Orphan Train Post-Reading

     “The things that matter stay with you,seep into your skin”,this is the quote coming from a childhood full of awful memories. Yet she made it through. In this blog I will touch on the finer points of what we think she is trying to tell us and give examples from her own life and how she knew this at a young age.

    The girls name in this book is Vivian. Or that is what she goes by now. But when she was very young and not yet on the orphan train and still had her family her name was Niamh. She was born with that name and it stuck with her. She never forgot about it because it was meaningful so it seemed into her skin and once something does that, it is stuck there forever. It might be a good or bad experience. Then a family called the Byrnes adopted her. Mrs.Byrnes was very tight and American so she changed Niamh to Dorothy. Vivian calls this in the book her “American Name”. After that she went to another family when the depression started and they kept her name as Dorothy.

    As time went on living with the Grote’s(her new family) didn’t work out and she went to live with her teacher who found her a new family. These people were much nicer and gave her everything she needed and a little bit more. They were rich. Now these people had lost a daughter and her name was Vivian. This is how Dorothy became Vivian. The point of this story is to show you that even though you might think that she would forget these names she didn’t because they matter and will stay with her until the end.

    She also stayed with many people along the way throughout her life but there was one person she will never forget. She met Dutchy on the orphan train and remember him until the night in the Cities that she found him again. She remembered saying to him that she would find him and they did find each other. She also remembered the name of the people that took her in, even the Grote’s children’s names. She remembered them because without them her story would have been very different.

Human Nature Essay

“So God created humankind in his image,in the image of God he created them;male and female he created them.”-Genesis 1:27. I think humans are good because the quote above shows that were made in the image of God, of who which is good. So how are we good per say? Let’s take a look.

This year I was given the privilege of going to Washington D.C for the third time. As I researched for something different to see I stumbled across a place called the Newseum. They had an exhibit on the Berlin Wall which was what stuck out to me the most. After only a short period of convincing my parents gave in. The day we arrived my eyes went straight to something else. There was an entire room dedicated to photographers and newspaper writers that had died while taking picture or recording information during dangerous times. This shows the dedication us as humans have to our jobs. The photographers were simply spreading the word for what they believed everyone needed to know and got captured, tortured, or killed. Another example of this is in Night how so many Jewish and other Non-German people were killed. If they even showed signs of standing up for their religion, they would be shot on the spot. This is why people are good. We stand up for what we believe in.

    In the exhibit there was one photographer that stood above the rest. He was a simple man that had no idea what his pictures would mean. He was in 9/11 and had thought that he could make it and still get pictures. Probably two things were going across his mind. How he had to get people to know what was going on and how much praise he would get for getting those pictures done. Unfortunately he died in the dust cloud that the South Tower made when it collapsed. They found his wallet, his shoes and his camera. Only a few pictures were able to be saved. This shows that he left everything behind to get his job done.

    My second statement is proof that before we were even born,we were good. This is a direct quote from the Bible,Romans 5:1-5,”Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand;and we boast in out hope of sharing the glory of God.And not only that,but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” This quote lists all the things God blessed us with. With all that inside us we are good. God knew what he was doing. He knew that we would be tempted to do wrong so that is why before we could do anything wrong, he installed greatness in us. We are good from the core.

    Martin Luther is an example of a person know they were good and doing something about it. He used his gut reaction to do what is right to place the 99 thesis on the wall. He could have not looked deep down and found that but he didn’t because that is not what humans naturally do. We do what is right.

    We take our gut reaction and use it to make right choices. This is my last statement, our right choices. We know that deep down we are good. This thought gives us motivation to do what is right. We are good, and people do use it. In Lord of the Flies, Ralph used the motivation of knowing that he was a good guy to get himself through the tough times, like when Jack was hunting him down.   In Night, Elie didn’t steal his father’s bread even though everyone else was and he was extremely underweight and hungry. In biblical times especially during the Passover and the Last Supper, the disciples made the right choice of sticking by Jesus until Easter morning.

    In our present century there is a man that used his goodness to make a right choice. This man’s name was Welles Crowther. You might know him as the man in the red bandanna. There is a documentary about him. What this man did was while he was in the South Tower on 9/11 he saved 12 people. How did he do this? He shout to help anyone if you could and to follow him. They followed him down the stairs but instead of going with them, he went back up. He didn’t keep going to save himself, he went back to save others. He died when the South Tower collapsed. This story proves that humans are naturally, born, and are good.

    In conclusion humans are naturally good and we know it. We have seen, read, or heard about the great things people do. We can’t deny that people didn’t risk their life of others in 9/11. We can’t deny that God didn’t give us good life. How are we here then? We should proceed knowing that we are good people.

Pre-Reading Orphan Train

Pre-Reading Blog

Orphan Train

By:Abigail Breeggemann   

I am choosing to do my pre-reading on the difference between chance and fate. I can already feel that this book has a very powerful connection with the two words. However there is a major difference. Through this blog I will convince you that the difference between these words is great.

Let’s start with the word chance. A lot of people associate the word chance with gambling. That is true.  For example in a game of 5 card draw there is no way of telling what your cards are going to be. You could get really good cards or really bad cards.There is nothing you can do to change your cards. With fate,however, you can decide what your next “move” is. That is the big difference here. Fate is up to you, chance is not. Now fate is not always determined by you. But you actions can alter your fate. Fate is planned out but you can change it. For better or for worse. Another thing I would like to add is the actual definition of the word. The reason I am doing this is because everyone’s personal opinion could be different but the definition never changes. The actual definition of fate is(using Webster’s Collage Dictionary) “the power or agency supposed to determine the outcome of events before they occur;destiny”. The definition of chance is “the happening of events without apparent cause, or the apparent absence of cause or design;fortuity;luck”. The key word in there is luck. Unlike fate, no matter what you do you cannot change your “luck”.

Also note that most people think fate as unchangeable. Only in some rare situations is it actually not changeable. You control your life and that’s how I think this word applies to the book. The main character thinks that her life is going to be all bad. Then she meets the old woman and is told that her fate can change.

Going into that, I think the word chance comes up when the girls life first starts it is simply chance that she was born an Irish immigrant. Chance is not always a good thing. 

 In conclusion I hope I have shown you how these two words are different.