Sophie’s Choice by William Styron

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Recommended: American culture after World War 2

In William Styron’s book Sophie’s Choice Styron explains the effects of World war 2 on an American, a Polish person and a Jewish person. Sophie, the polish women, who is forced to make a very difficult decision during the war, a choice that, affects her mental state of mind for the rest of her life. Stingo, the American and narrator of the story struggles to find inspiration for his writing career while also discovering his families past. Nathan, the Jewish man who is hopelessly in love with Sophie a holocaust survivor, lashes out in anger and questions her about her past. Sophie’s Choice uses three characters guilt to portray the hardships of World War 2 and the mental instability it has caused. Sophie is a young Polish woman who moved to the United States after World War 2. She lives in the apartment building that Nathan and Stingo live in also. Nathan is Sophie’s lover who knows very little about her past because Sophie never talks about it. Later on in the book the reader finds out the secret Sophie has been hiding, that she had two children. Jan, her boy and Eva her girl in wh...

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