Pawnbroker
The Pawnbroker
It is the year 2001 and not much has changed in our society from the time the Holocaust occurred. A lot of people still believe that the Holocaust did not exist or they try to forget that it did. The Pawnbroker is a film that expresses these feelings. This film also depicts how one man tries to forget his past by becoming a hermit. The Pawnbroker uses some images to show some points about how a survivor is affected by the Holocaust.
Cynthia Ozick wrote a book called the Shawl. I will discuss what similarities the book has to the film The Pawnbroker. I will also discuss how the movie compares the life of the pawnbroker in Harlem to that of his experience with the Holocaust. Finally, I will state what images are used in the film to depict the Holocaust.
The Shawl and the Pawnbroker have a lot of similarities, mainly within the main characters. The main characters in both stories are survivors of the Holocaust. The main characters both own there own stores in NY. The pawnbroker owns a pawnshop and Rosa owns an antique store. They are both hermits. They both hate conversation. They do not want to talk to anyone about anything, especially their experiences or pains of the Holocaust. The pawnbroker and Rosa have someone in their lives that wants them to express those pains and memories. Rosa has Simon Persky and the pawnbroker has Marylyn.
The main characters in the film and the book also have in common other things. For instance, both the pawnbroker and Rosa are racist. The pawnbroker in the film tells Jesus that those creatures should stay out of his store. Jesus asks a question to the pawnbroker about who those creatures are. He asks “Who the colored?” “’It was a store. I didn’t like who came in it.’ ‘Spanish? Colored?’ ‘What do I care who came?’” (Ozick, 27). Rosa and the pawnbroker both claimed that their lives were stolen. “’You ain’t got a life?’ ‘Thieves took it.’” (Ozick, 28). They both experience a similar death in a concentration camp. The pawnbroker sees a man run away from dogs and Germans and get stuck in barbed wire. Rosa experiences almost the same thing when her daughter Magda is thrown into the barbed wire. The last thing that they both have in common is that they both have someone who supports them financially.
While watching the movie, I could see that the main characters in the book, both their names and traits, were the same in both the movie and book. However, aside from that there were many different as...
The similarities are prolific in their presence in certain parts of the novel, the very context of both stories shows similarities, both are dealing with an oppressed factor that is set free by an outsider who teaches and challenges the system in which the oppressed are caught.
There are few similarities between the book and the movie. Usually most movies are similar to
The first of many important similarities is that in the book as well as the movie, May, August Rosaleen and Lily all
The victims of the Holocaust lose sight of who they are during this time and begin to live their life by playing a part they believe they were because of their race. Loman discussed the irony behind the cat-and-mouse metaphor that Spiegelman uses in his graphic novel in his article titled “’Well Intended Liberal Slop’: Allegories of Race in Spiegelman’s Maus”. In his article he states,
To sum up, World War II is the most destructive human endeavor in history. Battles are fought on every continent and involved more than sixty countries, affecting about three-quarters of the world’s population. Six million Jews are murdered by the Nazis from all of the civilians in Europe for extermination. The memory of Holocaust has made the world more sensitive to genocide. The Holocaust has a particular impact on the Jewish people, who vowed never to allow such a thing happen again. The Night and Fugitive Pieces are two impressive books which show readers a fact of Holocaust and tell the world even the situation is worst, love from families and friends, faith and intension of alive may ensure them alive.
...ers were portrayed in both of these stories. Each character has a personal story that most people can relate do on a couple different levels. A common thread can be found in each of these books. It is easy to relate with these characters because no matter when these stories were written, the themes can be timeless. Parts and pieces of the novels can still be found in our world today and in our day to day life. Perseverance and courage is a trait that can be brought away from reading both of these books.
The holocaust is known for the great number of deaths; including the six million Jews. Ida fink is a writer that captures this time period in her works. In “The Key Game” she appeals to pathos because of imagery used, connections to your own family, and dialog used by both the father and mother. Through her fiction stories, she tells tales that relate to what could have been and probably what was. Ida Fink is known for telling her stories in a journalist like tone with very little color. In her stories, she does not like to tell you how to feel she instead leaves that up to the reader. Fink does place some hints of emotion just by writing the story alone. The interpretation of her works is left up to the reader. As you read through her stories some will find more emotion, some will find more logic, and some may see more ethics. At the moment, we will be looking more on the side of emotions within this story.
Another similarity in the book and movie is that the characters have to go against their morals in order to decide what to do in certain situations. An example of this in the book is when Skip realises he would have to trespass and steal in order for him to keep himself and his friends alive. Or in...
In both genres, Hannah still goes back in time and experiences life in the camps. Aunt Eva is still the same person. The theme in both is about remembering what had happened. Jane Yolen and the director of the film are both jewish. They both want us to remember that the atrocity of the holocaust was real and something that should be studied so we will not make the mistake of prosecuting a person because of their religion again.
“I'm not talking about YOUR book now, but look at how many books have already been written about the Holocaust. What's the point? People haven't changed... Maybe they need a newer, bigger Holocaust.” These words were spoken by author Art Spielgelman. Many books have been written about the Holocaust; however, only one book comically describes the non-superficial characteristics of it. Art Spiegelman authors a graphic novel titled Maus, a book surrounding the life a Jewish man living in Poland, named Vladek. His son, Art Spielgelman, was primarily focused on writing a book based on his father’s experiences during the Holocaust. While this was his main focus, his book includes unique personal experiences, those of which are not commonly described in other Holocaust books. Art’s book includes the troubles his mother, Anja, and his father, Vladek, conquered during their marriage and with their family; also, how his parents tried to avoid their children being victimized through the troubles. The book includes other main characters, such as: Richieu Spiegelman, Vladek first son; Mala Spiegelman, Vladek second wife; and Françoise, Art’s French wife. Being that this is a graphic novel, it expresses the most significant background of the story. The most significant aspect about the book is how the characters are dehumanized as animals. The Jewish people were portrayed as mice, the Polish as pigs, the Germans (Nazis in particular) as cats, and Americans as dogs. There are many possible reasons why Spiegelman uses animals instead of humans. Spiegelman uses cats, dogs, and mice to express visual interests in relative relationships and common stereotypes among Jews, Germans, and Americans.
The Holocaust is one of the most horrific and gruesome events in world history. It took a great toll on millions of lives in one way or another. One person in particular is Vladek Spiegelman, a Holocaust survivor. Maus, by Art Spiegelman, consists of two main narratives. One narrative occurs during World War II in Poland, and the other begins in the late 1970s in New York. In relation to each other these two narratives portray the past and present.Throughout the novel, we often see Art Spiegelman questioning why his father acts the way he does. Although the war is over, the events of the Holocaust continue to influence the life of Vladek. Why do we allow the past to effect the present? Vladek's personality is largely influenced by his Holocaust experience. In Maus I and II, Vladek was stubborn, selfish, and cheap because of his experiences in the Holocaust.
Both stories show the characters inequality with their lives as women bound to a society that discriminates women. The two stories were composed in different time frames of the women’s rights movement; it reveals to the readers, that society was not quite there in the fair treatment towards the mothers, daughters, and wives of United States in either era. Inequality is the antagonist that both authors created for the characters. Those experiences might have helped that change in mankind to carve a path for true equality among men and women.
This was the same year when Bill Gates and Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft. In 1981, Bill Gates’ company was hired to develop an operating system but rather than creating a new operating system they decided to buy a preexisting operation system called QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) for the amount of 50,000 dollars. After modifying the operating system they bought, they renamed the operating system to MS-DOS. After MS-DOS began selling it brought in a steady income for Gates due to the fact that the PC market was growing and there weren’t many competitors in the market for them to compete with. In 1986, when Microsoft Corporation went public, it made Gates into a millionaire overnight. The following year, Microsoft released their first ever version of
As a child, Faulkner was well aware of his family background, especially the notoriety of his great-grandfather who had moved to the Mississippi Delta from Tennessee in 1841 (Zane). William Clark Faulkner was a Civil War Colonel, a lawyer, a planter, a politician, a railroad entrepreneur, and a best-selling novelist best known for The White Rose of Memphis. He died in the streets of Ripley, Mississippi, where a former business partner he had forced out of his railroad gunned him down (Padgett). While Faulkner had never met his great-grandfather, he was a powerful influence. When his third grade teacher asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, the young William replied “I want to be a writer like my great-granddaddy”(Padgett).