Reflection 4- Debra Humphreys and Movies

When Debra Humphreys came to talk to us on Friday, I found her both helpful yet kind of arrogant. I liked what she was talking about regarding a liberal arts education. I agree that you should be a well-rounded student, especially since you may think that you want to be a lawyer your whole life and then take an anthropology class and realize that your hidden life-long dream is actually be a anthropologist. I think I kind of hope that will happen to me. I was, or so I thought I was, very interested in International Relations and all that fun stuff and was so excited for my World Politics class, yet it is one of my least favorite classes this semester. Who knows, it may just be because I'm not the biggest fan of the way my teacher presents the information, or maybe international relations just isn't really my thing.

I also enjoyed her spiel about how anywhere out of the United States, nobody gives up on a subject that they simply "aren't good at"- they just work harder. It's completely true though. Even if they do excel in a subject, they are still the hardest workers I have ever met. In my high school, a student from the Ukraine was on exchange for the year, and I was amazed by the amount of work and effort he put into his school work.

However, I did not like how she kept saying how smart she was or how prestigious and smart the college she attended was. And it wasn't even that she said it only one or two times- she repeatedly said it throughout the hour and fifteen minutes she was speaking. Maybe she was just trying to show us that she knew what she was talking about with her fancy college education, but I wouldn't have questioned her credibility about what she was talking about with a liberal arts education if she went to Harvard or a community college.

On a side note, at the pizza party, it was asked which book was made into the best movie adaptation. Now, I am the worst at thinking of answers on the spot, so it took me a while to think about it and come up with an answer. Even though there a lot of excellent adaptations, I would have to say that The Boy in the Striped Pajamas takes the cake. Even though it is a very easy read (I finished it in a day), the subject matter is depressing. It's about a family during World War II whose father is a Nazi officer. Although the main character, a little boy named Bruno, does not realize it, the family has moved to right outside the Auschwitz prison camp where the father now works. A true boy, Bruno defies his parents and explores beyond the family property where he meets a "boy in the striped pajamas." However, Bruno is too young to understand why the boy is behind a fence, and I won't give away the ending, but trust me, it's sad. Since I was such a big fan of the book, I was kind of nervous to see how the movie would turn out, but I was more than pleasantly surprised. It kept almost perfectly with the book, which in this case I feel like is a good thing because it was not an extremely complex and intricate story to tell. And if anything, I felt that the movie was sadder than the book. My sister and I were both bawling when we saw it, but then again, that may just be Hollywood feeding on human emotions with dramatic music. Or it may be that actually visualizing something taking place on screen has a much bigger impact than picturing it in your head while reading. Either way, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is one of the best book/movie combos out today.