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Paper Hearts By Meg Wiviott Comparison

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While readers learn the same information from the informational website The Holocaust Explained and the novel Paper Hearts by Meg Wiviott, the different perspectives, diction used, and tone help the reader to learn this information differently; readers gain knowledge in a formal tone from The Holocaust Explained while experiencing a dark and emotional view from a victim in Paper Hearts. The point of view in both The Holocaust Explained and Paper Hearts impacts the reader and how they learn. “Showers” in Paper Hearts, is retold by Fania. She had just arrived at Auschwitz as a Jew during the Holocaust. She describes how “Hundreds of girls pushed forward / Led into the Sauna / [The German soldiers told the girls to] Take off [their] clothes! …show more content…

/ Regretted it. / [She] remained quiet. / Arms crossed, / Covered what [she] could / From soldier’s stares” (70.1.1-9). This excerpt can be compared to The Holocaust Explained which is written very differently than Paper Hearts. A snippet from an article in The Holocaust Explained titled “Arrival at Concentration Camps” says that “After registration, the prisoners were told to undress. They were then forced to have their head shaved, and forced to shower, usually in front of hundreds of other people and the SS guards'' (Arrival at Concentration Camps, 4). Both sources share the information that prisoners had to shower in front of many others upon their arrival. While they share the same information, Paper Hearts emphasizes the victims, or Fania’s, feelings towards the information and makes the reader feel like they are experiencing the situation. The Holocaust Explained describes the facts more traditionally …show more content…

The article “Arrival at Concentration Camps” explains how “once the prisoners had arrived at the camp, they were unloaded from their transportation vehicles” (The Holocaust Explained, 1). This information is very explicit and easy to understand for the reader as the diction is very straightforward. Therefore, this leads to an easier and more efficient learning process regarding the Holocaust. However, Paper Hearts is approached differently because it is written implicitly with a more emotional toll. One of many poems “Disembarking” explains that victims “jumped/ fell/ [and] were pushed/ from the train./ Human cargo disgorged./ The SS waited/ guns ready” (60.1,2/1-7). This excerpt is noticeably harder to read or understand than the article. Also, Meg Wiviott uses different poetic devices like enjambed lines and imagery to create a different encounter for the reader. This creates a harder reading experience where the reader might have to think about what the information means, but also brings a distinct interpretation to the knowledge. The information in these passages both express the same ideas concerning how the victims got off of their transportation. But, they are both written in divergent ways, causing the reader to learn the information

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