Looking into his crammed, unkempt communal apartment, Sasha keeps on believing in communism and Stalin trying to look past all of the negative aspects of his daily life in USSR. Knocking on his aunt’s door with his eyes gleaming of hope, she shuts him down pained to do so, but it’s her only option. Running into a sacred Stalin statue, Sasha realizes he could be in great danger. The purpose of historical fiction is to not only show the facts, but to show human behavior and emotion in historical times. Breaking Stalin’s Nose satisfies this goal as well as other purposes for historical fiction such as educating readers about the past, analyzing human behavior in extreme situations, and examining social change in hindsight. Mainly, this book educates the reader about the past. When Sasha entered his communal apartment you got to see all of their living conditions with 12 families in their small apartment and what they had during Communism. The reader seeing all of these hardships in Sasha’s …show more content…
When Sasha’s dad gets arrested and Sasha has nowhere to go, his own aunt is fearful to let him stay with them and denies him shelter because she afraid. Sasha is in an extreme situation; his dad has been arrested and is classified as an enemy of the people, and his own aunt still won’t help him. Her behavior in this event and time period shows that she was fearing for her safety because if she helps a child of the enemy of the people she could get in trouble with the State Security. While some may think that dthis is an extreme situation he is in no immediate danger and he was never kicked out of his apartment. He still has shelter and an education. Although he’s in no immediate danger his dad has been yanked out of life and is in prison, and Sasha has no guardian, almost no money, and he is a child of an enemy of the people. This has got to be classified as an extreme
Codrescu goes more in depth on his mother’s bereft when she left from Romania and her immense pain when she first arrived in the US. She explains to him about her loss of culture and her identity and traumatizing childhood. His mother’s imponderable of buying organic food and her dislike of the social isolation. His mother goes on a
Has your skin ever tasted the scorching coldness to the point of actually flavoring death, has your stomach ever craved for even a gram of anything that can keep you alive, has your deep-down core ever been so disturbed by profound fear? No never, because the deep-freeze, starvation, and horror that Kolya and Lev experienced were far worse to the point of trauma. In the novel, City Of Thieves, author David Benioff describes the devastating and surreal situations and emotions that occurred to Benioff’s grandfather, Lev and Lev’s friend, Kolya, during WWII the Siege of Leningrad in Leningrad, Russia. Both Lev and Kolya share some similarities such as their knowledge of literature; even so, they are very contrastive individuals who oppose
The author targets the emotions of parents who are forced to think about losing their children as result of the war. Moreover, readers are overcome with sadness due to their emotional bond established with the character in the previous chapters. The passage relates to the author’s purpose in that particular chapter by providing a window into the hours after the Khost tragedy.
In describing the setting, the general locale is the prison in the coldest part of Russia- Siberia, geographically but socially depicting the social circumstances in the prison, but draws analogies to the general social, political and economic circumstances of Russia during the Stalinist era (form 1917 revolution up to 1955). The symbolic significance of the novel and the film (genres) reflects experiences, values and attitudes of the Russian society. The genres reflect the origins of the Russian social disorders and massive counts of political misgivings which watered down real communism in Russia. We are constantly reminded of the social and cultural heritage and originality of Russian ethnic groups through those different levels of meanings
Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin received the John Newbery Honor in 2012. Narrated by ten-year-old Sasha Zaichik, this novel depicts life for children growing up during the peak of Joseph Stalin’s reign over the Soviet Union. Within this text, themes such as injustice, corruption, and Communism are discussed through a child’s lens.
The horrors of Hitler and the Holocaust are well known events during World War II, but many people don’t know that Stalin killed over 20 million people in the same time frame, either by murder or starving them to death in Siberian work camps. Between Shades of Gray uncovers the lost story of the millions of Lithuanian, Estonian, Latvian, and Finnish lives lost. The Baltic states annexation, the harsh conditions of Siberia, and the fearful lives they had to lead after being freed are wonderfully depicted in the novel.
The process of becoming an adult takes more time for children who enjoy freedom. When the kid is still young, one’s parents or guardians would not mind whatever the child does. But when one grows up, one’s hobby and attitude has to change according to one’s age. The Fall of a City is a short story written by Alden Nowlan to illustrate the forced maturation of the 11-year-old child under the influence of his relatives. It is a piece of writing full of pathos, where the protagonist ends up destroying the creation of his childish imagination because of his uncle and aunt’s judgment. Once they discovered what Teddy has been doing up in the attic, he decides to follow the course of his fate. He leaves his imaginary world, where he is the almighty king, to face the much more challenging real world. The Fall of a City is written by Alden Nowlan in order to express his vision of the transition from youth to manhood because of societal pressure, and the hardship is shown through the critique of Teddy’ uncle and aunt about their nephew’s character traits and the diverse conflicts which the protagonist faces within the story.
For most people that know who Joseph Stalin was, they can agree on one thing: Stalin was one of the most brutal and ruthless leaders that mankind has ever seen. He is known as the instigator and leader of the Reign of Terror, which incorporated extremely horrifying purges. These purges have been estimated to have killed five times as many people as the Holocaust. The purges also helped him establish his power base, which allowed him to build one of the most powerful countries in its day and age. But he was not born evil, in fact, when he was a child, family and friends said he was shy. This does not mean he didn’t have a bad childhood, which happened quite often in rural Georgia. The pain of his childhood built as the years went by. Growing up admiring people like Karl Marx, Machiavelli, and Ivan the Terrible only stoked the fire even more. I believe that Joseph Stalin’s reign of terror can be traced directly back to his brutal childhood and complete belief in Marxist principles.
During the 14th century in England Feudalism took place which left many europeans poor and with very little freedoms. Avi demonstrates what life is like to be living in this time period through the voice of Crispin, a thirteen year old boy that is wanted for a crime he did not commit. The life of Crispin demonstrates how political, social and economic aspects were when the nobles provided protection for the lands that was not owned but used by the citizens.
One of his fellow communists, Vladimir Lenin created the Young Soviet Pioneers school, which is the school Sasha is in right now. Absentmindedly he chips the nose off a Stalin bust. Now, after his father got jailed, Sasha is scared that he too will be taken to jail. Not by the anti-communists, like his father, but by Communists, the people he is with. On page number 74 it says, “First, I will never become a Pioneer. Second, the principal will telephone the State Security to report an act of terrorism in his school. Third, everyone will find out who did it. Next, the guards will arrive to arrest me.” This shows how he feels vulnerable to himself. He also continues to say that he will be jailed like his father, but for a real cause. Not just being a communist. This is important because if there is one thing that Sasha has to believe in, it is hope. He is already giving up hope, and is sure that people will know it is him. He is taking an accident, and after not thinking, he is waiting for his punishment, even though nobody suspects it is him--yet. If he had hope, maybe he could find a way to redeem himself or stay away from
Storytelling has been a common pastime for centuries. Over the years it has evolved into different styles containing different themes. Kate Chopin, a well-known author of the 20th century, wrote stories about the secrets in women’s lives that no one dared to speak of. Her work was not always appreciated and even considered scandalous, but it opened up a world that others were too afraid to touch. In Chopin’s story “The Storm,” a woman has an affair that causes an unlikely effect. The story’s two themes are portrayed greatly through an abundance of imagery and symbolism, along with the two main characters themselves.
This book teaches the importance of self-expression and independence. If we did not have these necessities, then life would be like those in this novel. Empty, redundant, and fearful of what is going on. The quotes above show how different life can be without our basic freedoms. This novel was very interesting and it shows, no matter how dismal a situation is, there is always a way out if you never give up, even if you have to do it alone.
The composer has aimed this text for general reading by all people over the age of ten. However as this publication is the young reader’s edition, it is targeted at young readers. People who may wish to read the book may be able to attain it through mediums such as book stores and libraries etc. Although this publication of the novel is the young reader’s edition, there is a publication aimed at adults.
The novel, A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, is a very detailed and graphic description of one man’s life struggle in a Stalinist work camp. It is the story of Ivan Denisovich’s, most often going by the name of Shukhov, determination and strength to endure the hardships of imprisonment and dehumanization. The most memorable scene shows Shukhov’s determination to survive and adapt to his life. The meal scenes of the novel are where he demonstrates that he has learned to adjust in order to survive. “When you worked for the knowing you gave them quality; when you worked for a fool you simply gave him eyewash” (page 26). This is the most important quote in the novel because it is the law of which Shukhov lives and survives by. This novel is an account of one day of a man’s struggle with the life that has been dealt to him.
Being one of the greatest Russian writers of 20th century, Aleksander Solzhenitsyn had a unique talent that he used to truthfully depict the realities of life of ordinary people living in Soviet era. Unlike many other writers, instead of writing about “bright future of communism”, he chose to write about everyday hardships that common people had to endure in Soviet realm. In “Matryona’s Home”, the story focuses on life of an old peasant woman living in an impoverished collectivized village after World War 2 . In the light of Soviet’s propaganda of creating a new Soviet Nation, the reader can observe that Matryona’s personality and way of life drastically contradicted the desired archetype of New Soviet Man. Like most of the people in her village,