Has your skin ever tasted the scorching coldness to the point of actually flavoring death, has your stomach ever craved for even a gram of anything that can keep you alive, has your deep-down core ever been so disturbed by profound fear? No never, because the deep-freeze, starvation, and horror that Kolya and Lev experienced were far worse to the point of trauma. In the novel, City Of Thieves, author David Benioff describes the devastating and surreal situations and emotions that occurred to Benioff’s grandfather, Lev and Lev’s friend, Kolya, during WWII the Siege of Leningrad in Leningrad, Russia. Both Lev and Kolya share some similarities such as their knowledge of literature; even so, they are very contrastive individuals who oppose …show more content…
This is evident in the beginning when Lev refuses to escape to Vyazma with his mother and sister because he wants to serve as a hero in the war, “I fought with my mother… She wanted me to go with them… But I wasn’t leaving Piter. I was a man. I would defend my city…” (8). He reflects as a 17-year-old craving for the title of a hero, “I was seventeen, flooded with a belief in my own heroic destiny... I believed in the cause; I would not flee the enemy; I would not miss out on the triumph.” (9). Despite his severe desire to feel entitled to heroism, Lev recognizes that he does not feel remotely close to being a hero or stand as a heroic figure, “Heroes and fast sleepers, then, can switch off their thoughts when necessary. Cowards and insomniacs, my people, are plagued by babble on the brain.” (143). Benign of Lev’s journey, Lev is inclined to favor his own heroism and warrior-hero figure; however, amid his journey with Kolya, he concedes to his belief of non-fulfilling heroism and nonetheless fitting a cowardice …show more content…
Immediately upon Kolya’s and Lev’s journey, they confront cannibals in which they are able to overcome them and survive. Lev deliberates Kolya’s bravery and heroism that he yearns for and lingers on his belief of being a complete coward. ”Maybe his mind was more peaceful because he had reacted bravely, with strength and decisiveness, while I cowered on the dark staircase, waiting to be saved.” (64). As their odyssey progresses, Lev and Kolya rest at Sonya’s house -Kolya’s friend. Lev is seen struggling with sexual jealousy towards Kolya’s sexual affairs with Sonya, while he hasn’t had any sexual intimacy with anyone at all. “Sonya was lovely and kind, but her pleasure was awful to listen to—I wanted to be the one who could transport a pretty girl away from the siege with my cock.” (76). After their stay at Sonya’s house, Lev and Kolya encountered 2 girls and questioned them about the possibility of eggs, where the 2 girls are seen flirtatious towards Kolya in which Lev again refers to being jealous and feels complete injustice “A surge of envy rose in me again, that sense of injustice compounded with anger and self-loathing—why did they like him? The long-winded braggart! And why did I begrudge him their attention? I didn’t care about these girls, after all. Neither was remotely attractive to me...”
With time, tragedies become statistics. The lives lost culminate to numbers, percentages, and paragraphs in textbooks,and though a recognition of its occurrence becomes universal, an understanding of its severity dies with those who lived it. “Leningrad Cemetery, Winter of 1941” is a literary medium by which the nature of tragedy is transmitted. Set in the post-battle Leningrad, the poem encapsulates the desolation not of war and its aftermath. Paramount in this translation is figurative language. Olds’ use of simile and metaphor in “Leningrad Cemetery, Winter of 1941” allows the reader to understand the incomprehensible horrors of war and, through contrast, the value of life.
In this essay I will talk about The Book Thief Characters. The characters are Liesel, Rudy, And Max. I Will talk about how they are Influenced by society in This Book/Movie. I am going to three Paragraphs about these three characters. This essay is going to be a Compare and Contrast Essay.
The chaos and destruction that the Nazi’s are causing are not changing the lives of only Jews, but also the lives of citizens in other countries. Between Night by Elie Wiesel and The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom, comradeship, faith, strength, and people of visions are crucial to the survival of principle characters. Ironically, in both stories there is a foreseen future, that both seemed to be ignored.
The mood of Night is harder to interpret. Many different responses have occurred in readers after their perusal of this novel. Those that doubt the stories of the holocaust’s reality see Night as lies and propaganda designed to further the myth of the holocaust. Yet, for those people believing in the reality, the feelings proffered by the book are quite different. Many feel outrage at the extent of human maliciousness towards other humans. Others experience pity for the loss of family, friends, and self that is felt by the holocaust victims. Some encounter disgust as the realization occurs that if any one opportunity had been utilized the horror could of been avoided. Those missed moments such as fleeing when first warned by Moshe the Beadle, or unblocking the window when the Hungarian officer had come to warn them, would have saved lives and pain.
Following the beginning of the Second World War, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union would start what would become two of the worst genocides in world history. These totalitarian governments would “welcome” people all across Europe into a new domain. A domain in which they would learn, in the utmost tragic manner, the astonishing capabilities that mankind possesses. Nazis and Soviets gradually acquired the ability to wipe millions of people from the face of the Earth. Throughout the war they would continue to kill millions of people, from both their home country and Europe. This was an effort to rid the Earth of people seen as unfit to live in their ideal society. These atrocities often went unacknowledged and forgotten by the rest of the world, leaving little hope for those who suffered. Yet optimism was not completely dead in the hearts of the few and the strong. Reading Man is Wolf to Man: Surviving the Gulag by Janusz Bardach and Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi help one capture this vivid sense of resistance toward the brutality of the German concentration and Soviet work camps. Both Bardach and Levi provide a commendable account of their long nightmarish experience including the impact it had on their lives and the lives of others. The willingness to survive was what drove these two men to achieve their goals and prevent their oppressors from achieving theirs. Even after surviving the camps, their mission continued on in hopes of spreading their story and preventing any future occurrence of such tragic events. “To have endurance to survive what left millions dead and millions more shattered in spirit is heroic enough. To gather the strength from that experience for a life devoted to caring for oth...
In 1941, 15 year old Lina Vilkas, her mother Elena, and 10 year old brother Jonas are taken out of their comfortable home in Lithuania by the Soviet police (the NKVD) where they are thrown into train cars along with many others. Prior to the family’s situation, their father and husband has already been captured by the NKVD. These innocent passengers can’t figure out why they have all been arrested and why they are forced to be held under harsh, unsanitary and malignant conditions. The train departs and travels miles and miles away from their homes. Weeks will pass, then months before they reach the unknown destination. Lina often wonders if she will ever see her father again and how she will ever find him.
Surviving such a horrific environment requires that the narrator of This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, rely on either the fight, flight, or freeze trauma response. He is unable to fight such a substantial threat or flee such a well-guarded camp. Therefore, freezing, or detaching from his current situation, is his only hope. Freezing is a common response, when faced with insurmountable fear or trauma, even in society today. Through his unconscious detachment, the narrator creates an emotional barricade between himself and the horrors of the camp. Tadeusz Borowski uses the narrator’s unemotional tone and descriptions to illustrate the freeze trauma response.
The wind whistles by as he steps out on the snow. It crunches beneath his feet. He shudders. Its seventeen below outside and the sun isn't up yet. In the distance, men march and line up in fives. Guards circle the men as a beast circles its prey, with no forgiveness or mercy. He is in no mood to work, as his stomach still yurns for food and the thought that he still has to face a day's hardship filled with work, orders, and the harsh cold begins to set in his mind. Hope and any means of happiness are lost. He starts to walk out, trying to avoid any trouble, keeping his thoughts to himself; minding his own business. He reaches his place and stands appropriately in line, again, trying not to make any mistakes. He hears whispers and chatter all around. His eyes elevate from the ground searching the premises to see what's going on. The head guard ridiculously ordered the men to take off their jackets in the cold to be searched. With no say or power in this, the men accept their "orders" and reluctantly remove their warm outer covering; the only thing between them and the cold had to be removed. The day had just become even worse. Men like these were no ordinary men, but they were Zeks, prisoners of the gulag in Russia up in Siberia. A man, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, was capable of surviving this horror thanks to his civilized guidelines and his strenuous work habits; his ways earned him respect as an individual in a society full of other Zeks and as an individual who's part of a squad. His survival became inevitable.
“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed…“(Wiesel 32) Livia-Bitton Jackson wrote a novel based on her personal experience, I Have Lived a Thousand Years. Elli was a Holocaust victim and her only companion was her mother. Together they fought for hunger, mistreatment and more. By examining the themes carefully, the audience could comprehend how the author had a purpose when she wrote this novel. In addition, by seeing each theme, the audience could see what the author was attacking, and why. By illustrating a sense of the plight of millions of Holocaust victims, Livia-Bitton Jackson explores the powerful themes of one’s will to survive, faith, and racism.
Has your skin ever tasted the scorching coldness to the point of actually flavoring death, has your stomach ever craved for even a gram of anything that can keep you alive, has your deep-down core ever been so disturbed by profound fear? No never, because the deep-freeze, starvation, and horror that Kolya and Lev experienced were far worse to the point of trauma. In the novel, City Of Thieves, author David Benioff describes the devastating and surreal situations and emotions that occurred to Benioff’s grandfather, Lev and Lev’s friend, Kolya, during WWII the Siege of Leningrad in Leningrad, Russia. Both Lev and Kolya share some similarities such as their knowledge of literature; even so, they are very contrastive individuals who oppose in personal
Although at the end of each day, there was dinner, a time where each prison had a few scared minutes to himself, and was only concerned for himself. The significance of a piece of bread and a bit of kasha was extraordinary. This novel is living proof of the struggle of survival for prisoners in communist countries. It illustrates problems we all face in our everyday lives, especially cultural and religious conflict. It was published to awaken the world to the horrendous conditions Stalin put these prisoners in, and shows what kind of man he really was. The novel consists of cold hard facts about Stalin’s prisoner camps, and a story of courage and hope despite the conditions and odds.
He becomes less fearful as the story continues developing. Kolya and Lev attempt of fulfil the request of the colonel. The two must search for a dozen eggs and return them to the colonel for a wedding cake. As they journey on, they come across a couple who says that they have eggs in the apartment they own. Lev is forced to attack as the couple is discovered as cannibals. He is fearful, but he must take action anyway. Lev thinks, “The knife was in my hand before I realized I wanted it – something moved behind me and I wheeled and slashed, crying out, unable to form any words, throat constricted” (Benioff 59). Lev attempts to fight back against the cannibals even though he is afraid of being harmed or harming others. He must defend Kolya and himself. Through this action, he is attempting to overcome his fears. This connects to the literary device of irony. The reader expects Lev to flee the fight when the challenge arises. He does not attempt to escape, this is proof that he is overcoming his fears. As the story develops further, Lev begins to learn that he must defend what he loves. He must be able to stay and fight for those he cares about even when he finds it difficult to
If you were a German citizen during World War II, do you think you would be a Nazi? Most people would say no even though, in actuality, most people would be. It is because people need to succumb to societal expectations to survive in a society such as that of Germany during WWII and in the book, The Book Thief, this theme of individual versus society is explored with people complying and fighting social expectations. Sometimes people side with the Nazi Party out of fear of being targeted and other times fight against Nazi Party because of love for their family and fellow man with usually terrible consequences. In The Book Thief, the theme of the individual versus society is shown many times with characters conforming and defying social expectations.
World War II was a grave event in the twentieth century that affected millions. Two main concepts World War II is remembered for are the concentration camps and the marches. These marches and camps were deadly to many yet powerful to others. However, to most citizens near camps or marches, they were insignificant and often ignored. In The Book Thief, author Markus Zusak introduces marches and camps similar to Dachau to demonstrate how citizens of nearby communities were oblivious to the suffering in those camps during the Holocaust.
Lev doesn’t identify as a patriot or a defender of the city. He strives to become a hero, to triumph. Almost immediately, Lev and Kolya are thrown into a battle with a giant cannibal. Kolya represents what Lev aspires to be, a mature man. Lev is not yet mature enough to fight the giant like a man. He runs away as Kolya fights of the cannibals, even though he aspires to help. Immideatley after Lev escapes he thinks he “was betraying Kolya, deserting him when he was weaponless and [Lev] has a good knife,” (Benioff 60). Lev wishes to be the person that fights. He aspires to be the patriot he claims to be, but is reminded in this encounter that he is not mature. “I’m not a coward I know I looked like one back there, but I’m not,” said Lev as they continued their journey (Benioff 64). Lev wants to be brave. He doesn’t want to be a coward and is trying to convince himself that he isn’t. Lev repeatedly claims to be something he is not, in the hope that someday he will become it. The journey continues to be difficult as they struggle to find shelter in the cold, fail to travel in the right direction, get shot at in the house, and join the other captives in the Einsatzgruppe labor camp. He is still viewed as an outsider by the german as he questions Lev, “you’re young still. We all had our awkward years,” (Benioff 195). Benioff reminds the reader that through all the challenges of Lev’s journey, Lev is still young. He has not become a man.