The book I read is called “Friedrich,” by Hans Peter Richter. The story takes place in Germany from 1929 to 1942, as Hitler comes to power. Friedrich Schneider is a Jewish child and is the main character of the book. The story is told by Friedrich’s non-Jewish friend who lives across the hall in the same apartment as him. Another important character is Herr Resch, the landlord. When the story begins the boys are four years old and interact for the first time as Friedrich brings toys to the narrator’s house. At the time, Friedrich’s family was much more wealthy primarily because his father was employed, unlike the narrator’s father. The two families are very close and go on different adventures together that all symbolize the difference in …show more content…
His father gets fired from the few jobs he was able to get, and their home gets ransacked by a group of people that the narrator sees a few chapters earlier on. The Schneider’s have nothing at this point and their mother becomes sick and ends up dying. The narrator and his family try to help out without being caught, but there isn’t much they can do. As the book comes to an end, there is an air raid. German civilians all ran to the public bunker where they would be safe, while Friedrich is forced to stay in his house. The helpless boy begs to get into the bunker, but is denied by Herr Resch. The narrator’s family comes back to find Friedrich passed out in the front yard of the apartments. Herr Resch never liked Friedrich, and ends up killing him in his sleep on the last page of the book saying, “His luck that he died this …show more content…
I do enjoy how the author chose to tell the story from the point of view of two children, which really allowed me to imagine what it would be like to live during these times. Another thing I liked was how the author used unique situations to portray the differences between the two families. In the beginning, the Schneiders were living comfortably and had to help out the narrator’s family, but that completely changed as the story progressed. I thought the author did a great job of bringing emotions into the story. Many times during the story a character begins to cry for whatever reason, and the author uses good descriptive language to really show us what’s going on. This descriptive language is used in all aspects of the story, like when Friedrich showed up to the narrator’s living quarters starving and filthy before the air raid. Every chapter of the book was a different event, and it had the year in which it occurred in parentheses next to the title. Even with this, it was difficult at times to figure out how old the boys were during each part of the story. I personally think the story should have had more details and more events. I would’ve liked to see the story progress a little slower, with a little bit more detail about the characters lives. In general, I think this book exceeded my expectations of a 138 page
In Night, Rabbi Eliahu and his son marched together from the concentration camp in Buna to a different camp in Buchenwald. When they marched to Buchenwald, the son “...had seen [Rabbi Eliahu] losing ground...he had continued to run in front, letting the distance between them become greater” (Wiesel 91). When Rabbi Eliahu’s son sees him fall while marching, the son continues to march forward and leaves his father behind. The son upheld the idea that in dire situations, he must abandon everything except for the instinct to survive. Harsh and dangerous conditions are able to determine affect one's outlook on life as well as their priorities. In The Last Days, Irene Zisblatt witnesses the brutal beating of a small child as his head was bashed against the side of a truck by a SS officer until the blunt force trauma caused the young child to die (Moll). The trauma from seeing the small boy being abused to death traumatizes Irene which prompts her into losing her faith in God. As Irene notices the cruel atrocities taking place around her, she questions whether God is really there for the innocent Jewish people if he does not try to stop such horrible events taking place. The suffering that occurs in Irene’s surroundings cause her to lose her faith in her religion as well as in humanity. People’s perspective may change when they are faced with new or difficult
The heavily proclaimed novel “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak is a great story that can help you understand what living in Nazi Germany was like. Throughout the story, the main character, Liesel goes through many hardships to cope with a new life in a new town and to come to the recognition of what the Nazi party is. Liesel was given up for adoption after her mother gave her away to a new family, who seemed harsh at first, but ended up being the people who taught her all the things she needed to know. Life with the new family didn’t start off good, but the came to love them and her new friend, Rudy. As the book carried along, it was revealed that the Hubermanns were not Nazi supporters, and even took in a Jew and hid him in their basement later on in the book. Liesel became great friends with the Jew living in her basement, Max, who shared many similarities which helped form their relationship. Both of
Karl Stern is an artistic, lanky, beat up, Jewish fourteen year-old boy whose only refuge is drawing cartoons for his younger sister and himself. All that changes in an instant when he meets the boxer, Max Schmeling in his father’s art gallery. In exchange for a painting, Karl will receive lessons from the world renowned fighter and national German hero. Suddenly he has a purpose: train to become a boxing legend. As the years go by and he gets stronger, both physically and emotionally, so does the hatred for the Jews in Germany. This new generation of anti-Semitism starts when Karl gets expelled from school and grows until his family is forced to live in Mr. Stern’s gallery. Though the Stern’s have never set foot into a synagogue and do not consider themselves “Jewish”, they are still subjects to this kind of anti-Semitism. They try to make the best of it, but Karl can see how much it affects his family. His mother is getting moodier by the day, his sister, Hildy, hates herself because of her dark hair and “Jewish” nose and his father is printing illegal documents for some secret buyers. On Kristallnacht the gallery is broken into and the family is torn apart. Karl must now comfort his sister and search for his injured father and his mother. With the help of some of exceptional people, he manages to get over these many obstacles and make his way to America.
These kids grow up in the ghetto without a choice of moving somewhere else because of their parents low income, they live in a tough neighborhood and environment & reading this really touches you in many ways. Nobody will ever want to go through something like they did, Parts of the book tell you so much detail that it really puts an image through your head. The book entries mostly talk about the lives of the characters outside of school, The characters also describe the action of their diaries well and they present that action well in the movie.
She has two brother and is attending church for the first time in a while. In the beginning Cisneros gives the reader a peak of her family history. She calls her grandmother awful grandmother because she is strict and religious. It is the end of the service and you can see how the young girl's brother were mocking the female gender. The kind of family represented here is one where everyone is going through something, and the backbone of the family. You can see the common sibling rivalry. In my opinion some good affects with this a little tight and close knit family. The grandmother. Another good thing that they went to church. Also towards the end of the story the children can are behaving much better. I feel that the some of the internal struggles included the constant back and forth with the brought. I feel that this struggle got resolved at the end of the story when the children were outside and were given candy. They were all in a way kind to one another outside by the market in front of the
Finally, he shouted, in the clearest, most confident voice he could muster, the two words that he practiced over and over since his arrival at the Berghof. ‘Heil Hitler!”. Pierrot Fischer was a simple child before he arrived at the Berghof. He had a caring mother, a dog, and a best friend. But when he got there he changed. This book starts off in France after World war 1. Pierrot’s father was German who came over to France because he loved Pierrot’s mother. Soon the father passes away and so does Pierrot’s mother too. Pierrot is sent away to live with his aunt in Germany, who works for Adolf Hitler as a maid. When Pierrot gets there his life changes in multiple ways that he can't even comprehend what’s happening. What is the book called and
Buergenthal, Thomas. A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy. New York: Little, Brown, 2009.
This trimester I read a story called Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli. The story was based around the time of Hitler's reign over Germany. Orphaned at an early age, the main character eventually accepts the identity that his friend, Uri, gives him. Unclear as to whether he is a Gypsy, a “Filthy son of Abraham”(pg.138) or a boy named "Stopthief”(pg.2), he suddenly becomes Misha Pilsudski. While stealing food he meets a young girl named Jianina and eventually befriends her. When Jianina and her family is sent off to the Jewish Ghetto, Misha follows. However, soon after they begin to deport Jews and Misha’s makeshift family is eventually taken away leaving Misha and Jianina alone and searching for them. Jianina goes off on her own at some point and
Then his father is arrested and later sent to an unknown place. After losing his father, his mother dies. After he has no parents and no one that will take him, he becomes an orphan. At the end Friedrich dies. All Friedrich wanted was to have a friend to play and have fun with
Was the book well-written and easy to read, or was it difficult to get through?
It was a long book; however, an easy read and it did flow together very nicely. However, the book was not my “cup of tea”, it did contain a lot of super interesting parts to me personally. To be whole-heartedly honest, I tend to like fiction books like J.R.R Tolkien stories; I am also a sucker for love stories, specifically Jane Austen as well. Additionally, I was upset by the anticlimactic part at the end where Lowry really was unable to make a difference. The Lost Children of the Wilder says that society’s treatment of children can be very poor; however, a lot of times children need the voice of child advocates to give them a voice—especially those more vulnerable children. The social institutions specifically were very poor to the children. I think that often, similar to the story, some adults often forget to put the child first. For example some of the social institutions just assumed things about children and did not really consider other options. Furthermore, some of the most palpable moments for me included Shirley’s experiences at the training School for Girls; specifically with the group of lesbians she was involved with, like her initiation and such. I also was just beside myself when Shirley had her son Lamont and later when it came full circle and Lamont had impregnated his ex-girlfriend. Overall, the book was a good book and I would recommend it to other CHAD certificate or
I found the book to be easy, exciting reading because the story line was very realistic and easily relatable. This book flowed for me to a point when, at times, it was difficult to put down. Several scenes pleasantly caught me off guard and some were extremely hilarious, namely, the visit to Martha Oldcrow. I found myself really fond of the char...
5. The characters and the conflicts are believable. During this time in Germany, the main conflict was Nazi vs. Jews, like in the book. But some Germans, like Hans and Rosa, help the Jews by hiding them and providing them with food and water. On the contrary, Nazi’s despised Jews.
In a sense, I wasn’t surprised that they moved from place to place because they wanted to do everything that they could to help their daughter. I’d like to think that if I was in their shoes, I would have done the same. I felt sympathetic towards the parents because every time they would get more information, they felt like it was more and more their fault and internalized what was happening with their daughter. I also found it moving how honest Robert was about his frustrations when dealing with his everyday challenges with Schuyler. I don’t think it portrayed him in a bad light but in a realistic and truthful way, which I find respectable.
The text in question is “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas”. The Author of the text is John Boyne and it was published in 2006. The novel gives the reader insight into the German Holocaust and persecution of the Jews. John Boyne uses Irony for deliberate effect to position the reader to reflect on their senselessness of discrimination and its devastating consequences.