World War II (WWII) is a very common topic discussed in high school english classes mainly due to the facts that WWII is a perfect example of good vs. evil in the real world and there is an endless amount of books written about this tragic era in history. Two examples of these type of books are Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken and Elie Wiesel’s Night; and like all of the other WWII books, these two address themes about the hardships of war and how hope is always present. One specific theme that these books support is that in war, there will always be peace; this is shown through elements of faith, happiness, and trauma. To begin, the two main characters of the books Unbroken and Night face a struggle with their individual faiths, but in very different ways. Louis (Louie) Zamperini initially was not the most religious man but when faced with the most dire of situations he turned to God repeatedly for help and counsel.
In Night, one is faced with silence and negligence from the world. While being unwillingly evacuated from his home, Eliezer’s friends and neighbours stayed inside and watched as their former companions marched to their impending death. As Eliezer noted, “from behind their windows, from behind their shutters, our fellow citizens watched as we passed.’ (Eliezer Wiesel, 19) The Hungarian civilians watched in silence too naive and confused to approach the German military and help the Jewish people.
A Separate Peace Wars are cruel, ruthless, and catastrophic. Lives are destroyed, and families are ripped apart. People are turned against each other, and seek to extinguish one another. “Of the past 3,400 years, humans have been entirely at peace for 268 of them, or just 8 percent of recorded history” (Chris Hedges, New York Times). In John Knowles, A Separate Peace, Gene Forrester, a foolish teenager, experiences his own war; a clash between friendship and insecurities.
“There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide” (Emerson). The character Gene learns of this not until after many trials and a great tragedy. In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the idea of self-reliance is greatly stressed. The novel A Separate Peace conveys how Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affect him, how Gene’s envy and imitation affect their relationship with Finny, and Gene’s achievement of peace. The envy towards and imitation of Funny greatly affect Gene.
The narrator of “The Seventh Man” should forgive himself because the blame he puts on himself, is not logical, because he couldn’t have done anything to save his best friend, K. In the short story, “The Seventh Man” the narrator describes the guilt and burden he carries throughout his life and how he lives a difficult life full of sorrow. The guilt he feels is called “survivor guilt”. The thought that someone could of done or should of done differently is considered “survivor guilt”. The blame that the narrator feels is very irrational.
Rubino Salmoni and Eliezer Wiesel tell their stories not to revel in the dark moments, but to show their readers the light in the horrific situation they lived through.
Let this essay be a reminder to the world that totalitarian ideologies will bring forth catastrophe just as National Socialism did in Nazi Germany. The memoirs of Rudolf Hoss, Death Dealer, is one of the most detailed accounts of a man who was the Commandant of Auschwitz, and is known as one of the greatest mass murderers in history. In the forward Primo Levi wrote to Death Dealer, he stated that even though this autobiography is filled with evil and has no literary quality, it’s one of the most instructive books ever published because it describes a human life exemplary in its way (Hoss, 3). In this essay, I will argue that Primo Levi thought Death Dealer is one of the most instructive books because it seeks to explain how ordinary men
The wolves that appear over the hill when Ulrich and Georg call for help also demonstrate both the power of nature and its disregard for men or their concerns. Pinned, neither man will be able to fight off the wolves or death. like the Beech tree, “Wolves” (Saki online). will not recognize the different class levels of the two men. Both Ulrich and Georg were initially convinced that whoever’s group was first to arrive would kill the rival forester. After their reconciliation, the men believed that the first group of foresters would save the former rival.
Perils of Indifference delivers his message effectively, but not to the same degree of his memoir, for it isn’t able to explore these the horrors of the Holocaust, and use the same extent of literary terms because of its length
Wiesel pinpoints the indifference of humans as the real enemy, causing further suffering and lost to those already in peril. Wiesel commenced the speech with an interesting attention getter: a story about a young Jewish from a small town that was at the end of war liberated from Nazi rule by American soldiers. This young boy was in fact himself. The first-hand experience of cruelty gave him credibility in discussing the dangers of indifference; he was a victim himself.
Have you ever felt abandoned? Abandonment is a very common thing in our society today and happens in many different circumstances and is a feeling no one likes to have. Isolation is a very big theme in the story “Zolaria” and is also considered the monster of the short story. I saw many different themes and monsters in the story “Zolaria” but the main themes are isolation and sickness. Isolation and sickness are monsters are monsters that effect characters by altering friendships, changing personalities and showing character.
The characterization of Moshie and Mrs. Shachter shows the indifference and denial of the Jews of Sighet. The chilling juxtaposition of a beautiful landscape containing a camp of death illustrates how the world not only was indifferent to the inhumane suffering, but also continued to shine brightly as if nothing really mattered. This timeless theme of denial and its consequences during the Holocaust echoes the struggles of those in our time who are persecuted solely due to their beliefs. The reader takes away the important lesson of never turning away from those who need it greatest, each time one reads Elie Wiesel’s memoir,
“The only person with whom you have to compare yourself is you in the past.” Sigmund Freud is considered one of the most influential psychologists in history, and many of his ideas and theories are continually changing how people and society view and perceive the world. One of his better-known ideas is that of the id, ego, and superego. These ideas can be applied to the characters in A Separate Peace, specifically Gene and Phineas. In addition, Gene utilizes many defense mechanisms, such as displacement and rationalization.
In the case of this experiment the point of views regarding the prisoner varies from two sides; Mr. Zimbardo's and the guards. Through the course of the experiment, Mr. Zimbardo seems disconnected to the experiment as he fails to realize till the very end that he himself has become what he had wished to educate others to watch out
It’s difficult to imagine the way humans brutally humiliate other humans based on their faith, looks, or mentality but somehow it happens. On the novel “Night” by Elie Wiesel, he gives the reader a tour of World War Two through his own eyes , from the start of the ghettos all the way through the liberation of the prisoners of the concentration camps. This book has several themes that develop throughout its pages. There are three themes that outstand from all the rest, these themes are brutality, humiliation, and faith. They’re the three that give sense to the reading.
