Deogratias
Deogratias Seminar Reflection
Alicia Armstrong
I found that the most interesting idea during the seminar was the debate Stephen and I had when Lori asked, “Who is most responsible for what happened to Venetia, Apollonaria, and Benina?” I quickly said “Julius!” but Stephen respectfully disagreed and I have to say he did make a great argument saying “well I think Julius was influenced by the propaganda that was coming from the radio, and the propaganda only got there because of the Belgians, white people, separating the two groups and making the Tutsi superior.” I have to say he is right but as Ayianna respectfully reminded the group that “ the question was not who was responsible for the genocide, it was who is responsible for these three characters.” Listening to everyone debate on who was right between Stephen and I, I must say Stephen really did change my thinking, not my answer, but my thoughts. You see while reading this graphic novel I particularly didn’t like Julius and I felt like he was the main character controlling Deogratias, but what didn’t occur to me is that he, himself was also being controlled but by a more powerful source something that no human can truly explain, and the closest answer we have come up with so far is that its in our human nature. Julius was one of the many people just going along with everyone else, who can actually say that he didn’t feel terrible for what he did and that he is just a stupid, ignorant, weak man. Chances are everyone who went along and participated in the genocide new it was wrong and felt terrible for the victims, but they were victims themselves, I think that Julius only did what he did because like so many of us to stand up against our own kind is really hard and can mean life or death and the easy thing to do is to just go with the flow…
I actually the seminar went well, everyone got a chance to talk some more than others, but overall we stayed on topic except for Johnathan’s unique idea of relating the graphic novel to star wars, which was a big fail and only confused us more, but other than that I think we all deserve an A!