in that time, Walt has been taking care of his son, Hunter. As Walt does his best to try and accommodate for Travis’ return to the real worl...

The Stranger by Albert Camus: Life’s Grand Absurdity   Sometimes you read a book that you feel doesn’t entirely resonate with you, but that still holds some form of quality that could make it valuable to others. While the themes and philosophy the author insinuates through his or her words are crafted in an expert manner, sometimes one can read the work without always believing in what is being said. The Reader is not a universal being, but rather multiple people making up a group, thereby making it difficult to interpret if the general consensus will be the same as the author’s presented ideas. This is how I felt reading Albert Camus’ renowned French novel The Stranger . While the ideas presented herein did not resonate with me as much as I’d hoped they would, it felt like a good starting point into the philosophical musings of absurdism and interpretation into the meaning of life.   The Stranger tells the story of Meursault, a man who learns at the start of the book that his...

Movie Monday: Hamilton on Disney+   I’m not a fan of musicals. That’s not to say the entire genre is worthless, I’m just the type of person who enjoys watching a show or a movie that doesn’t overtly utilize its musical aspects for the sake of telling a story. That’s just my personal preference. But, be that as it may, there is always an exception to the rule. Sometimes you go into something believing it will be a decent, music-filled romp through early America, one that can make you appreciate the genre of musical theater in a way you hadn’t before. And, of course, in this instance, I did come out finding that musicals could indeed be just as powerful as any other work of art. But what made this experience of seeing Hamilton on Disney+ this past weekend so unique was that I didn’t just gain a better appreciation for the musical arts. I was blown away by just how breathtaking and spectacular the entire play was.   Inspired by Alexander Hamilton , a 2004 biography by Ron Chernow...