Who Is Jakob Heym A Hero?

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This story following a Jewish man, Jakob Heym, living in the ghetto during World War II is captivating and entwined with interesting questions of moral dilemma. Written over two decades after the end of the Holocaust, the plot follows Jakob in his daily life in the ghetto after being caught up in a lie that he is in possession of a radio. The setting is so dismal and hopeless, that the little radio effects many of the people around him, in a variety of ways. Six years after the publication of the novel, an East German-Czeslovakian film directed by Frank Beyer was released, nominated for a number of awards including the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. As a result of it’s success, the story was later reproduced for another film, …show more content…

Life there was terrible; scare food, overcrowding, strictly enforced rules, and general destitution. In short, the lives of the Jews living there were entirely controlled by Nazi authority, with almost no personal freedom. The book is one that touches the reader deeply, with themes of heroism, death, duty, and hope[lessness]. Although the protagonist is clearly Jakob, it is controversial whether he can be considered a hero. Some might argue that he indirectly killed one of his best friends, Kowalski. However, I believe that Jakob is a good man for a number of reasons. As the narrator noted in the end, Jakob didn’t drive Kowalski to kill himself; the reality of their situation did, and Jakob in fact prolonged his life by feeding him hope. Jakob is also instinctually good. As seen when at the freight yard, Jakob answers Kowalski that indeed, his electricity was out, and that “after such a long time he was quite happy to be able to speak the unadulterated truth…” (Becker, 72). It is frequently seen throughout the story that Jakob most sincerely wants to be able to be honest with people. Moreover, Jakob must be remembered to suffer the same as everyone else ⎼ on top of trying to keep everyone else’s hopes up. The author writes, “his store of comfort is exhausted...we should remind ourselves that Jakob is much is just as much in need of consolation as all the other poor souls around him, …show more content…

Death, of course, is a prominent part of the novel; starvation, shootings, and suicides are all part of daily life in the ghetto. Despite the heaviness of the topic, Becker handles it in a candid manner, describing the reality that most people had simply become used to it. Still, the author does display the thin line between life and death and shows how delicate it is, for example when Herschel Schtamm is trying to comfort the unknown strangers and is almost immediately shot. In this, Becker demonstrates that despite the normalcy of people dying daily, it is still a shocking thing to witness. The principal dilemma Jakob faces is the duty he feels towards peers to continue telling them lies in

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