Journal

                        It was indeed a very very busy month. Right after the rowing fundraising activity, our TSA (Taiwanese Student Association) had another event coming up, and as officer, despite how busy I was, I still had to go helping out my Taiwanese fellas preparing the event. It was our Chinese New Year dinner! Our organization has been running this event every year. It is a tradition in Taiwan and China. In Taiwan and China, we have different version calender. It is usually a month before the Western calender; therefore, our new year eve is on February. And this time, we are hosting a dinner banquet that is open to everyone here. It was not an easy task to do. We had to find a place, make reservation, set up event page, contact catering restaurants, and get sponsorships. Among all these tedious works, the one I found most interesting is seeking for sponsorship. My friend and I went to every single restaurant and market that might be willing to sponsor us and nicely asked them if they are willing to support this event. To be honest, this was my first time doing this kind of thing. I was shy and nervous at first, but as my friend and I went to more restaurants, we started getting the feeling of how to successfully ask for sponsorship. It was a really precious experience. It not only helped our organization but also benefitted myself from gaining experience and prepared me to get ready for my future career.

Reading

            I want to continue my previous discussion about Never Shall I Forget. I really enjoy the poem, so I look deeper into the poem and try analyze the strategy and purpose of the poem regarding the author’s diction and word choice.

First and foremost, every word, carefully chosen by Elie Wiesel, significantly symbolizes something in his life in concentration camp. The term symbolization is the usage of symbol to represent or express one’s ideas or qualities. In Never Shall I Forget, many objects or name are used to present the author’s idea that Holocaust is unbearable and miserable. For instance, in the first line of the poem, the word “night” demonstrates the author’s vicissitude, trauma, and horror he endured at Auschwitz concentration camp. It was a long and terrible night for the author, as the author’s pain is permanent and harmful.  Also, in the second stanza, “Never shall I forget that smoke,” the word “smoke ” in this sentence symbolizes the souls and dreams of those innocent children who had been killed for no reason. They supposed to live on good lives and had some memorable childhood, but their lives were bereaved as the smoke slowly dispersed and eventually disappeared in the air. Moreover, “flames” in the third stanza stands for the author’s pain and horror; plus, “flames” also means those Nazi soldiers who put him into desperate condition, burning his life to nothing. After all, symbolism in this poem strongly and clearly shows the negative impression of Holocaust as a whole.