As stated in the text, “They carry slingshots, fashion spears, rehearse ambushes from behind snowbanks. They join a bristling gang of miners’ sons who sit in the market square, sleeves rolled up, shorts hiked to their hips. ‘Good evening,’ the cry at passerby. ‘Or heil Hitler, if you prefer!’ They give each other matching haircuts and wrestle in the parlor and brag about the rifle training they’re preparing for, the gliders they’ll fly, the tank turrets they’ll operate. Our flag represents the new era, chant Hans and Herribert, our flag leads us to eternity.” (Doerr, 42) This passage provided a better image of how naive and brainwashed civilians of the Nazi regime became. The author provides a description which underlyingly emphasizes the historical aspect of the book; readers can infer the time period and location just from the greetings used and the manner of the citizens. Because the general traffic on streets today have a destination or purpose, I found it interesting that people seemed to casually inhabit
Although humans may originally behave due to innate reasons, much of literature argues external forces shape character and possess the power to influence the way societies behave. Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief exhibits how individuals may react in times of discrimination, and demonstrates the love and hate accompanying war. Difficult times challenge morality, and tests one’s limits; Liesel Meminger perseveres through arduous events, namely due to her identity as a creative and brave adolescent. Liesel’s identity is shaped and ultimately strengthened by outside forces.
Hans Fallada’s novel Little Man What Now, illustrates the story of a German man who hits low points throughout his life. Pinneberg is the man that is forced to marry when he gets his girlfriend pregnant. He struggles from one job to another and is struggling to support his family. This story depicts the overwhelming reality of a middle class family in Germany. A difficulty of maintaining a budget is important in society. It includes the fear of the middle class towards the government too. Han’s Fallada novel is effective in describing the realities of the middle class families in they struggle to maintain a job, to maintain a marriage, and to maintain the trends within society.
The movie Passchendaele has been historically accurate about the themes of war. It has shown that those in command are willing to do anything to get young men to become a part of the war, which included public shaming, like we had seen during Sgt. Michael’s award ceremony, and lying and taking advantage of the more innocent teens, like David Mann, who was gotten rid of by Dr. Walker. What was also accurately shown was the extreme racism and persecution of those who were of different colour or race .Sarah Mann, who had stayed in Canada all her life, had her home vandalized with the word “Hun” painted on the walls. She might’ve even been assaulted by the group of men outside of her door
Stasiland (2002) is a non-fiction journalistic text written by Anna Funder whereas, in 1984 (1949) written by George Orwell is a dystopian novel. Both texts look at how oppression works and what they have in common is the oppression of individualities. Anne funder is looking at what really happened, yet it is still horrific however, Orwell takes it to an extreme because it’s a novel. In addition to this, in Stasiland people’s privacy and freedom is being invaded because of the uncontrollable power that the Stasi holds. This is the same with 1984, Big Brother and how they would watch everything that happens to every single individual so they’re not going against the country.
Combat, loyalty, enmity, bloodshed, and duty, all words that fit under the category of war. The novel Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand is about Louis Zamperini a strong willed man raised in Torrance, California. He started as a young troublemaker until he discovered his passion for running in high school. That very passion led him to compete in the Olympics. Later he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, a brave decision that would change his life. War and its affinities have various emotional effects on different individuals, whether facing adversity within the war or when experiencing the psychological aftermath.
In the wake of Adolf Eichmann’s prosecution for commanding the slaying of over 1 million Jews, Psychologist Stanley Milgram called the role of authority into question. What would propel such evil acts from a seemingly normal man? In spite of what top psychologists assumed the outcome would be, the results were astounding. Despite the deep rooted convictions of the subjects opposed to causing physical harm to others, obedience to authority overcame the majority of the time (The Perils of Obedience by Stanley Milgram)
“Is it possible to forgive and not forget? How can victims come to peace with their past, and hold on to their own humanity and morals in the process?” In The Sunflower, Simon Wiesenthal writes about an incident that occurs when he is imprisoned in a concentration camp. One day, when he is working in a hospital, he gets summoned to the room of a dying SS member. His head wrapped in bandages his body so thin his bones stick out, he reaches for Simon's hand and says, “I am resigned to dying soon, but before that I want to talk about an experience which is torturing me. Otherwise I cannot die in peace.” The member of the SS, tortured by his murderous crimes, seeks forgiveness from a Jew, any Jew. “I cannot die...without coming clean. This must be my confession.” Simon stays silent inching farther and farther away from the
Fritz Lang’s M is a combination of a social film and a murder mystery—directed in 1931, in the midst of the Nazi movement’s takeover of German goverment, the film chronicles the public’s congregation to catch an infamous serial killer. Beckert, the child murder himself is presented to the audience several times throughout the film; he is shown to be involved with a constant internal struggle between allowing the darkest parts of his mind to overcome him and remaining sane. However, this film is, in some respects, making a statement less about murder and more about society at the time in which the film was released. More specifically, the film warns against and even mocks the competency and ability of the police to perform their jobs.
Before World War I, all of Europe in 1914, was tense and like a bomb or a fire was waiting to erupt. Europe had not seen a major war in years, but due to Militarism, Imperialism, Alliances, and Nationalism tensions grew high. Each country was competing to be the best by gaining more territory and growing in their military size and successful economies. World War 1 was waiting to happen and the assassination of the Archduke was the spark that lit Europe up. In All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque we see the effects of the assassination. In the story, the audience, is immersed in a typical Germans soldiers life when going to the front, waiting to go to the front, injured, and when on leave. The audience is shown the terrible experiences the soldiers experience and the emotions that they feel in many
Millions of people have gone through life-altering experiences in their time in World War I. In Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Bäumer, a 19-year-old German soldier, narrates his personal memoirs of this war. He describes the mental change and suffering he goes through as he is forced to mature from a young boy to a soldier in order to survive, leaving him permanently scarred from the throes of war. By employing juxtaposition to contrast Paul’s mindset, before and after the war, Remarque demonstrates how the mental health of the World War I soldiers is damaged because of the abrupt loss of their youth, leaving them in a state of survival and mental instability.
Bernhard Schlink’s novel The Reader, set in Germany in the post-World War II era, explores the social and cultural tensions between the Nazi and Post – Nazi generations in the aftermath of the Third Reich. Schlink uses literary techniques in The Reader to evoke the reader’s sympathy for flawed characters. Schlink does this through using motifs, symbolism, and foreshadowing to portray the protagonists flaw of inferiority and Hanna’s illiteracy. Characterisation and imagery are used to portray the character’s actions, and as a result, the reader’s perception of the characters change throughout the novel. Schlink uses tone, narration, and juxtaposition to convey to the reader the emotionless and monotonous way in which Michael narrates the story,
He brings his experience from the bombing of Dresden and recalls his encounters during the tragedy. Through the subject of Billy, he describes the aftermath of man’s destructive power through the bombing, “It looked like Dresden after it was fire-bombed-like the surface of the moon” (). From this quote, he paints a true sight of war where nothing is left but dust. He relates this event to emphasize the fact that war is a place of sadness and despair and from Billy’s viewpoint he observes the hurtfulness and all the destructiveness of the world when the city of Dresden gets
presidents have repeatedly led the country into many unnecessary wars to test and prove their core masculinity is highly exaggerated. In her treatment of psychopathic leadership, she identifies machismo as the primary trait of leaders. But there have been instances where even women leaders have been instrumental in leading their country to war.
In the late 1920’s, the Nazi party had little success but in 1933, Hitler and the Nazis came to power. Hitler was the leader of a small right-wing party with very extremist ideas. Within a couple of years this party was in control of Germany. The factors that caused Hitler’s success for the rise of Nazism has been studied ever since. Hitler’s organisation skills and personal traits helped to bring the Naizs into power. However, without the socio-economic problems that Germany encountered and the weakness of their political situation, Hitler would not have had the opportunity to come into power and destory democracy in 1933.