The Wall

One of the aspects of this book that I thought was similar to a modern day event is when Offred went into town and saw the six corpses hanging on the Wall. These people have pictures of fetuses on them because these people were doctors, executed for performing abortions. To Offred, this seems like an everyday occurrence in this society. The Republic of Gilead is trying to strike fear into the hearts of its citizens by displaying what will happen if the law is broken. This is a very effective method of law enforcement and a country in our modern world actually still does this today.

Iran is known for its very strict government and harsh punishments. In fact, Iran is one of the only countries left in the world that still performs public executions, and it is getting more common. An article in Newsweek stated that state executions, performed by hanging the accused criminal in a public area, have risen to an average of two every day. President Rouhani has stated that these public killings are meant to implement fear into this society, not to fight crime. Many countries around the world have explained that they need to intervene in this because these public hangings contradict human rights and that Iran should not be doing this.

I think that a country like Iran has a lot of similarities to the Republic of Gilead. Obviously, these public executions are evident in both and it is a rather normal part of their societies. Fear is supposed to be a large deterrent of crime with the fear of death. Also, Iran has very strict laws against women and they are meant to be seen as less than woman. All in all, Atwood put a lot of parallels between some of these Middle Eastern countries and the Republic of Gilead.

http://www.newsweek.com/state-executions-rise-two-day-iran-313562

Children of Men

What I really like about this movie is how they did a great job a lot of themes are contemporary issues into one film. First, the director really emphasized the idea of the hatred of immigrants and the constant pursuit governments are in to capture them. Especially in the United States, a big political issue is the way immigrants should be handled. In general, most people have a negative view of immigrants and they are treated as lesser. Not just immigrants but foreigners in general are looked down upon in Children of Men and in our modern society. While we don't put immigrants in cages, beat them and kill them, the director did a good job of over exaggerating it to prove a point. I know this is a British movie and I don't know how they feel about immigrants, but this film did a great job of showing the discrimination and hatred of all people that are different.

I didn't realize it until after the movie but I thought it was really interesting how religion and the Nativity story was integrated into Children of Men. For example, the pregnant woman, Kee, jokingly says that she is a virgin. This is meant to represent that she is Mary and Theo, given the duty of bringing her to safety, is Joseph. I also learned that this movie came out on Christmas Day, the day of Christ's birth, which further represents the religious themes scene throughout this film. I really like how they sort of made the Nativity story in a modern sense because I'm not sure if I've ever seen that before.

Even though this film is set in the future, the directors did a good job of making it seem like this sort of scenario would still happen in real life. The type of anarchy, cruelty and harshness seen through the constant violence of this film is very real. All in all, I really enjoyed this film because the plot itself is great, and it did an excellent job of representing what the world would be like if there seemed to be no future.

Horton Had It Good

Throughout Life as We Knew It, the beloved family cat, Horton, constantly had food and seemed to be doing okay. Besides the week when he left home, he was always sheltered, well fed and warm as the rest of the family seemed to struggle through the harsh winter. It times of natural disaster, I've always been curious as to what happens to family pets when families and moving or on the brink of starvation. At the end of the novel, Miranda sees some dead pets along the road as she makes her way into town. It just seems like pets are much more susceptible to being killed during times like this, when humans are already worried about feeding themselves. I think that the author should of addressed the issue of feeding Horton in a more realistic manner to capture the true hard times Miranda's family endured.

In an article I found, the struggles of the lives of pets during Hurricane Katrina was addressed. It turns out that directly after the storm hit New Orleans, and people were being evacuated, the authorities had some interesting rules put in place. Most of the emergency shelters in New Orleans did not allow pets and when people were being evacuated from their homes, they were forced to leave their pets at home to fend for themselves. Unfortunately, a majority of these animals died of starvation or were permanently displaced from their families. These creatures were seem swimming throughout the flooded streets in search of shelter and food, while their owners were left heartbroken as they knew the fate of their beloved pets.

All in all, I think that the author should of done created a more realistic scenario for their cat Horton to truly show how much these natural disasters were affecting the family. The idea that they just happened to get enough cat food to last for that duration of time seems a little impractical to me considering they didn't even have enough food for themselves. I think that the reader would of truly understood the sacrifices made by this family because, in my opinion, pets are the last priority in this type of situation even though they are loved by every member of that family.

http://blogs.bestfriends.org/index.php/2011/05/11/animals-in-disasters-how-katrina-changed-their-world/