City of Thieves – David Benioff
How has David Benioff explored the dehumanising aspects of war in his novel?
City of Thieves is historical fiction set in the besieged Russian city of Leningrad during World War Two. Lev Beniov, a Jewish seventeen year old, details his story as the protagonist through his first person narrative perspective of the siege. Benioff’s focus is the desensitized attitudes and behaviour shared by characters throughout the novel as they contend with dehumanising situations which would appear horrifying under circumstances that have been unaffected by war. Through the utilisation of techniques such as characterisation, plot and first person narrative, Benioff explores the dehumanising aspects of war in his novel.
Benioff’s
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This is first evidenced by Lev’s encounter with a cannibal who lures unsuspecting patrons into his apartment where they are then murdered and eaten. The act of cannibalisation in a normal functioning society would be condemned and punished swiftly, however in war torn Leningrad where any means of survival are necessary, when Lev informs the authorities of this heinous act he is met with disdain. The only response is, “there are cannibals in every building… welcome to Leningrad.” Benioff additionally includes scenes that depict the discriminatory persecution of Bolsheviks as less than human by the Germans. After being captured and placed into a forced procession of prisoners travelling to a local German camp, Lev witnesses the Einsatzkommando’s trick the literary men in the group to identify themselves. They are then lined up against a wall and met with a hail of gunfire until they “lay splayed and shredded on the ground”, murdered simply because they are educated and as a result pose a potential threat to German dominance. Lev remains seemingly unfazed with little emotional response, remarking instead on the response of others. “I looked at Vika, but she was staring off into the distance, refusing to watch.” Lev has become desensitized to these graphic scenes of dehumanisation, due to the regularity of their occurrence as a result of the desperate and cruel behaviours that have been exhibited by those in authority and power during the
"Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson is a brilliant work of non-fiction that chronicles the story of two men, one an architect and the other a serial killer, who were operating in the city of Chicago during the 1893 World's Fair. The book weaves together the stories of these two men, and in doing so, brings to life the grandeur and excitement of the fair, as well as the darkness and horror of the murders. The main character of the book is Daniel Burnham, who was the architect in charge of organizing the construction of the World's Fair. Burnham was an architect of great vision, who had been responsible for numerous projects throughout the country before being given the monumental task of organizing the fair. Larson's book follows Burnham's journey as he worked tirelessly to ensure that the fair would be a success.
Said Kolya . . . Run, you little fool!”(Benioff, page 70-71) These statements illustrate the care Kolya has come to develop for Lev and how he is willing to put himself in danger to ensure Lev's safety. In contrast, Kolya’s relationship with Lev has also grown his trust and faith in him. As they encounter various challenges, Kolya demonstrates the level of faith and trust he has in Lev by betting his and a girl named Vika's life over a game of chess, putting their lives in Lev’s hands; “I believe in my friend.
By saying this the author explained how evil, and unjust the SS officers were to the prisoners. This explains how the Nazi soldiers treated the Jews, and that they had no regard for how they
These men were not hardened SS officers, nor were they the well organized, inherently anti-Semitic men of the Einsatzgruppen. They were not the sort of men one would expect to commit mass murder. Browning seeks to understand why this titular group of ordinary men became the perpetrators of the worst genocide in human history. His answer is disturbing. The men of the reserve battalion could have been anyone.
Before this occurs, however, the Jews are stripped of all of their freedom, belongings, and much of their clothes. Instead, the Nazis view them only by their Jewish heritage. This removes every person’s individuality, as they are defined according to what they have. The manner that the people were transported was through cattle cars. This was a particularly harsh and unhealthy environment.
Fighting Against Hate & Intolerance in the Holocaust It is a widely known fact that eleven million people were brutally murdered in the Holocaust. Many people argue that the roots of these killings were hate and intolerance. During World War II, innumerable people were victims of Adolf Hitler’s widespread beliefs that the Aryan race was better than others. Unfortunately, they had to endure this prejudice for a very long time, but many heroes fought against these unfair views. The characters of The Book Thief, Eva’s Story, Paper Clips, and The Whispering Town all show amazing courage and cleverness when fighting against the hate and intolerance the Jews and other persecuted people endured.
In Maus, Art Spiegelman records his personal accounts of trying to delve into his father’s traumatic past. His father, Vladek, is a Jew from Poland who survived persecution during World War II. Art wants to create a graphic novel about what his father went through during the Holocaust, so he reconnects with Vladek in order to do so. Due to the horrifying things that the Jews went through he has trouble opening up completely about all the things that happened to him. But after Art gets together with his father many times, he is finally able to understand the past legacy of the Spiegelman family.
In Night one of the ways that the Jews were dehumanized was by abuse. There were beatings, “I never felt anything except the lashes of the whip... Only the first really hurt.” (Wiesel, 57) “They were forced to dig huge trenches. When they had finished their work, the men from the Gestapo began theirs.
Franz Stangl’s name had been lost to history for decades. He lived halfway across the world from where he committed countless unimaginable crimes in peace, thinking his deeds and name had floated away like the ashes of his victims. More than twenty years after the Holocaust, Franz was finally captured and sent back to Germany where his fate would soon transpire. In an interview which took place later in his life, Stangl compared his victims to “cargo to be dispatched,” and “a mass of rotting flesh.” He believed his actions were justified and that Jews were not people, but a mass, a mass which needed to be terminated immediately.
The characters in a story. They are hard to bring to life, yet a story would be incomplete without them. I love to write, and I often don’t have troubles creating my characters. But what makes every character stand out is that special thing about each and every one of them. That’s one thing that I loved about “The Book Thief,” by Markus Zusak.
The disappearance of his father makes Sasha question everything he’s known. The setting and characters Yelchin creates make Breaking Stalin’s Nose a memorable work of literature. Eugene Yelchin was born and raised in the Soviet Union before moving to the United States as an adult, and his father survived the Great Terror—a period of great censorship and arbitrary executions in the 1930s. Yelchin pays great attention to detail when describing the setting for the book as the 1930s Soviet Union almost
Based on the circumstances that they are developed in, humans are capable of both good and evil. Markus Zusak's The Book Thief explores the complexities of human nature through his use of setting, symbols and characters. Different characters possess different qualities based on their experiences. Symbols are used to illustrate both the beauty and the ugliness in humanity. Also, in the novel, the setting in which the character is raised has either a negative or positive effect on the characters actions.
Growing as a Character Every event in our lives happens for a reason, whether it is to learn from our mistakes or to gain experience from them. In Markus Zusak's novel “The Book Thief,” Liesel Meminger uses her experiences with living in the 1940s to learn life lessons and experience first hand the many terrible things Hitler is doing to people around her. She learns how to deal with the many obstacles that are thrown at her. Liesel grows as a character by following her step-father’s footsteps in being a kind and generous person, going through childhood with her best friend Rudy, and being aware of what is going on around her by learning from Max.
According to the Merriam Webster online dictionary, humanity can be describes as “the quality or state of being humane” (in other words being kind to others) or “the quality or state of being human.” In David Benioff’s novel City of Thieves, both definitions can can be used when discussing the loss of humanity. From the cannibals in the marketplace to the young women in the farmhouse and the German soldiers, there are many examples of how people may lose their humanity during stressful times, especially during times of war. Lev is faced with many challenges throughout his journey where his humanity and the humanity of others is tested. When in a war ravaged, desperate atmosphere humanity can be an extremely tough thing for people to hold
Saint Petersburg, the setting of Crime and Punishment, plays a major role in the formation in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s acclaimed novel. Dostoyevsky’s novels focus on the theme of man as a subject of his environment. Dostoyevsky paints 1860s St. Petersburg as an overcrowded, filthy, and chaotic city. It is because of Saint Petersburg that Raskolnikov is able to foster in his immoral thoughts and satisfy his evil inclinations. It is only when Raskolnikov is removed from the disorderly city and taken to the remoteness of Siberia that he can once again be at peace.