Summary Of Magda Fertacz's 'Trash Story'

1961 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Dilemmas in war creative writing

During World War II, Poland as a nation experienced many senseless acts of horror and the loss of innocent lives due to the suspension of societal rules. World War II has become emblematic of the popular notion that Poland was a victim during this time period due to a major of Poland’s memories consisting of pain, injuries, and death. In Trash Story, the author, Magda Fertacz, critiques the victimhood of Poland through the dialect between the Mother and Ursula. This conversation is focused on the Mother’s father, who was a part of World War II, and a situation that occurred during this time period. The Mother’s father is a representation of Poland’s victimhood during World War II since he was a part of the war and has suffered. Whereas, Ursula …show more content…

Thus, she is selecting certain memories to preserve the victimhood image. This action can be justified in the sense that the Mother did not witness this bread event, but she did witness the consequences that World War II had on her father. However, the fact that the Mother rejects the new information without questioning it authenticity reveals that she has no desire to change her recognition of her father. Due to the event, the Institute for the Verification of Memory classifies the Mother’s father as a “false” hero instead of a “true” hero. This passage creates confusion for the readers, due to the fact that Ursula gave an example of how a supposed victim acted as an offender since he harmed others instead of helping. This gets the readers to ask themselves if this act alone makes the Mother’s father unworthy of the identity of a victim. Also the idea that a person can be falsely identified as a hero or a victim through the deliberate collection of facts and memories is introduced. This leaves the readers with a question, does the action of a person who experienced injuries, which would make them a victim, have the power to overrule the identity of a victim and make them an offender. Furthermore, the readers are not given the full story of the event presented by Ursula, making it complicated for the readers to side with the Mother or Ursula. By just stating …show more content…

The only difference in the Mother’s rejection in this conversation is that she witnessed the Son’s abuse and knew this to be true. This clearly shows that the Mother is purposely rejecting memories to allow for her perception of the Son as a victim to remain present. The Son was mentally injured by his participation in the Iraq war, making him a victim. If the Mother were to accept that the Son was abusive towards the Widow, this would allow others to accept the fact as well. The acceptance would force the reputation of the Brother to be tarnished and maybe even changed. Some might consider his abusive behavior to be more important in determining his identity than his injuries. This second conversation creates a pattern for the Mother of selecting certain memories and characteristics to allow the identity of victimhood to prevail. This establishes another question that the readers experience; is it morally correct to selective and reject certain memories or fact to preserve an image of a victim or hero, especially if they are a part of the

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Jeannette Walls's The Glass Castle

    1265 Words  | 3 Pages

    Even though their children had gone through such harassment, both Rex and Rose Mary completely disregarded the situations they experienced. At times, both parents even enforced such acts in order to avoid trouble and to avoid being moved out into another place. After Rose Mary was aware of the incident with Uncle Stanley sexually assaulting Jeannette, Jeannette states, “[Mom] said that sexual assault was a crime of perception” (184). Posterior to the incident of Erma sexually assaulting Brian, Jeannette’s father also states, “I don’t care what happened!” (147). These two quotations clearly shows the harassment Brian and Jeannette suffered; moreover, it evidently shows the parents’ negligence towards the children. They both completely disregarded what had happened to both Brian and Jeannette solely for their defective idealism and to avoid confrontation with the individuals involved; therefor, Rex and Rose Mary were inadequate to raise their

    Read More

  • Maxine Kumin Woodchucks Essay

    628 Words  | 2 Pages

    The poem “Woodchucks” by Maxine Kumin, is about the narrator’s attempt to eradicate woodchucks from a garden. The figurative message of the poem is how a person can change from good to evil effortlessly. The metaphor of the Holocaust is intertwined in the poem and helps enhance the figurative message. The uniform format and the implication of Kumin’s word choices creates a framework that allows the reader to draw out deeper meanings that the literary devices create. Maxine Kumin’s use of an undeviating format, word choice, and allusion to the Holocaust reinforces the purpose of her poem.

    Read More

  • Sarah's Key Social Injustice Quotes

    1692 Words  | 4 Pages

    Sarah and her mother are sought out by the French Police after an order goes out to arrest all French Jews. When Sarah’s little brother starts to feel the pressures of social injustice, he turns to his sister for guidance. Michel did not want to go with the French Police, so he asks Sarah to help him hide in their secret cupboard. Sarah does this because she loves Michel and does not want him to be discriminated against. Sarah, her mother, and her father get arrested for being Jewish and are taken to a concentration camp just outside their hometown. Sarah thinks Michel, her beloved brother, will be safe. She says, “Yes, he’d be safe there. She was sure of it. The girl murmured his name and laid her palm flat on the wooden panel. I’ll come back for you later. I promise” (Rosnay 9). During this time of inequality, where the French were removing Sarah and her mother just because they were Jewish, Sarah’s brother asked her for help. Sarah promised her brother she would be back for him and helped him escape his impending arrest. Sarah’s brother believed her because he looks up to her and loves her. As the story continues, when Sarah falls ill and is in pain, she also turns to her father for comfort, “at one point she had been sick, bringing up bile, moaning in pain. She had felt her father’s hand upon her, comforting her” (Rosnay 55).

    Read More

  • Totalitarian Government: Hitler and Stalin

    1102 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of Eleanor Ayer's Parallel Journeys

    834 Words  | 2 Pages

    People like Helen’s mother grew tired of the stories she’d try to tell to have her mother understand what happened. Her mother once said “I cannot understand why you always come back with those old stories. Forget those ties and what has happened. Nobody wants to hear or talk about this anymore.” In a way, I feel that Helen’s mother did not mean to sound as brutal as she did to Helen, but rather tried to tell Helen that life has to continue on and she cannot dwell on the pain of the

    Read More

  • Examples Of Imagery In Night By Elie Wiesel

    598 Words  | 2 Pages

    A story of a young boy and his father as they are stolen from their home in Transylvania and taken through the most brutal event in human history describes the setting. This boy not only survived the tragedy, but went on to produce literature, in order to better educate society on the truth of the Holocaust. In Night, the author, Elie Wiesel, uses imagery, diction, and foreshadowing to describe and define the inhumanity he experienced during the Holocaust.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Recitatif And The Thing In The Forest

    1233 Words  | 3 Pages

    Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif” and A.S. Byatt’s “The Thing in the Forest” are both focused on the intersections of childhood trauma, memory, and guilt, as well as how someone’s childhood can affect them through life. Each has its own idea of what effect the guilt might have on a person and how it can affect different people in different ways. “Recitatif” and “The Thing in the Forest” both revolve around the guilt and confusion that adults face when reflecting upon their childhood and wondering if their recollections are entirely accurate; however, one focuses on the difference it makes in otherwise parallel lives and the other focuses on the parallel it makes in otherwise different lives.

    Read More

  • Wladek's Portrayal Of The Holocaust In The Pianist

    625 Words  | 2 Pages

    The film “ The Pianist” directed by Roman Polanski can be deemed somewhat useful to a historian studying the period of time during the Holocaust and the pernicious impact it had on the city of Warsaw and its civilians. The film's portrayal of the Holocaust is highly accurate depicting the horrors and trauma during that time through the eyes of Wladyslaw “Wladek” Szpilman and his experiences. Although the film presents a few historical inaccuracies and fictionalizations the film is highly accurate, as it is solely based on the memoir of Wladyslaw Szpilman. This is evident in the quote “ I heard the hoarse bellowing of the German on the other side of the wall. I ran to the child to help him squeeze through as quickly as possible, but in defiance of our efforts, his hips stuck in the drain” (Szpilman, W., and Hosenfeld, W. (2008).

    Read More

  • The Aftermath of the Holocaust in Art Spiegelman’s Maus Volumes I and II

    1130 Words  | 3 Pages

    By means of comic illustration and parody, Art Spiegelman wrote a graphic novel about the lives of his parents, Vladek and Anja, before and during the Holocaust. Spiegelman’s Maus Volumes I and II delves into the emotional struggle he faced as a result of his father’s failure to recover from the trauma he suffered during the Holocaust. In the novel, Vladek’s inability to cope with the horrors he faced while imprisoned, along with his wife’s tragic death, causes him to become emotionally detached from his son, Art. Consequently, Vladek hinders Art’s emotional growth. However, Art overcomes the emotional trauma his father instilled in him through his writing.

    Read More

  • Imagery Used In Night By Elie Wiesel

    575 Words  | 2 Pages

    “What do you expect? That’s war…” Elie Wiesel, young teenage boy sent to work in a concentration camp with his family near the end of WW2. Author of his own autobiography, Night recounting his struggles during that time. This book is about a boy named Elie Wiesel who was captured by the Nazi’s and was put into a concentration camp, and got disconnected from God, and was very close to his mom, dad, and family. Throughout Night Elie Wiesel addresses the topic of genocide through the use of imagery, simile, and personification.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Daddy's Apprentice By Sandy Wilson

    1453 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sandy Wilson, the author of Daddy’s Apprentice: incest, corruption, and betrayal: a survivor’s story, was the victim of not only sexual abuse but physical and emotional abuse as well, in addition to being a product of incest. Sandy Wilson’s story began when she was about six years old when her birth father returns home from incarceration, and spans into her late teens. Her father returning home from prison was her first time meeting him, as she was wondered what he looked like after hearing that he would be released (Wilson, 2000, p. 8). Not only was her relationship with her father non-existent, her relationship with her birth mother was as well since she was for most of her young life, cared for by her grandmother and grandfather. When she was told that her birth mother coming to visit she says, “…I wish my mother wouldn’t visit. I never know what to call her so I don’t all her anything. Not her name, Kristen. Not mother. Not anything (Wilson, 2000, p. 4).” This quote essentially demonstrated the relationship between Sandy and her mother as one that is nonexistent even though Sandy recognizes Kristen as her birth mother.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland by Janet Gross

    763 Words  | 2 Pages

    Most narratives out of the Holocaust from the Nazis point of view are stories of soldiers or citizens who were forced to partake in the mass killings of the Jewish citizens. Theses people claim to have had no choice and potentially feared for their own lives if they did not follow orders. Neighbors, The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland, by Jan T. Gross, shows a different account of people through their free will and motivations to kill their fellow Jewish Neighbors. Through Gross’s research, he discovers a complex account of a mass murder of roughly 1,600 Jews living in the town of Jedwabne Poland in 1941. What is captivating about this particular event was these Jews were murdered by friends, coworkers, and neighbors who lived in the same town of Jedwabne. Gross attempts to explain what motivated these neighbors to murder their fellow citizens of Jedwabne and how it was possible for them to move on with their lives like it had never happened.

    Read More

  • The Action In The Ghetto Of Rohatin Summary

    739 Words  | 2 Pages

    The poem “The action in the ghetto of Rohatyn, March 1942” by Alexander Kimel is an amazing literary work which makes the reader understand the time period of the Holocaust providing vivid details. Kimel lived in an “unclean” area called the ghetto, where people were kept away from German civilians. The poet describes and questions himself using repetition and rhetorical questions. He uses literary devices such as repetition, comparisons, similes and metaphors to illustrate the traumatizing atmosphere he was living in March 1942.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis of The True Story of Hansel and Gretel

    1213 Words  | 3 Pages

    This book left me with a deeper sense of the horrors experienced by the Polish people, especially the Jews and the gypsies, at the hands of the Germans, while illustrating the combination of hope and incredible resilience that kept them going.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of If This Is A Man By Primo Levi

    1060 Words  | 3 Pages

    Primo Levi was an Italian Jewish Anti-fascist who was arrested in 1943, during the Second World War. The memoir, “If this is a Man”, written immediately after Levi’s release from the Auschwitz concentration camp, not only provides the readers with Levi’s personal testimony of his experience in Auschwitz, but also invites the readers to consider the implications of life in the concentration camp for our understanding of human identity. In Levi’s own words, the memoir was written to provide “documentation for a quiet study of certain aspects of the human mind”. The lack of emotive words and the use of distant tone in Levi’s first person narration enable the readers to visualize the cold, harsh reality in Auschwitz without taking away the historical credibility. Levi’s use of poetic and literary devices such as listing, repetition, and symbolism in the removal of one’s personal identification; the use of rhetorical questions and the inclusion of foreign languages in the denial of basic human rights; the use of bestial metaphors and choice of vocabulary which directly compares the prisoner of Auschwitz to animals; and the use of extended metaphor and symbolism in the character Null Achtzehn all reveal the concept of dehumanization that was acted upon Jews and other minorities.

    Read More

More about Summary Of Magda Fertacz's 'Trash Story'

Open Document