Graffiti Knight Character Analysis Essay

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Be Considerate of your Actions

When is the last time you played with a puppet? Everybody remembers using them at some point, controlling what they do and what they say. An old yet popular one is the marionette puppet. This one is controlled by strings from above the puppet. The puppeteer is usually not visible to add the effect that it is moving and talking on its own. Another definition of a puppet is a person, party, or state under the control of another person, group, or power. One of the most famous marionettes is Pinocchio, from the old Disney movie. He starts out as a good boy but ends up doing some bad things because he was under the influence of Stromboli, an evil man who was greedy and selfish. The decisions that Pinocchio had made …show more content…

In the novel, Graffiti Knight by Karen Bass, there is a family that has been struggling because of war and they don’t have a lot of food. The father of this family lost one of his legs in battle, and he says that it is like a trap that he cannot get rid of. Anneliese, who is the daughter, has been traumatized because of what some soldiers did to her in the past and she is not who she used to be. The son, Wilm, started to become intrigued in bridges, and that is how he met Otto. Otto acted like a god-teacher to Wilm and not only taught him about bridges but also lessons in life. The story really starts to escalate when Wilm rebels against the Soviets and brings his friends Karl and Georg with him. As Karl and Georg stand guard, Wilm draws a big stickman with strings attached to it on a brick wall and writes the word marionette. Wilm continues to draw these as often as he can, on police cars, buildings, slashing tires as he goes. Another major action that he takes is stealing butter from a railyard. He is almost caught by a guard and draws another puppet on one of the trains. The last time Wilm does something like this was when he stole a hand …show more content…

Wilm has just blown up the Soviet building, injuring two people and causing even more damage than is necessary. All of Wilms wrong doings led everybody to this point in the story, and now they have to make a choice to stay or go. Not all of Wilms friends like this outcome, and it wouldn’t have happened if Wilm had controlled his anger and greed. Wilm starts to regret all of his decisions and that sparks a man vs. self-internal conflict here. The author suggests that Wilm regrets his past decisions and how he didn’t mean to harm people when Wilm says “I’d done this. Tore up families. Devastated my mother” (Bass 220). Wilm could have prevented all of this if he was satisfied after the first puppet he drew, but he decided to continue, putting more and more people in danger as Wilms actions got more serious. At this point, every family that is involved has been torn apart, leaving mothers crying and now the friend group is wanted, all because Wilm decided to involve them with trying to annoy the Soviets with the symbolism behind the puppet which is that the German police are being controlled by the Soviets. There is almost nothing Wilm can do to reverse his actions because his “control [is] cracking like thin ice under a heavy load” (Bass 220). Bass uses a simile here because it is comparing the heavy burden that Wilm is carrying

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