Imagine being a refugee in Europe during World War II. The struggle to live and survive is based on your knowledge. This situation is shown in the novel Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys. In this novel. The book is about refugees during World War II and they try to find freedom and aboard the Wilhelm they have to go through obstacles to get there. Joana was a nurse, Emilia's parents sent her away, Florian was a prussian. Alfred was a Nazi. Overall, dehumanization, selfishness and madness of war are the topics found in the novel Salt to the Sea. The Nazis destroyed peoples belongings and destroyed their own land. To begin, the Nazis were destroying their own land but not the people. “The text states” Hitler said Germans were superior and would not live among poles. We are not German. But our land was”(Sep. 11). The German people were forced to leave their homes to be able to get safety and to survive. Also, the Nazis did not like people with disabilities. According to the text, “Ingrid had reasons to worry, Hitler considered those born blind or disabled, they were called garbage children”(Sep. 90). In other words, Hitler did not like kids that were not capable of …show more content…
People were fighting each other and kicking little kids for survival. The text states “A grown woman kicked a teenager out of the way, ignoring her pleas for help”(Sepentys 329). To clarify, kids are dying because of people that should be helping them, not helping them. Also people would rob other people or dead people to try and find things Joana was found doing in the text. According to the text, “I scavenged through Russians frozen pockets and took a cigarette, a flask, a large sausage wrapped in a piece of paper, his gun, and his ammunition”(Sepetys 9). In other words, Joana was being selfish by robbing dead people that lost their lives in the war for their own survival. All in all, survival for themselves was more important than other peoples
In Under a Cruel Star, Heda Margolious Kovaly details the attractiveness and terror of Communism brought to Czechoslovakia following WWII. Kovaly’s accounts of how communism impacted Czechoslovakia are fascinating because they are accounts of a woman who was skeptical, but also seemed hopeful for communism’s success. Kovaly was not entirely pro-communism, nor was she entirely anti-communism during the Party’s takeover. By telling her accounts of being trapped in the Lodz Ghetto and the torture she faced in Auschwitz, Kovaly displays her terror experienced with a fascist regime and her need for change. Kovaly said that the people of Czechoslovakia welcomed communism because it provided them with the chance to make up for the passivity they had let occur during the German occupation. Communism’s appeal to
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, is one of the most famous historical fiction books ever written. This 352 paged book has inspired many teens to acknowledge the Genocide of Baltic people. Ruta Sepetys was inspired to write a fiction book instead of a non-fiction book based on the stories she heard from survivors of the genocide during a visit to her relatives in Lithuania. She interviewed dozens of people during her stay. Between Shades of Gray was her first novel that she had written. This book was interpreted well enough by the readers to become a New York Times Bestseller.
The short story, Ashes for the Wind by Hernando Tellez, the central conflict is focused around two groups, the all-powerful government and powerless farmers. The struggle that is going on is one that is commonly seen in poor third world countries where the government controls everything and where the people make up the complete work force. The story reveals Juan Martinez’s inner beliefs, that he is a stubborn yet proud man that will stand for everything that he owns even if that means death. Even after voting for the wrong side, Juan protects his family from the evil that is the law. Arevalo’s motivations were such that he did not stand up for the family that he grew up with. His betrayal of the political system and his father leaves Simon’s
Initially, Elisabeth is the matriarch of the four generations of women talked about in the story. Elisabeth works in the house, but she’s married to a field slave and has three daughters. Not much insight is given on Elisabeth and her feelings, yet through the narration it is as if she lived vicariously through her youngest daughter, Suzette: “It was as if her mother were the one who had just had her first communion not Suzette” (20) Even though Elisabeth too worked in the house, Suzette had more privileges than her mother and the other slaves. Elisabeth represented the strength and the pride of her people: “You have a mother and a father both, and they don’t live up to the [plantation] house” (25). She would constantly remind Suzette of her real family, which signifies the remembrance of a history of people and their roots. It is up to Suzette to keep the heritage even through the latter miscegenation of the generations to come.
Susanna at the Beach, by Herbert Gold, presents a tale of the virtues characters admire strictly contrasting with the vices for which characters are consumed. The characterization of the main character, Susanna, is portrayed as embodying seven “heavenly virtues” including chastity, temperance, diligence, patience, kindness, humility, and charity. While the other characters in the story personify the seven “deadly sins” including lust, gluttony, sloth, wrath, envy, pride, and greed. Herbert Gold depicts a theme of virtues versus vices utilizing the literary device of characterization in Susanna at the Beach as supported by the character depiction from the biblical reference of Daniel and Susanna.
Poland was devastated when German forces invaded their country on September 1, 1939, marking the beginning of World War II. Still suffering from the turmoil of World War I, with Germany left in ruins, Hitler's government dreamt of an immense, new domain of "living space" in Eastern Europe; to acquire German dominance in Europe would call for war in the minds of German leaders (World War II in Europe). The Nazis believed the Germans were racially elite and found the Jews to be inferior to the German population. The Holocaust was the discrimination and the slaughter of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its associates (Introduction to the Holocaust). The Nazis instituted killing centers, also known as “extermination camps” or “death camps,” for being able to resourcefully take part in mass murder (Killing Centers: An Overview).
“Black Power”, the word alone raises an abundance of controversial issues. Black power was a civil rights movement led by the black panthers which addressed several issues including segregation and racism. Black power had a different meaning to every member of the Mc Bride family, Ruth and James both looked at black power from a different angle. In “The Color of Water”, The author James Mc Bride admired the black panthers at first, but slowly he grew afraid of them after fearing the consequences his mother might face for being a white woman in a black community influenced by black power. James’ worries were baseless, black power’s motive was to educate and improve African American communities not to create havoc or to harm members of the white community.
The book Lives on the Boundary, written by Mike Rose, provides great insight to what the new teaching professional may anticipate in the classroom. This book may be used to inform a teacher’s philosophy and may render the teacher more effective. Lives on the Boundary is a first person account composed of eight chapters each of which treat a different obstacle faced by Mike Rose in his years as a student and as an educator. More specifically in chapters one through five Mike Rose focuses on his own personal struggles and achievements as a student. Ultimately the aim is to highlight the underpreparedness of some of today’s learners.
In the poem pride, Dahlia Ravikovitch uses many poetic devices. She uses an analogy for the poem as a whole, and a few metaphors inside it, such as, “the rock has an open wound.” Ravikovitch also uses personification multiple times, for example: “Years pass over them as they wait.” and, “the seaweed whips around, the sea bursts forth and rolls back--” Ravikovitch also uses inclusive language such as when she says: “I’m telling you,” and “I told you.” She uses these phrases to make the reader feel apart of the poem, and to draw the reader in. She also uses repetition, for example, repetition of the word years.
Becoming an accepted member of a country you do not feel is your home is an immaculate task that can be intangible at times. For Nadira and her family, this task proved to be more difficult than they originally thought. For this Bangladeshi family, obtaining citizenship was problematic, but after the September 11th terrorism attacks, it seemed almost impossible. Immigrants come to the United States for many reasons, including religious freedom, a fresh beginning, or tackling the American Dream. Even though it did not feel like home, Nadira, her sister, and her parents wanted to stay here because returning to Bangladesh was not the best option for them. How did Nadira find the courage to fight for her family’s acceptance in a world that is so brutal?
War can be a devastating part of life as it has the ability to cause a large amount of pain in people. Being in a frightful battle himself, Erich Maria Remarque was influenced by being in WWI first hand; thus truly capturing the barbarity of such a conflict in his novels. Going through life, he experienced being exiled from Germany, went through the stages of grief, and changed as a human being during the war. After living through multiple battles, WWII occurred and the third reich took away his citizenship from Germany, beheading his sister as well due to the writings he published. Throughout Erich Maria Remarque’s life, he experienced various tragic events in WWI, inspiring the many award-winning writings he published.
The first encounter with Helga Crane, Nella Larsen’s protagonist in the novel Quicksand, introduces the heroine unwinding after a day of work in a dimly lit room. She is alone. And while no one else is present in the room, Helga is accompanied by her own thoughts, feelings, and her worrisome perceptions of the world around her. Throughout the novel, it becomes clear that most of Helga’s concerns revolve around two issues- race and sex. Even though there are many human character antagonists that play a significant role in the novel and in the story of Helga Crane, such as her friends, coworkers, relatives, and ultimately even her own children, her race and her sexuality become Helga’s biggest challenges. These two taxing antagonists appear throughout the novel in many subtle forms. It becomes obvious that racial confusion and sexual repression are a substantial source of Helga’s apprehensions and eventually lead to her tragic demise.
The Jewish people were targeted, hunted, tortured, and killed, just for being Jewish, Hitler came to office on January 20, 1933; he believed that the German race had superiority over the Jews in Germany. The Jewish peoples’ lives were destroyed; they were treated inhumanly for the next 12 years, “Between 1933 and 1945, more than 11 million men, women, and children were murdered in the Holocaust. Approximately six million of these were Jews” (Levy). Hitler blamed a lot of the problems on the Jewish people, being a great orator Hitler got the support from Germany, killing off millions of Jews and other people, the German people thought it was the right thing to do. “To the anti-Semitic Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, Jews were an inferior race, an alien threat to German racial purity and community” (History.com Staff).
Captivity in Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi, is a strongly emphasized theme. Fideaus the protagonist is constantly constrained and surveilled within the realms of the Egyptian society subsequently being emotionally, and twice literally, captive. The significance of captivity in Woman at Point Zero is not only for plot or dramatic effect. In the writing of Woman At Point Zero Nawal El Saadawi wishes to inform the reader about the captivity felt by some women in suppressive countries. In this way, she means the protagonist Firdaus to not only represent one woman but many. Captivity in Woman at Point Zero is not only that of the literal, lock and key. Throughout the novel Firdaus is subject to varying forms of captivity, emotionally from societal expectations, mentally and physically in both jail and as a literal prisoner of Bayoumi. Further captivity is introduced to the reader through use of an 'eyes' motif to show how, in Firduses societal paradigm she was and felt, constantly surveilled by the Egyptian patriarchal society.
Dead Souls Is a classic novel by Nikolai Gogol, and is considered an exemplar of 19th century Russian literature. Russian literature in the 19th century provided insight on the flaws and faults of the Russian people during that time, and Gogol masterfully portrayed these defects though his characters. The story focuses on the historical setting, being written after the french invasion of Russia and the thoughts of the war still fresh in the minds of the citizens. also this was a time where indentured service, called serfs, were prominent in Russia. The book also touches on the political setting, where the people with the most serfs are the most powerful in the nation. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol is a book that really helps one understand what Russia was like in the 19th century, by letting people know about the historical setting and the politics of the era as well.