“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
The novel ‘Night’ written by Elie Wiesel and the film ‘Schindlers List’ directed by Steven Spielberg, are both based in World War 2 and more specifically the holocaust and the attempted cleanse of the Jewish race. These two texts both heavily demonstrate the horrors and brutalities that the Jewish people had faced during the holocaust. The two depictions of these events have many similarities although one being word and the other being film, however they differ in perspective, Schindlers List showing an outside look at the events where Night is a first person experience. The two representations of the holocaust, although are opposites of perspective both do not shy away from showing the brutalities and the wickedness that took
The Holocaust took place during the years 1933 to 1945. It was an attempt to remove all of the Jews, and other smaller groups such as homosexuals and Jehovah's Witnesses, which lived in the country of Germany. The events that took place during the holocaust were lead by a German man named Adolf Hitler. Schindler's List is a film about the Holocaust from a man named Oskar Schindler's perspective as a leader of a concentration camp. The film displays the five stages of the Holocaust.
Night and Day In the great history of man, there is no event committed as gut-wrenchingly ignoble as the Holocaust. Therefore, conveying the devastation and emotional trauma on a believable and personal level is a sign of fantastic writing, which can be seen in Elie Wiesel’s Night. Moreover, to take this awful situation and put an almost light-hearted twist on it is also increasable, which is seen in the film “Life is Beautiful.” Accordingly, both of these mediums portray main characters that are in concentration camps, but present them in varying ways that create stories that feel completely different.
Despite the brave front that Vladek has put in the years following the war, his story remains to be a tale of suffering, agony, and death. The story of Vladek’s survival during the Holocaust is the central aspect of the novel,
From the small town of Sighet in Transylvania to the huge concentration camps of Auschwitz. Elie Wiesel, the author and victim of the book Night, the horrifying experience of the Holocaust. Wiesel is a 15 year old Jewish boy who was captured by the Germans or “Nazis” during WWII. He went through an overwhelming amount of trauma, like when he got separated from his mother and sisters and watching his father suffer an unbearable amount of pain that eventually killed him. The fact is, power is a tool that can corrupt itself and others, it can ruin people’s lives and it can do that without people even realizing it.
Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night tells the personal tale of his account of the inhumanity and brutality the Nazis showed during the Holocaust. Night depicts the story of a young Jew from the small town of Sighet named Eliezer. Wiesel and his family are deported to the concentration camp known as Auschwitz. He must learn to survive with his father’s help until he finds liberation from the horror of the camp. This memoir, however, hides a greater lesson that can only be revealed through careful analyzation.
At times, it appears unviable for one’s life to transform overnight in just a few hours. However, this is something various individuals experienced in soul and flesh as they were impinged by those atrocious memoirs of the Holocaust. In addition, the symbolism portrayed throughout the novel Night, written by Elie Wiesel, presents an effective fathoming of the feelings and thoughts of what it’s like to undergo such an unethical circumstance. For instance, nighttime plays a symbolic figure throughout the progression of the story as its used to symbolize death, darkness of the soul,
The severely cruel conditions of concentration camps had a profound impact on everyone who had the misfortune of experiencing them. For Elie Wiesel, the author of Night and a survivor of Auschwitz, one aspect of himself that was greatly impacted was his view of humanity. During his time before, during, and after the holocaust, Elie changed from being a boy with a relatively average outlook on mankind, to a shadow of a man with no faith in the goodness of society, before regaining confidence in humanity once again later in his life. For the first 13 years of his life, Elie seemed to have a normal outlook on humanity.
In war, there is no clarity, no sense of definite, everything swirls and mixes together. In Tim O’Brien’s novel named “The Things They Carried”, the author blurs the lines between the concepts like ugliness and beauty to show how the war has the potential to blend even the most contrary concepts into one another. “How to Tell a True War Story” is a chapter where the reader encounters one of the most horrible images and the beautiful descriptions of the nature at the same time. This juxtaposition helps to heighten the blurry lines between concepts during war. War photography has the power to imprint a strong image in the reader’s mind as it captures images from an unimaginable world full of violence, fear and sometimes beauty.
The Holocaust was one of the most tragic events in history. It just so happened to be the cause of six million deaths. While there are countless beings who experienced such trauma, it is impossible to hear everyone's side of the story. However, one man, in particular, allowed himself to speak of the tragedies. Elie Wiesel addressed the transformation he underwent during the Holocaust in his memoir, Night.
Undoubtedly , WW1 was the first utmost military conflict in the modern times that has evoked variety of literary responses which reflect the sociopolitical and psychological background of that time and are considered as vital part of the historical and cultural memory of WW1 . War poetry has provided us with variety of images of the war and the battlefield by men who have experienced the reality of war face-to-face. On the other hand, women knew from the beginning that the war was going to be a great tragedy not only for men who were enlisted in the army , but also for women on the homefront who battled against the fear and horror aroused by WW1 . Women 's voices of agony, anger and anguish have emerged from the shadows of marginalization during WW1 to express their anti-war attitude. Women 's poetry of WW1 mirrors the 'new ' roles that women took during WW1 and shows the connection between men in the battlefield and
The memoir written by Elie Wiesel, Night, is illustrating the Holocaust, the even which caused the death of over 6 million Jews. Auschwitz, the concentration camps, is responsible for over 1 million of the deaths. In the memoir Night, Wiesel uses the symbolism of fire, and silence to clearly communicate to the readers that the Holocaust was a catastrophic and calamitous event, and that children should never be involved in warfare. Elie Wiesel enters Auschwitz at the age of 15, and witnesses’ horrific events as a prisoner in Auschwitz, including the deaths of numerous children, and the beating and death of his own father. All these inhumane things were done just because Adolf Hitler wanted to cleanse the German society of the Jews.
In a span of 10 years, the Holocaust killed over 7 million people, that’s just as much as the population of Hong Kong. In the book Night, by Elie Wiesel, Wiesel shares his experience on how he survived the Holocaust and what he went through. How he dealt with the horrors and even to how he felt of his dad’s death and how he saw himself after it was all over. As he tried to publish it he was constantly turned down due to the fact of how horrid and truful it was. He still tried and tried until it was finally published.
It is a common assumption among numerous people in the world that the Holocaust never existed. In fact, almost fifty percent of the world population never even heard of the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel helped people around the world learn about the Holocaust through his book “Night.” He wanted people to see the bravery, courage, and guilt of the Jews through his book. “Night” shows the horrific and malicious acts in the German concentration camps during the Holocaust.
The Holocaust was a horrible event in history that will scar humanity forever. With the events of the Holocaust being experienced by millions there are many different perspectives of said events. One such perspective is presented in Night, a memoir written by Elie Wiesel about his experiences as a young Jewish boy during the Holocaust. Another perspective is presented in Schindler’s List, a film directed by Steven Spielberg (based on the novel Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally) about Oskar Schindler, a gentile who saves over one thousand Jewish lives during the Holocaust. Both pieces show heart wrenching stories of the abuse of a group of people in different ways, each using different mediums to convey their points.