Finding Meaning in Un Sac de Billes

No one asked to belong to a particular religion, fate planned it all. ‘Un Sac de Billes’ is my favorite text because it is the only French book I can actually relate to. It is an autobiography written by renowned French author Joseph Joffo. The book chronicles his experience during the invasion of Paris by the Germans in 1941. Interpreting this text from a postcolonial and intrinsic perspective reveals particular elements relevant to a postcolonial or intrinsic study. Although the text foregrounds the once infamous German stance towards race and diaspora, it also reflects, from an intrinsic perspective, the themes and characterization of the text.

The Germans afflicted the Jews in various ways and this severely affected Joseph’s family, since they were Jewish. 10 year old Joseph and 12 year old Maurice (his older brother), were horribly ridiculed by their classmates and teachers at school. It was time for Mr. Joffo, Joseph’s father to make a dramatic life changing decision in order to ensure his family’s safety. He ordered his boys to flee from Paris to a safe location ‘Zone Libre’ where their elder brothers Henry and Albert resided. The two brothers endured a great tribulation at that young age and escaped death on numerous occasions. The Germans finally left France after five years of persecuting the Jews and the Joffos reunited with the absence of Mr. Joffo who was unfortunately killed.

In Post Colonial Theory, Race is the division and classification of people using both physical and biological traits. People are mostly classified by religion, color or gender. The various groups who engage in race use it to maintain power and authority. I was once a victim of race because of my Muslim religion and I had to embrace it be...

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...ial glasses brings to mind race and diaspora and how these two concepts affected the lives of thousands of Jews living in Paris at the time. Also, from an intrinsic perspective, the themes and the characterization made the book an exceptional piece as the themes made the book easy to understand and the characters all played very important roles in the unfolding of events. By reading Joseph Joffo’s ‘Un Sac De Billes’, is war all that bad?

REFERENCES

Joffo, J. (1973). Un sac de billes. Paris, France: Retrieved from http://ww2.kcd.org/staff/jamick/fr 5/fr 5/Sac de billes/Un Sac Comme.pdf

Key terms in post-colonial theory. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www3.dbu.edu/mitchell/postcold.htm

Rajan, R. S. (n.d.). Concepts in postcolonial theory: Diaspora, exile, migration . Retrieved from http://english.fas.nyu.edu/docs/IO/10743/G41.2900fall09.pdf