“He who saves the life of one saves the world entire.” These powerful words from the Talmud were spoken by Itzhak Stern on behalf of 1400 Jewish men, women and children saved from certain death by the actions of one man. The account of his actions is found in a novel that can only be described as a classic. That story is Schindler’s Ark and today I would like to share with you why it should be recognized as part of the literary canon.
But what is the literary canon? Stories and legends are woven into the fabric of our identity. They allow us to ascend beyond the confines of reality to a world of, limitless experiences, and emotions. However, not all literature is created equal. A select few works have managed to capture something where others
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The masterpiece is a blood-soaked tapestry woven together from the gruesome yet acute details of horror during the Holocaust which revealed themselves in the southern Polish city of Krakow after the Nazi occupation. Set between the years of 1939 and 1945, the narrative follows the remarkable account of how one man, Oskar Schindler, a Czech born, Sudeten German industrialist and wartime privateer, who danced with death to save the lives of 1400 Jewish men, women and children from the chambers of Auschwitz. The worldly Oskar originally arrived in the city for purely financial purposes. While his infidelity and insatiable appetite for liquor and women make him an unlikely hero it was this man’s refusal to ignore his humanity that led him to single-handedly saved the most Jewish lives in the entire Holocaust period. Thomas Keneally was inspired to write the novel after meeting a Holocaust survivor, Poldek Pfefferberg in a suitcase shop in Los Angeles. While written thirty-seven years after the war, this true account captures the intricacies of life in a time when no other light shone in the world. The reality of the narrative in addition to the universality of its themes and the unique and unparalleled exploration of the human experience through accessible imagery and adept literary techniques creates a work that is an essential part of the modern