Tommy's 'Maturity In The Face Of Adversity'

Yadonay Gereslassie

Mr. Emmons

ENG 2D1

11,4,2023

Maturity in the Face of adversity

Death and being forced to live around it are traumatic, and the Holocaust forced the inhabitants of the camps to experience this daily. The lucky child by Thomas Bergenthal, perfectly encapsulates how Tommy, the main character, goes through these hardships learning to grow and mature. As a survivor of the Holocaust, he lived through concentration camps, and while that experience was traumatizing it was a major step in Tommy's emotional maturity. Symbolically there are also many ways Tommy changed over the course of the novel. Though character development is seen in these ways, Tommy's character development is a major indicator of emotional development. The novel

The concentration camps that Tommy experienced, get looked at at different points in the novel. At this point Tommy was crushed, from months of abuse, and he is starting to believe he “grew up in the camps, [he] knew no other life, and [his] sole objective was to stay alive”(Bergenthal 11). This shows Tommy's, and everyone else's unbridled fear of the camps themselves. This fear that they will never leave permeates the early chapters of the book. However, Tommy realizes these camps are some eternal prison, but a temporary obstacle that he overcomes, learns, and changes from. In contrast to the camps, the orphanage was where Tommy first began. Tommy loved the orphanage, and to him, it was his crutch could lean on. He “enjoyed almost every minute of [his] stay at the orphanage’ because he was finally able to hide to detach himself from his trauma (Bernthal 93). While this stay was therapeutic, it was also negative in the way that Tommy was avoiding his true feelings and inner thoughts. He would sometimes break the peaceful atmosphere, by remembering memories of his parents. This would bring him down to reality allowing him to truly gain perspective on his past present and future situations. These moments were his first step to growing and changing after the trauma he felt. The setting was not only crucial to the novel but also to Tommy's change and how he would later

However, Tommy still went through a phase where he would act grown up to avoid reality. Due to the trauma, he faced he “had to grow up fast” making him act differently than he used to. Tommy would live his days repressing his emotions, he would act tough in front of the other kids at the orphanage, but that was a lie. Tommy could not grapple with the possibility that his parents might be dead. This was why he acted differently at the orphanage. This is also why when he reunites with his mother, he can let go of the emotions, embracing his mom. Furthermore, Tommy also grew past his hate, able to let the hate he holds against his tormentors go. Tommy was a child when he went through the Holocaust and had the whole trajectory of his life change. He had to live through “hate [because] of racial and religious” but even still he manages to forgive (Bernthal 104). Forgiveness is a key trait in maturity, and with the hardship he faced by German soldiers, and the people forgiving them is a major feat. Tommy was driven out of Germany, forced on the run only to get captured by his countrymen, and then imprisoned for his race is diabolical; nevertheless, Tommy thought of what his hate would achieve and decided to be the bigger person forgiving the German people. The struggle Tommy faces, and how he grows and matures throughout the novel felt like we were there to see