Essay Comparing A Spring Morning And The Key Game

The Holocaust in Poland was an immense devastation and significant loss that affected individuals and society in multifaceted ways. This paper examines how lives were shaped by the Holocaust and its aftermath through an analysis of Holocaust-related film and literature. Ida Fink’s short stories, “A Spring Morning” and “The Key Game,” offer different perspectives on family experiences during the Holocaust. On the other hand, Pawel Pawlikowski’s film Ida explores the lingering effects of the Holocaust through themes of identity, loss, and spirituality, as conveyed through its narrative, style, and character development. Ida Fink’s short stories reflect her experiences during the Holocaust as a Jewish woman in Poland, where she “[survived] by

In contrast, the second account depicts a tragic narrative focused on a family in which the father and mother, Aron and Mela, regret having their daughter where the horrors of war is all she has ever known. Upon hearing the rumbling of the trucks, the couple regrets not securing a hiding spot and are forced to head to the railroad station. The family stands in the square for hours, Aron stating how the color of the Gniezna River is the color of beer. Finally, he tells his child to go to the church and find the milkmaid who is sure to take her in, and that they’ll find her after the war, after the camp. He lets her go but she gets shot almost immediately and Aron walks over to carry her, distraught at the loss of his child. Fink juxtaposes these two individual’s lives on the same day to highlight the difference in experiences during the Holocaust. The former secretary can witness the atrocities of Nazism as an Aryan without worry, while Aron and his family live in fear and suffer a devastating loss due to their

A significant aspect of Ida is its sound design, particularly its strategic use of silence. The only instances that music is alive in Ida is at the band gigs, when Wanda and Anna drive to the grave (this is the only instance that music is apart of the score rather than played in the narrative), and Wanda playing music before committing suicide by autodefenestration. The absence of sound builds a more intimate experience with the characters as the audience is forced to take careful notice of expressions, mannerisms, and actions to determine personalities, motives, and feelings. It’s obvious that Anna and Wanda are foils to each other. Anna is a practicing nun who has lived a sheltered life growing up in the covenant since being spared during the murder of her family, while her aunt lives freely, enjoying smoking, drinking, and having romantic encounters with men at bars. Their lifestyles contrast drastically, which makes quite the dynamic, especially in the scene where Wanda criticizes and disrespects Anna’s way of life as a nun (33:00).