Suite Francaise

German Occupation of France
The German occupation of France in World War II occurred during the period between May 1940 and December 1944. An armistice was signedJune 22, 1940. Under its terms the north and west of France were occupied by the German Army, the remaining one third of the country was ruled by a French government.
The life of the French during the German occupation was marked, from the beginning, by endemic shortages. The armistice forced France to pay for the German troops, which ended up costing twenty million Francs per day. This resulted in a lack of food and raw materials for the French.
Also, there was obligatory work during the occupation. During the German occupation, the Obligatory Work Service (STO) consisted of requisitions and transfer of hundreds of thousands of French workers to Germany against their will, for the German war effort in work camps.

French Resistance
Although the majority of the occupied French did not take part in active resistance, many resisted passively through acts such as listening to the banned BBC, or giving collateral or material aid to Resistance members. Beginning in 1942, many refused to be drafted into the factories and farms of Germany by the STO organization, going underground to avoid imprisonment. The armed underground groups, known as the Maquis, fought against the Germans. After D-Day in June 1944, the French armed resistance groups sabotaged the railway lines, destroying bridges and providing general intelligence that was communicated directly to London via radio within hours.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_occupation_of_France_during_World_War_II

Quarter Two: Blog 10

This week, I finished Bee Season by Myla Goldberg. Throughout the book, the only thing Eliza wants is to be the person that other people want her to be. She strives for the acceptance of everyone around her when what she really needed was to accept herself. The day before the national spelling bee, Eliza couldn't wait to spell, but because she just wanted the hullabaloo of the bee and everything that came along with it to be over. Ever since she made the district bee, her brother Aaron grew further and further away from her. Her dad, who had always been distant, became closer to her and soon, her dad skipped afternoon guitar lessons with Aaron everyday so that he could work on preparing her for the bee. As much as she enjoyed the extra attention from her dad, she would have traded it if it meant that Aaron were her friend again. Eliza's mom saw Eliza spelling and tried to make Eliza become like herself as a little girl, but her attempts never proved fruitful and both were disappointed. Eliza has dealt with being the disappointment of her family ever since she didn't qualify for the accelerated class in third grade. So, after the national spelling bee, Eliza realized something about herself that she had never known before. Suddenly, she realized that she could count on herself and that she was happy with who she was and that she didn't need to be anyone else.

Quarter Two: Blog 9

Since Aaron feels neglected by his family, he decides to rebel against them- his father in particular. Aaron realizes that when he walks into synagogue he no longer feels like "a prince beholding the kingdom he's about to inherit" (82). He realizes that he didn't "shop around for religions," he "bought Judaism without consulting the side of the box" (79). So, in order to keep himself from a devastating realization that Judaism is not the religion for him later in life, Aaron decides to test out other religions.

The religion Aaron picks first is Christianity. He pages through the yellow pages and finds that there are many, many different types of churches. Roman Catholicism stuck out to him the most, so he picked a church in a nearby town and left the following Sunday. Aaron was paranoid about going to church the second he got into his car. He had to park his car in the parking lot of the strip mall next to the church so that no one would see his car in the church lot. When he sat down in the pew, he was terrified that someone would figure out he was a Jew and that he would be kicked out of the church. Instead of being reprimanded when he incorrectly anticipates a kneel as he feared, the woman next to him turned and warmly smiled at him. Aaron begins to believe that maybe, Christianity isn't completely wrong for him.

Quarter Two: Blog 8

Dear Miriam,
How could you have ignored your daughter for so long? I understand that when you were young, you excelled in school and that Eliza never has, but that doesn't mean that she is not your daughter. How is it possible to see your own daughter as "a gosling born into a family of ducks, loved and accepted, but always and forever a goose" (59)? After 10 years of being ignored, Eliza finally attracts your attention when she is spelling at the state bee. You realized that while she was spelling, so absorbed in the words that "not even a burning building could distract her," (59) she looked exactly like you did as a child. A sour feeling hit you when you remembered how you learned to concentrate so diligently; "such powers of concentration come from years of being alone, of needing to focus so strongly on one thing because there is nothing else" (59). By keeping your distance from Eliza, you made her exactly like you as a child: a lonely outsider. So Miriam, how are you going to make her feel included and loved? What kind of mother doesn't include and love her daughter in the first place? You may not be a conventional mother, but I know that you love Eliza. So my advice to you is to show her how much she means you you because she doesn't know it yet.

Quarter Two: Blog 7

This Break, I read more of my book Bee Season by Myla Goldberg. In this section of the book, Eliza wins the state bee and begins studying for nationals. Her dad, Saul who suddenly wants to be with Eliza any second he can, offers to help her study. He takes her into his office, which Eliza has never stepped into because she wasn't allowed to, and shows her the corner he set up for them to study together. Eliza is ecstatic with all the attention her dad is giving her until she realizes that since Saul is so focused on Eliza, he stops paying attention to Aaron, her brother.

Usually, Saul and Aaron have a guitar session together after school in Saul's office. Although recently, because of Eliza's newfound spelling ability, Saul has been spending more time with Eliza and less with Aaron. Aaron, trying to be a good big brother, pretends that it doesn't bother him. In truth, Aaron feels rejected and he begins resenting his sisters success. When Saul announces to the congregation of their temple that Eliza won the district bee and is going to the state spelling bee, Aaron's quiet resentment builds and he stops talking to, looking at, and listening to his sister. The way he sees it, Saul loves Eliza more. Aaron had made the state science meet for a string of years, but his accomplishments were never acknowledged. So, although Eliza is going to the national spelling bee, her success is bittersweet because it means the loss of the already fading bond she shared with her brother.

Quarter Two: Blog 6

This week, I read more of my book, Bee Season by Myla Goldberg. In this section of the book, Eliza realizes that she only has four weeks to study for the spelling bee finals. At first, when she gets home from school, Eliza just sits on the couch and watches TV until dinner. Then, after constant both verbal and visual reminders from her father, Eliza begins to study, although she prefers to use the word "practice" because she associates "study" with a chore and being extremely bored. So, after school, Eliza locks herself in her room and practices spelling words. Saul approves Eliza's constant practicing and even offers to help her, but she enjoys the solitude that comes with spelling, so she refuses his help.

Whenever Eliza spells in the book, she closes her eyes to see the words and what she sees is vividly described to the reader. I find her visual images of the words very interesting. Sometimes, she sees each word in a different place, locked in her body, but she can get it out. "She pictures words lining her stomach, expanding with each stretch of her lungs, nestling in the chambers of her heart" (44). Other times, each letter is in the ocean. "When Eliza closes her eyes to spell, the inside of her head becomes an ocean of consonants and vowels, swirling and crashing in huge waves of letters until the word she wants begins to rise to the surface" (45). I think that it is very interesting that whenever Eliza spells a word, it appears in her head and she is able to spell directly from it.

Quarter 2: Blog 5

This week, I read more of Bee Season by Myla Goldberg. In this section, Eliza wins the district spelling bee and the reader learns more about Aaron's life, specifically his relationship with God. Eliza arrives at the district bee with Aaron (who sits in the back because he doesn't expect to stay long) and she suddenly realizes that she is under dressed and that she hasn't studied for the bee at all. She becomes nervous while she waits to walk on stage, but her fears vanish when she her first word appears in her head and she spells it correctly. Finally, Eliza wins the bee and receives her trophy, a enormous gold bee figurine. She returns home and greets her father and now that she is "a winner," she finally feels accepted by him.

One question I have about this section is: Why isn't Aaron proud of Eliza when she wins the district spelling bee? Aaron does very well in school and I would have thought that he would be happier that his little sister is finally being recognized for her intelligence. Also, Aaron is very close with Saul, their dad, and ever since Eliza had been skipped over for the TAG program at school, all Saul wanted was for Eliza to show everyone how smart she really is. This would lead me to believe that Aaron would be proud of Eliza too, but when Saul asked him about it, Aaron had to think about "what a good brother would say" to answer the question.