Research Project topic

For my research project i was thinking about writing about the psychological aspects of war. Using that as a lense i would talk about Anne Frank's diary and other victims of the holocoust or war in general, depending on what i find to talk about de-humanization. Just basically the process in which they break down an individual little by little. So like in Hitler's case he started off in small things such as making jewish people wear the stars and then, drastically to shaving their heads.. etc.. to totally break down the individual.. I indend to explore this by using examples from autobiographies of women who have been in these situations... And using psychological data to re-inforce how these methods work.

Coming of age in Mississippi

In Ann Moody's autobiography, Comming of age in Mississipi she talks about what it was like to grow up in a segregated community. From a young age she saw violence towards black people, her friends from school getting beat up, and people murdered. When she grows up and is in college she becomes part of the NAACP which was an anti-segregation movement. She participated in a sit-in at the Woolworth's lunch counter and just because they were asking to be served on the front counter it caused a huge riot. I thought that this was the most interesting part of the excerpt because it describes her and the people she was at the sit-in with getting hit, being pulled by the hair, having food thrown on them, and all of this as the police watched. They would not go inside and escort them out until the manager asked them to. Their endurance to the torture to prove their point was incredible. That specific point of the story remminded me of when Hayslip was being tortured in My Thi. Although completely different because Hayslip was there against her will and Moody was enduring it because she felt she needed to prove a point, both women never caved in. This got me thinking about human strengh, and almost how mind over matter allows many people to get through tough situations. Hayslip stood for a whole day under the hot sun with ants biting her and although she could have perhaps just given some names to possibly get out of that position, she didnt. At the same time Moody knew that things were wrong the way that they were done, and at her personal expense sat there while the boys tried to put the ropes as noose's around her neck. Both women demostrated such strong self control, Hayslip even says about the ants "i had no one to impress with my self control". Im thinking as a possibility for my 2nd writing assignment to write about the human mental strengh, and compare and contrast Moody and Hayslip's experiences to show examples of this.

blogs by women

The blog that i chose to follow during the semester is called "the lost girls". This blog is written by three friends from New York, who quit their jobs to just travel the world for a year. They started in South America, made their way to Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia.
I just this blog out of pure envy. I think that it is great that they had the drive and ambition and were fearless enough to just stop their lives while they were young to just go out there and really live it. I think that it is also cool that they did it together as friends. It would be my dream to just stop my life and go out there and backpack the world, to see everything and experience all the great things. These girls took surfing lessons in Australia, learned Capoeira in Brasil, hiked through Peru. After a trip like this you can say that you really did live, and experienced what the world had to offer. They also didnt only pass by these different places, they made sure to live as much of the culture as possible while doing it and that is the ultimate learning experience.
The most interesting thing that i find about this is that they make this seem so possible. They said that none of them are "trust fund babies". They just decided that this is what they were going to do and followed through with it, saved up money and went. I find this really inspirational because who knows, maybe they will get me to do the same and live out what I can only fantasize about. Another really interesting thing is that on their blog it says that they won an award for "best group written travel blog". Which means that there are people who monitor this stuff and give awards out for it? This is all new to me.