Swing Kids By Robert Sean Leonard

The main character, a young, German man named Peter Muller, was very traumatized by what the Nazi's and Gestapo (the terrorist political police of the Nazi regime founded by Hermann Göring, whose purpose was to persecute all political opponents of the Nazi regime) did to his father. Over the course of the movie, Peter went through a change; he saw his father in a new light, and realized what really mattered in the world around him. Peter's father was a violinist and professor at the university. He spoke out against the expulsion of the Jewish professors and the entire Nazi movement. Because of this, one night, in the middle of dinner, he was taken away by the Gestapo. He was brought back home

Harlem Summer is a novel written by Walter Dean Myers. The story takes place in Harlem, New York in 1925 during the Harlem Renaissance. The author envelopes the reader into a rich African American culture of jazz musicians, poets, writers, Negro leaders, and surprisingly gangsters. Mark Purvis is a sixteen-year-old saxophonist. Mark resides with his parents and older brother. They live in the neighborhood with his idol, Fats Waller 's, sister - Edie. He has big dreams of becoming a famous jazz musician. When Fats offers Mark an opportunity to earn five dollars, he immediately accepts the job without any hesitation. Mark thought - why not? I can earn some money, and possibly become friends with Fats. With any luck, we will record an album together on Black Swan Records.

The 1993 film, Swing Kids, followed the lives of teenage boys; Peter, Thomas, and Arvid, during the tragic time of WWII. Throughout the movie we can see examples of a government that takes total centralized control over every aspect of public and private life; this is known as Totalitarianism. In the film, totalitarianism is portrayed through the characteristics of censorship and propaganda, and total loyalty.

The movie is mainly about a group of men going into war in order to fight for their motherland, “Germany”. The setting mainly takes place between the warfront and the camp where Paul Baumer, one of the main characters, stays.

Willie approaches the trio and says that he saw a swing kid getting beat up in an alley by an HJ. In this time period, HJ stood as slang for the word Hitlerjugend, and a swing kid was a kid that listened to American Jazz music, but the music was banned due to its African roots. The trio rush to help the swing kid because they themselves are swing kids and the trio do not the like HJ. They find out after fighting the HJ, that the kid was Jewish. The scene had displayed prejudice because the kid was Jewish, and the Hitler Youth were taught Hitler's extreme anti-Semitism. We have talked about this in class when learning about Hitler's rise to complete domination in Germany and when he had written the book, Mein Kampf, which was shown to and imposed on the public. Another example is in the swing club. Peter and Thomas are at a swing club when suddenly the HJ and the Gestapo appear to shut the club down. Peter and Thomas narrowly escape into the alley and escape getting caught there by the other HJs. They change the scene to the next morning, where a poster is put up that says “Swing is Neger-Kike Music” with the word “Verboten” which means forbidden. Properly

The movie was set in 1939 at Hamburg, Germany in Bismarck. Peter , Thomas , and Arvid, three innocent teenagers interested in the music as a common interest and became friends. There was a swing club, where Peter and Thomas enjoy dancing. Peter goes home and found his mother in an argument with a Nazi officer. Herr Knopp,head of the local Gestapo comes in and dismisses the officer. One day, at Arvid’s house, Thomas accidently scraped Arvid’s record, getting mad, Arvid told them to get out. Then, Peter and Thomas felt bad for Arvid so they decided to steal a radio from a bakery. The owner yelled and the HJ caught Peter and Thomas escaped. Herr Knopp, who likes Peter’s mother, sends him home but in return, Peter must join the HJ.Thomas, as a

Betrayal-is it right or wrong? Is it supporting your country, or turning against your friends? In Swing Kids, a movie directed by Thomas Carter, betrayal plays a big part of what affects the main characters and their decisions going forward. This coming-of-age movie takes place during the height of Nazi Rule, where three swing kids named Peter, Arvid, and Thomas try to avoid getting influenced by the Hitler Youth to become part of them, but as the movie continues, Thomas and Peter end up becoming HJs, and Thomas is fully committed whereas Peter is forced to be one-everyone is trying to find out where they belong. Arvid does end up committing suicide, and Thomas breaks away from the Swing Kids-but Peter is left torn between his two friends that

In the book Half Brother, by Kenneth Oppel, Ben Tomlin is a very thoughtful person because he is considerate, caring, friendly, and kindhearted. Ben Tomlin, the main character in the book, lives in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada with his mom, dad, and a chimpanzee, Zan. Some things about Ben is that he has curly hair, he likes to play Risk and pinball, and he does cross-country and photography. First of all, Ben is a thoughtful person because he is considerate of others, especially his friends and family. An example that proves this is can be found in Half Brother, by Kenneth Oppel on page 371, said by Ben. “I paused, because this part was hard to admit. ‘I didn’t love you at first, Zan. I thought you were weird, and I guess I was jealous, and sometimes I didn’t want you at all. But that didn’t last long. You were my little brother. I really felt that. That was never fake.’” This quote explains that even though Zan is a chimpanzee, Ben still loves him because he cares for him and wants what’s best for Zan, which is a family. Another time where Ben shows his thoughtfulness by being considerate of others is when he understands why Zan is being crazy. Even though Zan is fooling around and he can’t stop him, he is not mad at Zan because he knows that Zan is an animal after all, even though his family is raising him like a human. He knows that Zan is only having his temper tantrum and he knows that he can’t stop him because he is an animal, not a human. In Half Brother, by

The two brothers want to fight the Nazis like their father is doing in Africa but they’re obviously underage. The two brothers are home alone the majority of the time since their mom works at the munitions factory, this leads them to spend hours exploring the outdoors. Whilst they're playing make-believe war, the young boys step foot on a military base. They are confronted by soldiers who seem very secretive, the Braun siblings think that the military base is actually occupied by Nazis. This piqued their curiosity even more so they try to gain more intel, they start talking to Jack’s boss, the journalist and WWI ex-German soldier. After gaining more information about the Camp they decide to sneak into it. When they are laying on the floor they get caught by a soldier. The brothers are brought in the camp and they have to sign a contract to never disclose any information about Camp X. The boys meet to very important figures in the war, Big Bill and Little

In “Invisible Child,” a New York Times article written by Andrea Elliot, we follow a day in the life of a young African American girl, Dasani, growing up in New York City. However, instead of living in an “Empire State of Mind,” Dasani lives in the slums, growing up homeless with her two drug addicted parents and seven siblings. Dasani often finds herself taking care of her siblings, making sure they have enough to eat, tying shoelaces, changing diapers, getting them to the bus stop in time, and the list goes on. An 11 year old girl, essentially taking care of a whole family, as well as taking care of herself by going to school, receiving an education, and partaking in extra-curricular activities. Elliot captures the life and struggles of a family well under the poverty line, giving us an unprecedented look into what Dasani must do each day not just to grow up in New York City, but to survive.

In the film, “Swing Kids” a group of teens named Peter, Thomas and Arvid rebel against the Nazis by being swing kids, those that are involved swing music. Swing music was not tolerated by the Nazis in those times therefore making it such rebellious act. One day Thomas scrapes Arvid’s record and as a way to repay him, Thomas decides to steal a radio from a lady who owns a stolen Jewish radio. Peter and Thomas are both in the midst of stealing the radio when they are caught by German police. Thomas escapes, but Peter is caught, taken away and forced to join the Hitler Youth. Thomas joins the program alongside Peter but unlike Peter, he succumbs to the propaganda and is brainwashed. After Thomas continues to make fun and insult Arvid, Arvid lamentably commits suicide. Peter comes to a better grasp of

In the film swing kids, many ideologies affected the structure of society and took over the main course of the storyline. Nazism being one of them, loyalty played a significant part in the film. This film shows the story of 4 German boys, who are fascinated by swing dance, however, Nazism effects their affection for swing dancing and the loyalty they held for it and to each other starts to collapse as Nazism starts to consume their livelihood. At first, the characters, Peter, Thomas, and Arvid were committed to their friendship, by means doing anything for eachother. They were also committed to swing dancing, but later ended being committed to Nazism, which affected their friendship.

The film follows a young man by the name of Jakie Rabinowitz. He lives with his mother and father in the Jewish ghetto of the lower east side of Manhattan. Jakie is an only child

In the book Life is so Good, George Dawson and Richard Glaubman give a very rare representation of life in the early 1900s. George Dawson, a poor and illiterate black man tells life as it is through his experiences. These many life experiences are portrayed in new stories told chapter by chapter intrigue the reader of the book. This paper will review Dawson’s many stories and his perspective on life at the time, as well as the way his views and mindset compares to the philosophy of African Americans at this time.

Its unrelenting portrayal of irrational death and annihilation goes well beyond other German war films of the 1950s. Its vigilant proposition that at least some of the boys might be accountable for not only their own deaths but the others deaths as well, implying that the older German soldiers indubitably should have known better.