Comparing Rabinovici's Thanks To My Mother

Elie Wiesel is one of the few to survive the Holocaust. At the age of 15, young Elie Wiesel and his family were deported to Auschwitz, where the lives of millions of Jews were taken. The years Elie spent at the camp, he witnessed many deaths and also the lives of innocent children being taken. These memories will forever stay with him as he expresses in the seven books he has written. The Holocaust had an environment that was crucial to live in and Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, wants the history of the Holocaust to live on because he doesn’t want anyone to live through the living hell he had to go through.

For example, an author’s life and obstacles often affect his/her writing, such as Elie Wiesel. In Elie Wiesel’s article “Why I Write: Making No Become Yes”, he writes about how his life in concentration camps, such as Auschwitz and Buchenwald. He writes how writing his memories from them down and in a sense getting justice for his time in the camps helped him to overcome these obstacles. In addition, many writers write about some struggles they experienced in their lives, such as Booker T. Washington. Washington often wrote about his time as a slave and overcoming the struggles of acceptance in society.

on the atmosphere in which she was living. The scholarship being taken away from her,

When people go through something difficult it can change them. Making them who they are, it can change them for the bad or good. Therefore, hardships can greatly influence a person’s life by making them appreciate all the things that make life enjoyable.

“He was finally free, but there was no joy in his heart. He thought there never would be again”. This quote stated by Elie Wiesel from his speech, “The Perils of Indifference”, refers to the day Elie Wiesel got liberated from the Holocaust when he was young. The Holocaust was just one of the many horrific tragedies that occurred during that century. In hopes of changing the future for the better, Wiesel decides to deliver a speech about helping the victims of injustice. He gives this speech intended for the President, Mrs. Clinton, members of Congress, Ambassador Holbrooke, Excellencies, and friends hoping that they will make positive changes for the future. By using rhetorical strategies such as anaphora, rhetorical questions, and ethos, Wiesel tries to help the victims of injustice and prevent future tragedies from happening.

In the book, I Have Lived a Thousand Years, Ms. Bitton-Jackson describes her stories with many impactful stories. There were many qualities displayed throughout her whole book, such as courage, triumph, and loyalty, which helped Ms. Bitton-Jackson and her family get through the Holocaust. The three qualities that I chose to exemplify in this essay were hope, love, and perseverance.

The Holocaust was a time of great suffering and hopelessness for Jewish people. About two thirds of the entire Jewish population was brutally killed. One third of all Jews persevered and survived the appalling events happening in and out of the concentration camps. One boy, out of that one third that survived and pushed through was Elie Wiesel. Elie Wiesel, the holocaust survivor, displays stamina in his memoir physically, mentally, and spiritually.

The authors of the four memoirs overcame their childhood obstacles with the help of their parents. Gary Soto overcame his childhood obstacle by finally listening to his mother. Laurence Yep overcame his early life obstacles by letting people into his life. Barack Obama over his infancy obstacle by accepting his father. Julia Alvarez over her barrier by accepting the U.S. All these authors have only one thing in common they all had help from their parents to achieve their obstacles.

Imagine: A young boy scavenges for food to provide for his impoverished family which was composed of his ill mother and starving siblings or a homeless, single mom desperatley seeking for shelter. These synopses from "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt and "The Street" by Ann Petry share a common theme: perseverance through hardships. In "Angela's Ashes," a memoir by Frank McCourt, he stells about the harships he endured through his childhood, such as, struggling to assist his family in the midst of poverty by stealing food to provide for them. Futhermore, in "The Street," a novel by Ann Petry, tells the story of young Lutie Johnson, a homeless single mom who is seeking shelter for herself and her children. In these two excerpts, the authors use the characters, settings, and events to develop the theme, which I've identified as perseverance through hardships.

Evidently, her life exemplifies the overcoming of poverty and how it really is possible as long as you stick to education and persevere through life.

When Irene Safran was only twenty-one years old, her carefree life ended in the face of the Holocaust. Born to two Jewish parents as one of ten children-- four girls and six boys in all-- in Munkachevo, Czechoslovakia around the year 1923, her world changed in early April 1944 when she and her family were transferred to a Jewish ghetto. For the next year, Irene's life was a series of deaths, losses, and humiliations no human should ever have to suffer, culminating, years later, with a triumphant ending. Her story is proof that the human spirit can triumph over all manner of adversity and evil.

Everyone has a past either good or bad and they’re the ones that decide how they are going to use it. I’ve always been so fascinated with people’s personal stories because I think our past, where we came from and what we have been through has a big impact on how we live our lives. My story is a unique one, I grew up in Haiti and I mostly remember about all the insecurity problems there, being scared that my parents got killed on their way back home from work, or me and my brother getting kidnapped one day. My story is different from everyone else’s, no one can tell it better than I can; but all of us at one point have experienced something in common and finding this person or this group of people

My childhood was split over two different and unique cultures. This special upbringing presented me with challenges that lead me to continually reflect on my life and identity throughout my childhood. I had to adapt to different educational systems as my family moved back and forth between Syria and the United States. However, that only motivated me to work harder and seize the opportunities that surrounded me at every point of my life. I learned to treat obstacles and hardships as chances for growth and development.

Her story is an example of a person who struggled with adversity but searched for a reason to hope. She has used her remarkable survival as an inspiration for those who have no reason to believe they can overcome struggles. She has a foundation named Citizenship Counts which teaches students about their rights and the importance of their citizenship. She has written many books about her experiences and her belief that hope will help a person overcome darkness. She travels the world today telling people her story to increase their knowledge of the Holocaust. Her story of survival serves of as an inspiration to people who are suffering and are looking for a reason to have hope.¹

Adversity can be seen in many different ways. Some people look at adversity as a learning experience, while others view adversity as a situation marked with misfortune. When a person is faced with adversity, rather than viewing it as something to hate, they should see it as a opportunity to grow. In the stories by Doris Lessing, W.D Wetherell and Alice Walker, they all show different types of challenges each character had to over come and their journey to do so. These stories all shared similar outcomes, they demonstrate how each character used an obstacle they were faced with, and turned it into a beneficial experience and how it shaped them into the person they are today.