Paradox In Ww2

Mankind is incredibly destructive, but at the same time very innovative. During the time period of World War 2 (WW2), 6 million innocent Jews were murdered in the country of Germany. However at the same time, Germany had also rebuilt its fallen empire. We can see that these facts show a paradox. A paradox is a situation, person, or thing that combines contradictory features or qualities. WW2 can be seen as a paradox, but more specifically we can see the paradox of humanity. Examples of this human paradox can be seen through the events surrounding WW2 and the literature written about it. To start off, the paradox of humanity exists in the events surrounding WW2. WW2 is well known for the destruction that it caused and the devastation that it

The Book Thief is a novel, written by the author Markus, about a young german girl named Liesel who suffers the death of her brother, and the separation from her mother while becoming part of a small town in Germany called Molching. The narrator in The Book Thief, Death, tells Liesel’s story while giving hints that show the paradox of humanity does exist in the context of the main character’s actions during WW2. For example, at the end part 9 when Liesel and her best friend Rudy witnessed a plane crash in the town of Molching after many bomb attacks occurred, both approached the devastating scene. When both of them discovered the man in the plane was still alive, Rudy had reacted, “Carefully, he climbed to the dying man. He placed the smiling teddy bear cautiously onto the pilot’s shoulder. The tip of its ear touched his throat. The dying man breathed it in. He spoke. In English, he said, “Thank you.” (Zusak 490-491). In other words, Rudy had given this suffering man trapped in a crashed airplane a teddy bear, to comfort him in his death. The paradox of humanity can be found in this quote because Rudy, not caring about the fact that this man was probably off to kill people of Germany, gave this man comfort and an act of kindness. We can see two different sides of human behavior in this particular scene. One human showing care to another human that had different intentions of doing good