Analysis Of Max By Sarah Cohen-Scali

Bombs everywhere, mutafied bodies lay spread across the fields for miles, these descriptions are only a few of the horrifying things Max is going to witness in his near future. This petrifying novel depicts all of the inhumane teachings of the Nazi party during World War 2. The book Max by Sarah Cohen-Scali is a must read book for anybody looking to learn about the Holocaust. The book Max really illustrates how even in times of dissolute and war, few people in the world are still able to show kindness to one another. As a future Nazi, Max is being taught to despise all Jews good or bad and fight in the name of their Führer. All of this will have Max make a new unexpected friend of the enemy even in the knowing of the possibility of death. The theme that is universal in the novel Max and is illustrated below is the belief, don’t believe everything you hear.

“It’s one thing that he’s Polish. We got over that. As Ebner said, A seed of the highest quality, which has not been planted in the right spot. But Jewish. Jewish! A yid! A kike!”(Cohen-Scali pg. 226). In this passage, the main protagonist Max, is processing that

In this passage Max had a assignment in school to draw a Jewish person once they make a life in Germany. Due to his inadequate drawing skill he had his fellow classmate Manfred draw it. Case in point, “A fat, potbellied Jew, sitting with his legs splayed on a huge sask in the shape of a globe of the world, with the word MONEY written in capitals across the front of the globe.”(Cohen-Scali). The external force that is not blatantly stated but implied in the quote is all of the Nazi propaganda. This drawing is meant to depict Hitler’s vision of all Jewish people. This propaganda made Max change at birth due to the fact that no human is born hating anybody. Images and other false evidence was drilled into Max’s mind causing him to change for the worse and be disgusted with