Left To Tell Chapter 7-10

Being in the situation of Immaculee is very exasperating! It’s the worst nightmare that can come to life. Hearing the voices of the extremists walking thru the streets looking for Tutsis to kill and calling them names is very traumatizing. It’s sad that people just go based on people’s skin color and they don’t really try to find out the special qualities of that person. Like in chapter 7 when Immaculee’s father goes searching for help because his Tutsi neighbor are scared and they go to his house so he can get protection and when he brings the two soldiers back to protect them, they end up being the extremist. It is very sad when go looking for help to someone that is supposed to protect you and ends up harming you is just wrong. This is something that’s actually happens in real life like in Mexico, there are a lot police officers that are corrupt and they just stop you to get money out of you or won’t protect you because they are being paid from someone like in the mafia to go away and leave the area unsecure. A part the really broke my heart was when the Hutu burned down Immaculee’s parent’s house. Watching your home burn down in minutes, the place where you created all your beautiful memories and saw your kids grow up to become adults and always trying to make it bigger and ready for you grandchildren is just sad.  It’s crazy how Pastor Murinzi was able to keep 7 women inside a restroom for days and kept them in silence, but that’s something’s  people have to go thru to survive. At the beginning I thought the same way as Immaculee that Pastor Murinzi was going to end up keeping the girls and harm them but I was wrong and he protected them. These are horrible things that people go thru in different countries and it’s very hard to stop it because people are being badly influence. Hopefully one day we can all find peace and stop discrimination.

Left To Tell Chapter 1-6

Immaculee had a perfect life style. Her parents seem like good parents that loved her and her three brothers, Aimable, Damascene, and Vianney. School was very important to Immaculee’s parents because they were teachers. I believe that it was good that Immaculee’s parents would make them study with each other in the afternoon because that brought the family together and also avoid the kids to be in the streets and become trouble makers. In Chapter 2, it upset me when Immaculee’s fourth grade teacher started calling ethnic roll call. Who does that to children? They are innocent! They should not be involve in adults problems because they will grow up, become bitter and think that being racist is fine. Another part that upsets me is when she got denied for the scholarship to a public high school for being Tutsi. This shows that the government influence people to discriminate the Tutsi and they wouldn’t have any rights. That’s really sad because Immaculee was really smart but the government didn’t care they just wanted Hutus to succeed. Immaculee’s father was not going to let his daughters dreams go down the drain, right away he went to sell two cows so she could go to a private school. This showed how education was very important to this family. That’s sad how there are countries that don’t let their citizens find success because they just want a curtain group of people to have power. While she was in high school she did a test that was for a scholarship to go to one of the best Universities in Rwanda but she thought she wasn’t going to be able to get in because she was Tutsi. It  surprised me that she was actually allowed to attend this school because she got accepted. It was something Immaculee wanted and that she deserved because she was great student.

Introduction of Left to Tell

The introduction of Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza is very sad. In one page Immaculee tells her traumatizing story of how she and thousands of people suffered in the Rwanda genocide. The way she survived was being in a small restroom with 7 other women for 91 days. I can’t imagine being in a room with some strangers and not being able to stretch my legs when they get numb. What Immaculee did for 91 days was just pray to God to save her family and her. God was her only hope, and this genocide brought her closer to god. It was sad the part where she said that even her neighbors and the people that would go have dinner at her house were in the extremist’s side. These people were such hypocrites, turning your back to the people that would help you out and give you advise when you needed the most is just horrible.  I find it unbelievable that Immaculee was able to forgive the people that harmed her and her family. I wouldn’t be able to forgive them if I was Immaculee. She is a very strong woman, and she has a great heart.

“Bros Before Hos”: The Guy Code by Michael Kimmel

To be a man is to be tough and to show no fear, this is what most fathers teach their sons. This has been going on for decade's, men are supposedly the strong ones, the ones that have the authority. According to “Bros Before Hos”: The Guy Code by Michael Kimmel  not only occurs in home but masochism is everywhere. It mostly starts in high school when  kids are starting to become men and women, Michael talks about a “Guy Code” which are the values, qualities, and the attitude that defines a man. I find it true that men focus more into physical attributes and that women look on the emotional. If men see that another man is not as masculine as they are, they start name calling them just because they don’t act as tough as them. Also when girls see that guy  talking to them normally and don’t try showing some interest in them, they think that he is gay. I find it interesting when Eminem was being questioned on one of his interviews about how he kept saying faggot in one of his songs. He said that calling another man a faggot is just to take their manhood away from them. To say that they are weak not necessarily that they like other men.  Another thing that caught my attention was men don’t act tough just to impress women, they act like this because they want to be well evaluated my other men. I believe that it’s worse for a man to fit in because guys just try to see who is better than the other one that’s why a lot of guys try to join gangs just to prove each to other how tough they are. That's why men become depressed and violent because they try so hard in proving themselves, then everything goes wrong and they can’t control the situation.