Left to Tell by Immaculée Ilibagiza and Hotel Rwanda Directed by Terri George

The war also changed Paul by hampering his ability to communicate with the people on the home front. Paul learns that it is hard to communicate with them when he visits his hometown. He realizes that people have no clue how bad war really is especially his own mother. "Suddenly my mother seizes hold of my hand and asks falteringly: Was it very bad out there, Paul?(143)" He did not know what to say so he lied to her and said that it was not so bad. Paul could not believe said that. Of course the war was bad, anything is bad when people are dying. He sees that the gap between him and society is getting bigger especially with his mother. Also Paul has no way to describe his experiences, he can not put them into words because the experiences were so horrible

Hotel Rwanda tackles a recent event in history where the Hutu extremists of Rwanda initiated a terrifying campaign of genocide, massacring approximately

“I wanted to see my family, even if it meant dying with them,” (Beah 96), he thinks when he is just moments too late. Throughout most of All Quiet on the Western Front, however, Paul’s family is mostly his comrades. He loves his mom, dad and sister back home, but they have no way of understanding him like his fellow soldiers do. Comradeship is gives Paul much of his strength. “But by far the most important result was that it awakened in us a strong, practical sense of esprit de corps, which in the field developed into the finest thing that arose out of the war--comradeship,” (Remarque 27). Ishmael’s idea of family changes several times however. His family first is his mother, father, brother, Junior, and grandparents. His corporal would later use this as motivation for the soldiers. “Over and over in our training he would say that same sentence: Visualize the enemy, the rebels who killed your parents, your family, and those who are responsible for everything that has happened to you,” (Beah 112), Ishmael explains. After losing his immediate family, Beah’s family is his friends. Later while he is soldier, he says, “My squad was my family, my gun was my provider and protector, and my rule was to kill or be killed,” (Beah 126). Thankfully though, after escaping to New York, Laura becomes Beah’s mom and he has a chance at a happy life once

Terry Georges film Hotel Rwanda focuses deeply into the life of Paul Rusesabagina, of whom Is also identified as the hotel manager who saved the lives of 1200 Tutsis and Tutsi supporters. It sparks awareness to the 1994 massacre that was carried out by the Hutu rebels in Rwanda. The film allows viewers to engage in the issue through its emotional and intense screenplay. New York Times critic Stephen Holding brands Hotel Rwanda on the entertainment aspect of violence and emotions, but ignores the true human nature of the Rwandan Genocide.

They are engaged in deep conversation all night even though they speak only broken French. Paul’s conscious tells us, “How different this is from the conditions in the soldiers’ brothels… then I feel the lips of the little brunette and press myself against them… for a moment, my life depends on winning her.” (7. 150) All that Paul really yearns for is to regain his innocence, to be that young innocent schoolboy again. He wants to return to the time before the war, when he still had hope and promise of becoming a writer or

“Left to Tell” is a real life story of a survivor of the Rwanda genocide. The author of this book, Immaculee Ilibagiza, who survived the genocide describes in this book the fear and suffering she went through. Ilibagiza is a Tutsi and born in Rwanda. During the genocide she and seven others managed to survive hidden for ninety-one days in a cramped tiny bathroom, no larger than four feet long and three feet wide (pg. 73). The bathroom was hidden behind a wardrobe in Pastor Murinzi’s home, who was a Hutu. During those horrible days that she was hidden, she lost most of her family who were murdered by the Hutu majority. Although, the Hutu Interahamwe searched and searched for her, there was no success. Ilibagiza survived the genocide and throughout

I chose to write about the Rwandan Genocide, because I remember vividly the news accounts that broadcast images of its ravages during the 1990s. The conflict was identified as an ethnic conflict with very little context provided. Like most Western observers lacking knowledge of the history of the region, I saw the conflict as both complex and senseless. The course chapter on the Rwandan Genocide was very especially informative, and inspired my further study on the topic.

The genocide in Rwanda is representative of one of the most horrendous and unnecessary losses to life in recent world history. Rwanda’s crisis is a historical product, not a biological fatality or a ‘spontaneous’ bestial outburst. Both the Tutsi and the Hutu, were not predestined for all eternity to disembowel one another because the taller and thinner of the two came from Egypt, while the shorter stockier ones were born in the shores of Lake Kivu. This genocide has a history filled with complex roots, many contradictions, and brutal twists of fates, sudden accelerations, and periods of spiritual collapse. Hence, the aim of this paper is to examine, the Rwandan genocide’s impact on the lived experiences of the children and youths present

His wife who name is Tatiana Rusesabagina is a Tutsi. How is it that these two opposites attract against the odd to form a family? I guess you could call it love. It is one of the most powerful weapons during this controversial time in the city of Rwanda. It’s no secret that though this city there is a war between the Tutsi and the Hutu, but amongst those there are the innocent bystanders who just want to everyone to live in peace and get along. But there is no love in war apparently because in one night Paul’s life is flipped upside down. One night the Hutu starts to destroy Tutsi homes, and the next morning he finds himself with over a hundred refugees in his living room begging for help. With Paul being the kind and loving man he is, he takes on the challenge and tries to help them. Then all of a sudden the Hutu come and takes all of them away. Luckily, Paul manages to negate with them and gets all one hundred of the people into safety. Their homes are all destroyed, so Paul decided to put them into the Hotel that he manages. Word soon gets out, and then Paul finds himself with over one thousand refugees in his building. Instead of choosing to flee and take his family away, Paul is determined to save all of these people that are counting

The film Hotel Rwanda was about how Paul Rusesabagina, a Hutu, who also owns a hotel called Hotel Des Mille Collines, was living a happy and normal life with his wife (who is a Tutsi) and three children until Hutu military forces initiate a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the tutsi minority, Paul was obligated to allow refugees to take shelter in his hotel. Paul struggles alone to protect the Tutsi refugees. The differences between the Hutus and the Tutsis, is the Hutus are poor people and the Tutsis are wealthier. My feelings of me watching the film was that I was sad and mad. I was sad because when Paul only had the choice to pick four people to not get shot and he of course chose his family, but it was still sad because there was all those other people. At the end the Paul told the guy that he can give him money, jewelry, etc, in exchange for all of them and he accepted the deal, so he ended up saving that group of families including his. It was also sad because the kids were watching people getting killed right in front of them. What was more sad is how some those people getting killed were the kids families members. I was mad because I didn't like to see the kids crying especially since all of this was going on when they didn’t deserve to go through this.

This week we had to read chapters two and three. Before I get into the reading I want to talk about Hotel Rwanda because that’s what we did on Monday. Hotel Rwanda is a movie about a hotel manager who takes in refugees during a war taking place in Rwanda. In class was my first time watching this movie and I thought it was very interesting. I think that Genocides is a big issue that should be discussed more often because of the affect it has on all different people. I think the thing that stuck out the most to me in the movie was the fact that they did not really care to help the people. It was so much they would to help them and I do not think that was fair. This movie sent a good message out about what these different countries go through

In history, we have learned about numerous gruesome disasters and events that have caused great pain to innocent people in society. Many lives have been taken, because of the presence of evil in the world. However, this evil will not erase the goodness of the leaders who sacrifice everything they have to help those in need. The film Hotel Rwanda demonstrates the conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi people, after the Rwandan President has been killed in a plane crash. One of the main characters is Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager, who could be considered a Christ figure do to his tremendous sacrifice, and pain that he endured. Hotel Rwanda is a film that is a strong paradigm of how goodness overtakes evil.

Midway through the narrative, Paul and the Second Company endure a bombardment before charging off to fight the French. In the heat of battle, he describes how they have “become wild beasts” who are protecting themselves from “annihilation” (6.54). Here, Paul puts forth a straightforward report on how they have devolved from humans into savage beasts, fighting simply to survive, similar to the idea of men being innately animalistic, and how war brings that out. In history textbooks, wars are regimented, having strict starts and ends, along with clearly defined sides; however, Remarque knows this to be false, and shows that Paul does not see allies and enemies, simply another person, culminating in a crazed bloodbath in which each human being is simply trying to live to fight another day. By the end of the novel, which coincides with the end of the war, Paul ruminates about how the past four years of bloodshed, fighting, and horrors had affected him, since by this point, most of his comrades had died, further aggravating how he feels. He realizes that they “are little flames….against the storm of dissolution and madness” and that they

For my movie report I watched the the film on the Hotel Rwanda (2004), which follows the true-life story of the war in Rwanda between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes. When the Hutu tribe wants redemption from the Tutsi rule which left them in repression by the Belgiums, the Hutu’s create violent militas, war gangs, and set out to murder almost a million people in the length of this awful genocide that the UN restrained from becoming involved in. Once the assassination of the President Habyarimana occurs the political system corrupts. Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager of the Hotel des Mille Collines, provided shelter for over a thousand Tutsi refugees during their struggle against the Hutu Militia in Rwanda.

Hotel Rwanda is a film that made me cry many times throughout the film. This film most definitely goes to show how cruel many people in this world can be. This film is about the genocide in Rwanda where thousands of Tutsi’s were killed because they were being blamed for everything going wrong in the country. It appears that many people want someone to blame for their own losses and troubles so they will go as far as to attempt to murder a whole group of people.