Watch the Dr. Seuss cartoon posted to the blog. Post a thoughtful response to the movie on our blog. Your response should address your initial reactions to the film, what you think the film reveals about prejudice, who the star-bellies are in your community, school, etc..., and any other reactions/responses/connections you have to the story. How does this film connect to Anne Frank? Jim Crow Era? How does this story connect to the world we live in today? How might this film connect to the novel we have just finished and the play that we're currently reading?
I know we say that why would anyone do that. But it has happened before, and might happen again. Relating this to Anne Frank is hard because we did not actually read the diary. But relating this to the Holocaust is easy because in both although one was real world and the other well wasn't both still had discrimination. and one guy heading for just his own good
ReplyDeleteMy initial reaction was WOW!!! I didn't think that people would go through that much trouble to be "on top" but, now that I think about it, we do. The film was very prejudiced, but true! I guess the star bellies in our community would be like the popular crowd, or those that are always well known. Originally, the plain bellies wanted to be part of the incrowd and have bellies. Then the original star bellies wanted to be different, and got their stars removed. Everyone followed the original star bellies. They ended up wasting their money and time. At the end, they all became friends because their is no true difference between sneetches.
ReplyDeleteWe should learn from the sneetches and realize that there is no difference between people. Just because we look difference, our skin is a different color, or we speak differently doesn't mean that we're not human. During the Holocaust, the Nazis thought that they were better than the rest of the population because they were part of the Aryan race. But, ultimately they are just as human as the Jewish people. The African Americans were treated poorly because of their color during the Jim Crow era. It doesn't mean that they don't have feelings or that they're not human.
I guess that we could learn that we're all the same no matter what. No person is better than another. In The Wave everyone wanted to be a part of the exclusive society that was being set up, and they would do anything to be accepted. Similarly, the plain bellied sneetches wasted their money in trying to be accepted into the community. Eventually at the end everyone came to a compromise and starting accepting each other for who they were.
this story is very predjudice as the sneetches with stars upon thars were snooty and segregated the other sneetches. one man made money off these feelings of hate and taught them a lesson and the sneetches lived happily.
ReplyDeletethe star bellies are the popular kids who exclude all others or that secret club. it is the thing everyone wants to be in but can very seldom do. anne frank is about the holocaust which segregated the jewish community and then when it was over it was a lesson to all. the same with jim crow laws, they excluded black people and eventually learned that it was wrong to exclude people from life. people have many prejudice and sterotypes about races today and its unfair to do that because many people go aganist those sterotypes.
This short film was really fun with all the songs and dances with the marshmellows. After watching the video, I realized that people really will do what ever they can for to be at the top. In our school, the star-bellied people would be people focused on their popularity and their social life. The non-star-bellied people would be the people that focus on academics and getting good grades. All people have one thing in common, and that is that we are all human. Even though some of us may be Jewish or have dark skin, they are still human. We need to notice the similarities we have with each other rather than our differences. While some Sneetches had stars and others didn't, they were still all sneetches.
ReplyDeleteThis short video relates to Anne Frank because her family represented the group of sneetches that didn't have stars to begin with. They were discriminated by the sneetches just like Anne's family was discriminated by their own net door neighbors and other people in their community. The people in The Wave discriminated people that weren't in the group and even beat people up.
My initial reaction was surprised because i didn't realize people (in this case Sneetches) would go through so much trouble and money just to be the best out of everyone else. The Sneetches can be realted to tragic events in history that can occur in the past. For example, take the Holocaust. Jews were treated so badly because Hitler thought they were a disgrace to the perfect Arian race Hitler was trying to create. Going on a much smaller scale, the same situation that happens with the star bellie sneetches and the normal sneetches happens here at middle school as well. Everyone wants to be popular and be the best at school and people try very hard and do whatever they can to succeed. In the wave, people wanted to form a group that made sure everyone was treated equally, but instead the whole thing went to far and had a negative effect.
ReplyDeleteI really think that people should start treating everyone else equally. Everybody has their own rights and they should be respected. Think about this. How would you like it if someone treated you very badly just because you weren't exactly like them...?
This video relates to Anne Frank and the Jim crow Laws because of the segregation. People might see another person as an inferior, though we are all the same. Hitler segregated all of the Jews from the rest of the German population. Unfortunately, today, segregation like what was seen in the video, still happens today. Whites and blacks discriminate against each other. Most people don't want to admit this, but we all have an opinion about each race we see. I am sorry to say that I have opinions like this too. Probably most people I know would have an opinion on another race. We have opinions on the way people act in every day life as well. We give different epople titles according to our biased opinion on their personality. People could be labeled as a jock, prep, nerd/geek, goth... I could go on. That is what like this video shows. In the beginning, the sneetches without stars were the lower-class, the cast-outs, the nobodies. However, the sneetches WITH stars were the upper-class, the important ones, the best of the best. With the Holocaust, the Jews were like the sneetches without stars. Almost everyone else were the star-bellied sneetches. The Jim Crow laws do this as well, but with black and white.
ReplyDeleteI thought this movie was a really good example of how stuck up, difficult, and prejudiced people can be at times. The star-bellied sneeches thought they were better then sneeches without stars, just because of one small difference in appearance. The star-bellied sneeches in our school would be kids who feel like they're better than some other people at school because they might be more popular or better-looking.
ReplyDeleteThe film would relate to Anne Frank because the Jewish people would be the plain-bellied sneeches, and the Aryan race would be the star-bellied sneeches. It also connects to blacks and whites during the Jim Crow law era, because in this case, the black people would be the plain-bellied sneeches and the white people would be the star-bellied sneeches.
The movie can also connect to the world we live in today, because although we don't have segregation or anything like that anymore, there are still some people out there who are very racially and/or religiously prejudiced, like the KKK. This movie could connect to a ton of different things. One more is The Wave, because people in The Wave were supposedly better than people not in The Wave.
My Reaction: Expected and Seemingly Interesting.
ReplyDeleteI say this is my reaction, because growing up this story read to me numerous times and has always been a childhood classic of mine. Until now, I never really realized the prejudice meaning surrounding the book. I find it to be seemingly interesting, because young children enjoy this kind of story and Dr. Seuss used his popularity to teach youngsters the importance of acceptance and to not be prejudice.
In today’s society:
I believe the star-bellied Sneetches are the celebrities, like Lindsay Lohan and Justin Bieber. Sometimes celebrities come to the realization that being in the spotlight isn’t really that great. People often celebrate superstars and dream of being one of them, but like in the story the aspects of being top-notch doesn’t crack up to be that as great as it seems. Lindsay Lohan is often in the spotlight for her wrong doing so now her status as a star is infamous instead of its counterpart, famous and celebrated. Justin Bieber’s status is often knocked down by “non-Beliebers.” The star on the Sneetches is the equivalent to a celebrity’s status. In our society Mr. Sylvester McMonkey McBean is the paparazzi and photographers. They make stars famous and can take it away just by not taking photos of you and putting your pictures in top magazines. “He” can make you both famous and infamous, all at once.
Anne Frank and the Holocaust:
In relation to Anne Frank and the Holocaust, the representation of the star is very much the opposite. In the story, the mark of a star was celebrated and those who received the honor of being born with it were very much conceited. During the Holocaust, those who wore the star patch were looked down upon. The star in the story was celebrated, but during the Holocaust they were looked down upon. The Mr. Sylvester McMonkey McBean of the Holocaust is Adolf Hitler.
Prejudice in America and the Jim Crow Era:
In comparison to American history, the
Sneetches without stars are the Native American and African Americans. Those with stars are the European Americans. The Mr. Sylvester McMonkey McBean is all of the ablolitiontist that worked to take the power out of slavery. The conflict still hasn’t been solved so for America, the story hasn’t ended just yet.
The film, The Sneetches, based on the children’s storybook by the celebrated Dr. Seuss, is a perfect example of a classic allegory. When watching this film from the point of view of a five-year-old child, we might think that the morals seen here are “Be yourself,” and “Don’t try to act like someone you’re not just for popularity.” But really, is there more?
ReplyDeleteMy initial reaction to the film was “Seriously?” However, if you think about it, we see things like this (usually at a less extreme level) in our everyday lives. I wouldn’t have thought that the plain bellied sneetches would try so hard just to be accepted by the star bellied sneetches. Here’s an example of how this same type of thing occurs even at school.
When sixth graders first come to middle school, they are all wearing the same clothes and doing the same things they did in their carefree, beautiful lives as elementary school children. As time goes on, by second quarter or so, you begin to see drastic differences in all of those sixth graders. They begin to do things that are labeled as “cool” to be accepted, and begin to lose their individuality.
The similarity is seen in the Holocaust also. The Nazi government had divided Germany’s citizens into two definitive groups: good and bad. The good side was made up of the people that fit the description of perfection that had been created by the government. The bad side included everyone else. The “inferior” race was shunned and sentenced to a terrible fate. In Anne Frank’s case, that terrible fate included a very unjust, early death. The same thing was seen during the Jim Crow era, when Americans were separated into black and white, and African Americans were labeled as the “inferior” race, when really, that is so untrue. In The Wave, we see the same exact thing, and you begin to think that history really does repeat itself.
Moving past the subject of biological racism and discrimination, I would also like to point out the character of Sylvester McMonkey McBean. His character really defines the old saying, “Two in fight, third takes the prize.” While the sneetches fight over which side is better, he rips them all off and leaves with all their money. I think McBean can be likened to the entire “self-betterment” industry. This includes, but is not limited to, fashion, cosmetics, plastic surgery, literature, etc. While everyone in the world tries to fit the image of perfection by using money, all those industries benefit from our foolishness, like McBean.
So I think that really, it does all come back down to “Be yourself,” and “Don’t try to act like someone you’re not.”
My initial reaction was surprised, because I couldn't believe that the Sneetches would go to so much trouble just to be part of the "in-crowd". This film displays prejudice because the star-bellied Sneetches thought they were better just because of one tiny difference in appearance. In the end, they finally realized that all the Sneetches were just the same and that star-bellied Sneetches weren't any different from plain-bellied Sneetches, and after a lot of confusion, they just accepted each other for who they were.
ReplyDeleteIn school, the star-bellied Sneetches are probably the popular group of people and the crowd that everyone wants to be a part of. This film relates to the Holocaust because Hitler believed that the Aryan race (Germans) were superior to the Jews, and he killed so many Jews just to get his point through that Aryans were better than Jews. During the Jim Crow Era, African-Americans were treated poorly compared to whites just because of the difference in skin color.
Today, in our community, there is still a lot of prejudice and discrimination against people of different race or skin color. In the novel we just read, "The Wave", the ones who didn't join the Wave were discriminated against just because they weren't part of the Wave, and some were even bullied and pressured into joining the Wave. This just shows that something like the Wave could still happen today. We should just accept each other, because we are all human beings and no matter what our race or skin color is, we are still all humans.
Dr. Seuss's stance on prejudice was that there isn't any point in it. In the cartoon the ending shows that there wasn't anything ever different between the star-bellied sneetches and the plain-bellied sneetches. Dr. Seuss is saying that even though people might think that others are inferior to them, it turns out that everyone is equal and nobody is superior.
ReplyDeleteAnne Frank:
This could be related to the World War II era by making the star-bellied sneetches represent the Jewish community. At first Jews are stereotypically richer and more successful, and the confusion of who is star-bellied and who isn't could be during World War II. In the end the Jewish community is redeemed and there isn't as much prejudice against them.
Jim Crow Era:
This analogy is pretty obvious, the plain-bellied sneetches are the African Americans, the star-bellied sneetches are representing the white community. Segregation was common and star bellied try to stay away from plain bellied people. In the end, the amount of segregation went down exponentially.
The Wave:
The star bellied are the the members of the Wave while the plain bellied are the nonmembers. The members of the Wave consider themselves superior to the others.
Olivia Zane
ReplyDeleteMy initial reaction to the film was that it was entertaining and very deep for a short children’s movie. The film reveals that prejudices are usually shallow and not true. The star-bellied sneetches believed they were superior to the plain-bellied sneetches due to something as shallow as a dinky green star. The star-bellies in our school/community could be either one of two groups in my opinion. First, the “in-crowd.” The kids who think they are better then others because they wear the “right” clothes and say the “right” things. This causes a lot of conformity in schools. On the opposite side of the spectrum though are hipsters. Hipsters look down on those who conform and believe they are superior. This causes some people to try really hard to be nonconformist leading them to miss out on things they would like. I feel that if the whole universe saw this movie the world be a lot happier and have less prejudice. I connect to this story because I at times have bouts of low self esteem about not being “cool.” This story has really changed my views on what is cool. Being cool is being you. This film connects with Anne Frank because the Germans decided that Jews and other minority groups were inferior and treated them in a ghastly major. This is an example of petty prejudice. During the Jim Crow Era anyone who was not Caucasian was seen as inferior and treated unfairly. This is another example of prejudice based on something trivial that shouldn’t affect your view of someone. As I stated before this issue of prejudice and elitism comes up from small communities such as a school to starting wars such as the one in Palestine and Israel. Plastic surgery shows people changing how they look to be stereotypically attractive. The film connects to The Wave because Wave members thought they were better than and mistreated non-wave members. In The Diary of Anne Frank, Anne and other Jews are treated like dirt because they are different. To discuss the McBean character I feel he is not a racist but instead the beauty industry benefiting from people’s insecurities. “The Sneetches” is a great film and allegory that teaches all people about discrimination, prejudice, and how wrong it is!
sorry about the late posting... last night it just wouldn't work. anyway, i thought the movie was a good representation of the text. Prejudice ruins our view of things. It's terrible, how we discriminate and segregate, and how we just go along with all kinds of stereotypes and generalizations that aren't true. I think the star bellied sneetches represent the richer people and the sneetches without stars represent the people that aren't as rich. we are all still people, and we all have our own differences and beliefs, though few people actually come to accept that. I think mcbean represents the good people have in their hearts, and teaches them a lesson that will change their lives. however, i don't think that taking all their money was nice, but the message that we aren't all that different still got across. Relating this to anne frank: Jews were discriminated because they were not considered to belong in the Aryan race. The Jews took the blame after WWI, though Germany's loss had nothing to do with them. The Nazis treated the Jews like they were scum and not human, much like the whites did to the blacks when we had the Jim Crow laws. Relating this to the wave: people who were not in the wave, or the "in crowd" were pressured constantly into joining and were shunned and looked down upon. People have choices, and we all need to respect that. we may not like their choices, but we do not have the power to control others' choices.
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