Elements of Literature in The Girl in the Green Sweater Life is a precious thing, and it is so precious that some people will undergo severe anguish to hold on to it. During the 1930’s and 1940’s in Germany, people of the Jewish religion were diabolically oppressed and slaughtered, just for their beliefs. Some Jews went to extreme measures to evade capture by the German law enforcement, hoping to hold on to life. Krystyna Chiger was only a small child when her family, along with a group of other desperate Jews, descended into the malignant sewers to avoid the Germans. After living in the abysmal sewers for fourteen months, her group emerged, and when she became an adult, she authored a novel about her time in the sewer. When analyzing the literary elements utilized in her novel, The Girl in the Green Sweater, one can determine how tone and mood, point of view, and conflict convey the message of struggle and survival that was experienced during the Holocaust, and how they help the reader to understand and relate. To begin, the elements of tone and mood work together to reveal and support the message of survival and struggle. In the novel, Chiger uses descriptive details and her thoughts and attitudes toward the situation that she was placed into set the tone. She describes and explains the agony, hatred, and hopelessness she and others felt in the sewers, revealing her bitterness for the sewers and the Nazis. Chiger also uses mood to present her messages by creating different moods around different characters, making some optimistic and hopeful while making others pessimistic and morose. “This was a reflection of their personalities: my father was gregarious and personable; Weiss was gruff and miserable” (Chiger 107). This is relatable because some people may have disparate attitudes toward a negative situation, and each person may have a different demeanor or mood in response to it. Chiger conveys her themes of struggle and survival through tone and mood, and makes it somewhat relatable. In addition, Chiger utilizes point of view to present her own thoughts and experiences, further pushing the themes. The whole book is written in first person, meaning the author is narrating and explaining everything.
Through showing the dark and devastating experiences of the Jews during the holocaust, the emotional appeal the reader experiences is increased. As Anthony Acevedo describes, “... his fellow soldiers beaten, starved, and in some cases executed for trying to escape. Forced to dig tunnels for 12 hours a day in the final weeks of the war, the prisoners were given 100 grams of bread per week and soup made from rats.” (1). While Wiesel in a speech said, “When adults wage war, children perish. We see their faces, their eyes. Do we hear their pleas? Do we feel their pain, their agony? Every minute one of them dies…” (217). Through implementing the theme of inhumanity into an emotional appeal, Elie Wiesel allows the reader to feel as though they were in that situation in a diminished manner. The following quotes, exhibits the theme of inhumanity through the use of different punishment methods against prisoners and the effects.
Lamed Shapiro’s “The Cross” tells the story, in vivid and disturbing detail, of a Russian Jewish man who is attacked in a pogrom, alongside his estranged mother, and is branded on the forehead with a cross by his attacker. Blume Lempel’s “Images on a Blank Canvas” tells another story, in equally vivid and disturbing detail, of a woman mourning the death of her friend, a prostitute who committed suicide. In these two stories, there is one striking similarity: The survivor is portrayed by the non-survivor. In “The Cross,” the Russian Jew is depicted by his mother as the brutally murdered non-survivor of a pogrom. In “Images on a Blank Canvas,” Blume Lempel, the survivor, is depicted by her fallen friend Zosye. Through the depictions of survivors by non-survivors, Shapiro and Lempel are able to unpack the trauma stemming from a pogrom and a suicide and its effects on the survivors.
Although Gerda was destined to grow up, it was the brutal conditions and pain she suffered under Hitler’s reign that forced her to mature beyond her years. In fact, she has also developed as a woman as the years of World War II progressed, and gained a massive supply of wisdom. Having to cope with the loss of nearly everyone she loved by herself, Gerda gained much independence. Experiencing times where death seemed to be her only liberation, it was her great optimism and her family’s infamous quote “Be strong” that kept her going. Weissmann embodies perseverance and her desire to live radiates off of her and inspires others to live. Gerda Klein’s memoir is written so delicately to the point where the reader doesn’t focus on the horrors forced
To begin with, many literary devices were used in the book The Help, Girl in the Green Sweater, and To Kill a Mockingbird. However, in the three books, theme was the most used device that recurred, without any questions. The theme that is acquired in each book would definitely be the racism and discrimination which takes places in the stories and the year they occur in. Also, the discriminated race that is treated unfairly in the Girl in the Green Sweater, are jews, while in To Kill a Mockingbird and The Help, the discriminated group are the African Americans.
In “The Shawl”, Cynthia Ozick uses vivid details throughout the story to engage the reader. The story portrays the hard times Jews had during the Holocaust in a concentration camp consisting of three main characters: Rosa, Stella, and Magda who are trying to survive the horror of Nazism through a magical shawl. Rosa is the mother of Magda, a fifteen month baby and the aunt of Stella, a fourteen year old girl. The shawl is the only thing keeping them alive throughout the story and at the end it leads them to their death. The author’s use of symbolism is very significant to the story. Cynthia Ozick use of symbolism helps the reader visualize the setting by using symbols to convey different meanings and understand how these symbols characterize the experience of the holocaust survivors.
In many books authors use elements of literature to get crucial points across, such as how Krystyna Chiger did in her book, Girl in the Green Sweater. Using conflict, foreshadowing, and symbolism, Krystyna was able to explain and show her experiences during Hitler's regime (when most of the Jewish race was persecuted). When analyzing the data presented, one can see how the author was able to convey her message of struggle and survival that families in The Girl in the Green Sweater endured during the Holocaust, so that the reader could relate to the characters and situation using conflict, foreshadowing, and symbolism.
During World War II, Jews suffered many casualties and struggled for survival. This was caused by concentration camps; the reasoning for Jews to be taken seemed unexplainable in their eyes. To be a Jew in World war II, in my opinion, this was the worst thing that could be done as punishment. Sarah in Sarah’s Key by Tatiana De Rosnay experienced the sensation of going through these struggles. She suffered and sacrificed her life, knowing that she could’ve died. The traumatic events displayed in Sarah’s Key by Tatiana De Rosnay portray the real situations and sacrifices people were involved in during World War II.
Tragedies were a dime a dozen in Germany and German occupied Poland during the second world war. Hannelore Wolff a Jewish girl victimized in Nazi Germany at the time of the Holocaust. The massive onslaught of Jews by the German forces. The will to survive was at an all time low for most who saw death in vigorous amounts as well as the smell of burning flesh piled high. Hannelore a victim of the Nazi’s begins her memoir I will plant you a lilac tree as a victim, Throughout the memoir she will endure tragedies among which we’ve not faced today over the period of her imprisonment. By the end of her victimization she overcomes tragedies to reach triumph and life.
To continue, the themes in the story Girl in The Green Sweater by Krystyna Chiger and Daniel Paisner was fright and loss of innocence, as well. The overall novel was written in Krystyna's point of view of a small town of Jews surviving the Holocaust. Krysha, her family, and some of the other families within the small town of Lvov snuck into the underground sewers to hide from the Nazis. Chiger explained that they lived in the dark, with floods, fires, sicknesses, and death. They were always fearful that they would be discovered. They hid their for 14 months. Before the Nazis started capturing Jews Krysha believed the world was exactly how she
At dawn on the morning of September 1st, 1939, German forces began their invasion and subsequent occupation of Poland. Initially, the Nazi takeover did not appear to be quite as dangerous or interruptive as many Poles expected it to be, particularly in urban locales such as Warsaw. However, as the days went by, the German occupation became much more noticeable within the daily lives of the Poles. Rations and other such restrictions were placed on the Polish people, eliminating the remaining bits of pre-occupation normalcy from their lives and forcing any Pole who wanted to survive to circumvent the rules and regulations placed upon them by the Germans. The greatest risk faced by Polish civilians was death, be it in a death camp or in the cities and towns, where German forces managed to kill thousands of innocent, unlucky Poles. Documenting these events were writers William L. Shirer, an American journalist, in his Berlin Diary and Lucyna B. Radlo, a teenage girl from Poland, in her novel Between Two Evils. The experiences of Polish civilians during the German occupation and the Poles’ transition from near-normalcy to near-death within their daily lives model how a combination of hard work, creativity, and a stroke of luck can be the key to survival.
Gerda was 15 when she was moved into a ghetto called the Bielsko ghetto in 1939 ,September 1. Gerda had an older brother who was 19. But that changed when young men 16 and up had to sign up for the army. Now it was just Gerda and her parents. Then german fighter planes appeared overhead, causing people to flee the city. Her family remanded in the town. In the morning, she heard intense shouting and saw Nazi’s on motorcycles shouting “Heil Hitler”. One day women and men were separated and asked to be put in lines. Gerda was in the line with her mother and a guard asked her how old she was and she said, “18”. Then she was put in a truck a shouting at her mother to ask where she was going and her mother said she didn’t know. Gerda jumped out of the truck but a SS officer caught her and said to her that she was too young to die. Then she knew that her mother was going to die. After Gerda being moved into the ghetto she was deported in 1942 to work in a factory in Bolkenhain, Silesia. Besides the of all the labor and hunger there was caring caring between the inmates. A German supervisor, Mrs. Kugler, saved Gerda’s life because when Gerda got sick and the SS men had to inspected her to see if she should continue working or die. Mrs. Kugler helped her pass the Inspection by just letting her work and then rest again. She was moved to a camp called Marzdorf and spent three years there. It
In the war of World War two, life was hard when the Germans attack Denmark and was planning to liquidate the Ghetto. I will be comparing a poem to a story. The two people i'll be comparing and contrast Cristiana Chiger and Pavel Friedmann. Both people tried escape from the germans and death. Sadly the only place they could go was the sewer, but Pavel didn’t make it and was sent to death camp where he started his poem. On the other hand Cristiana made it to the sewer and stayed there for multiple months. This all happen just because they were Jewish. There choice was sewers or dieng. To die from your enemy or live in torture for months. Pour Cristiana had live in the sewer fourteen months straight. Now that you
This book begins with a heartbreaking story of an 8-year-old girl named Luncia Gamzer’s. During the time when the Gestapo were issued to capture a specific number of jews, her father, Isaac, instantly removed her out of the ghetto in Lvov, Poland, to be safe and sound. However, not only did the woman who took her in her house put herself in a dead situation but also to the rest of her family. The eight children in the book deeply believe in their heart that someday life for them would change, even when prisoners at the death camp, including their parents and families, were being machine-gunned, hang and killed.
Charlie Halverson English 8 Book Thief final essay Monday, December 18 Irony through the Book Thief Authors use irony in literature to make the reader think and question the book. It is different in the way that this author portrays irony throughout the book in the book about the holocaust. Normally in a book about the holocaust, the author would never write a piece like this on such a serious topic because of how it has affected people so seriously and painfully. But the author probably used irony to make the book different. Now that there are a lot of book about the Holocausts in the world authors have to make their books stand out.
The spine chilling experiences Jewish individuals faced during the holocaust are conveyed well in the short story “The Shawl” as the author, Cynthia Ozick illustrates the horrific battle of motherhood and strife for survival they faced. Rosa, Ozick’s main character experiences an internal battle of nurturing her infant Magda and following her motherly instincts or fighting for her own survival. Magda another crucial character grips onto the ropes of life through the threads of the shawl but when she loses her shawl she loses her life showing the harsh realities of the concentration camps. Through the use of symbolism and carefully orchestrated imagery Ozick brings to life the unspeakable struggles the Jewish faced to survive in the midst