Analysis Of The Terrible Things By Eve Bunting

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“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” (Elie Wiesel) The Holocaust is a topic that is still not forgotten and is used by many people, as a motivation, to try not to repeat history. Many lessons can be taught from learning about the Holocaust, but to Eve Bunting and Fred Gross there is one lesson that could have changed the result of this horrible event. The Terrible Things, by Eve Bunting, and The Child of the Holocaust, by Fred Gross, both portray the same moral meaning in their presentations but use different evidence and word choice to create an overall …show more content…

Bunting used certain word choice and evidence to create an overall theme of her story. The author used words like “pretended”, “shared”, and “don’t need a reason” repeatedly to emphasize how the characters in the story are acting. In the text it shows how good the animals really are towards each other, “The birds and the squirrels shared the trees. The rabbits and the porcupines shared the shade beneath the trees and the frogs and fish shared the cool brown waters of the forest pond.” Before the Terrible Things came the animals shared and helped each other out. But, when the Terrible Things came they turned on each other because they were afraid of being taken as well. The author also uses facts and evidence to give an overall message that the reader could walk away with. “In Europe, during World War 11, many people looked the other way while terrible things happened.” Eve Bunting used this evidence before the story to give the reader her purpose of writing this allegory. The purpose for writing a story for young readers is to make sure that as children grow into more powerful adults, they don’t repeat history and make the mistakes that people used to. Bunting also used this story to explain and give an example of what good people didn’t do, and in result, terrible things …show more content…

Although he could have talked about the bad things that happened to him, he leaves the viewer with a positive message. Fred focuses on a positive message to enhance the message he is trying to get across. (1:16), “and there were good people all along the way who helped us out.” He starts with this to show that there were people that wanted to help him even if they weren’t “leaders”. This gives an example of what people have done, and could do today. The author uses word choice like, “good people” and “educators”, to make his theme stand out and that he wants us to have these traits. After he explains his experience of the Holocaust, Fred Gross tells the viewers how they could make a difference in any kind of situation. “What I would like you to be in general, is educators. Educators to make a difference. But to take part in areas to improve the lives of other people.” (2:17). Instead of “standing on the side lines and doing nothing”, Fred wants his viewer to walk away with a lesson that could change the result of a bad event. The author's purpose of creating this presentation was to inform the viewer that if “good people do nothing”evil will win. So even if we help, without even knowing, it can change the result, after terrible things

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