The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is a story of defiance, of successfully breaking and escaping the oppressive mores of society with skill and tenacity, and an embodiment the novelistic tradition of disregard for the monolithic structure on which our world is based. The book is set up around the theme of “the carnivalesque”, and shows how this rebel attitude can be taken up like a mantel, so a character can make change and find happiness in an oppressive world. These characters come to realize that the carnivalesque is the true way to live, and it is only when they wear the mantle full time that they find satisfaction in their life.
In the German occupied Prague, the Jews have been earmarked for hardship and extinction at the hands of the Nazis. Joseph Kavalier, a young man of a bohemian Jewish family, spent his youth under the tutelage of a great escape artist. Fascinated with slight of hand tricks, stealth, and lock picking, Joseph is taught all manner of clandestine skills. It is with these abilities, that he is able to revel in the carnivalesque and escape where others are constrained by their insistence on following the rules.
The great protector of the Jews is the golem of Prague from ancient myth, a fantastic example of the Carnivalesque in the form of a Cabalic defiance of power. With the knowledge of how to activate the Golem lost to time, the secret society charged with protecting it must smuggle their massive charge out of Prague before the Nazis discover its location. Young Joseph, already hoodwinked by a bribed Nazi emigration offical, sees in the Golem his opportunity to escape. With the Golem dressed in an enormous suit and posed as a dead...
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...tions that determine the structure and order of ordinary . . . life are suspended . . ." (Kohl)
Oppressed as he is, Joe fails to embrace the carnivalesque and so fail his family and his love ones. Only by escaping his place in the order and suspending the rules can he manage to make change.
As you can see, the Carnivalesque is key to these characters. Though Sam finds that by putting on the cloak of the Carnival, he finds satisfaction, Joe, despite his excellent talents, fails to make the final leap of logic in time to make meaningful change. His family dies and he goes without his loved ones for years because of his failure to take up the mantle of the Carnivalesque. It is not until he returns, soiled as his repuation is, to his old love and son, where their strange new family unit is questioned and mocked by the world, that he finally finds his satisfaction.
Jan T. Gross introduces a topic that concentrates on the violent acts of the Catholic Polish to the Jewish population of Poland during World War II. Researched documentation uncovered by Gross is spread throughout the whole book which is used to support the main purpose of this novel. The principal argument of Neighbors is about the murdering of Jews located in a small town, called Jedwabne, in eastern Poland. During this time, Poland was under German occupation. With an understanding of the that are occurring during this era, readers would assume that the Nazis committed these atrocious murders. Unfortunately, that is not the case in this book. The local
The chaos and destruction that the Nazi’s are causing are not changing the lives of only Jews, but also the lives of citizens in other countries. Between Night by Elie Wiesel and The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom, comradeship, faith, strength, and people of visions are crucial to the survival of principle characters. Ironically, in both stories there is a foreseen future, that both seemed to be ignored.
In Night, Elie Wiesel descriptively portrays the Holocaust and the experiences he has in each part of his survival. From the ghettos to the Death March and liberation, Elie Wiesel shares his story of sadness and suffering. Specifically Wiesel speaks about his short experience in the Sighet ghetto, a historically accurate recount illustrating the poor living conditions, the Judenrat and Jewish life in the ghetto as well as the design and purpose of the two Sighet ghettos. Wiesel’s description of the Sighet ghettos demonstrates the similar characteristics between the Sighet ghetto and other ghettos in Germany and in German-annexed territories.
In what ways does Rich Cohen's Tough Jews add to our understanding of the development of organized crime? This book is regarding the obscure stories of Jewish gangsters, who in the '20s and '30s were in association with the Sicilians and in a lot of ways just as influential. But it's much more than merely a story of organized crime; the writer links the legends and thoughts of Jewish kids growing up amongst those gangsters to the value system of his father plus his friends, and how their attitude regarding "Tough Jews" gave them an option to the stereotypical roles permitted them by America at large. In its own strange, violent way it's a luminous, striking explanation of the eastern European Jewish immigrant experience in America. (Kaminsky, Stuart M. "The Individual Film: Little Caesar and the Gangster Film." American Film Genres. Pflaum Publishing, 1974: 13-32.) When organized crime reared its ugly head in the late 1920s in Brooklyn, at the base were men like Meyer Lansky and Ben Siegel, both Jews. Rich Cohen's romantic story of Jewish gangsters, Tough Jews, brings to life the ta...
Joe is considered an average man with big dreams before arriving at the town. After taking control as mayor his whole demeanor changed. Using a banker as inspiration Joe becomes someone solely focused on image and being above the other people in the town. The life he claims as is own is nothing but a façade with Janie as an ornament. Joes view on what Janies role was going to be was clear from the beginning he believed that a “pretty baby-doll lak you is made to sit on de front porch” making it clear that Janie is a valuable thing not a person (Hurston 29). Joe’s continues the show he is giving the town until Janie tires of them and embarrasses him on the stage he has built in front of his entire audience. The destruction of the façade that has been created over the years causes him to self-destruct, literally. His image is everything to him and once it is ruined he has nothing to live for anymore. The people he believed were below him now laugh at and no longer take him seriously. His life solely depended on keeping him self above the other people in his community without that ability he no longer had anything to live for. As shown in Larsen’s novel living with this idea of classism sometimes goes hand in hand with a struggle with
Sal and his eclectic crew of friends decide that if they really do want more out of life, and they truly want answers to their questions, a journey is necessary. They go on an excursion across America looking for something more significant than what society had thrust upon them. This merry band is tired of society's version of "normal." They knew they didn't fit into the social order as it was. So they went in search of their own "norms", their own "American dream", and their own place in the world. Sal and his friends went in search of "IT."
A story of a young boy and his father as they are stolen from their home in Transylvania and taken through the most brutal event in human history describes the setting. This boy not only survived the tragedy, but went on to produce literature, in order to better educate society on the truth of the Holocaust. In Night, the author, Elie Wiesel, uses imagery, diction, and foreshadowing to describe and define the inhumanity he experienced during the Holocaust.
Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 film Inglourious Bastards entails a Jewish revenge fantasy that is told through a counterfactual history of events in World War II. However, this story follows a completely different plot than what we are currently familiar with. Within these circumstances, audiences now question the very ideas and arguments that are often associated with World War II. We believe that Inglourious Basterds is a Jewish revenge fantasy that forces us to rethink our previous understandings by disrupting the viewers sense of content and nature in the history of World War II. Within this thesis, this paper will cover the Jewish lens vs. American lens, counter-plots within the film, ignored social undercurrents, and the idea that nobody wins in war.
The Silber Medal winning biography, “Surviving Hitler," written by Andrea Warren paints picture of life for teenagers during the Holocaust, mainly by telling the story of Jack Mandelbaum. Avoiding the use of historical analysis, Warren, along with Mandelbaum’s experiences, explains how Jack, along with a few other Jewish and non-Jewish people survived.
The determining concern of survival confronts both Elie and Chlomo throughout Night. The concept of survival is illustrated by the complications brought upon Elie and Chlomo. Elie and Chlomo believe they could only survive the concentration camps with one another; the father-and-son link was held together for the survival of each other. One complication in particular, was the i...
In Elie Wiesel’s Night, he recounts his horrifying experiences as a Jewish boy under Nazi control. His words are strong and his message clear. Wiesel uses themes such as hunger and death to vividly display his days during World War II. Wiesel’s main purpose is to describe to the reader the horrifying scenes and feelings he suffered through as a repressed Jew. His tone and diction are powerful for this subject and envelope the reader. Young readers today find the actions of Nazis almost unimaginable. This book more than sufficiently portrays the era in the words of a victim himself.
Many themes exist in Night, Elie Wiesel’s nightmarish story of his Holocaust experience. From normal life in a small town to physical abuse in concentration camps, Night chronicles the journey of Wiesel’s teenage years. Neither Wiesel nor any of the Jews in Sighet could have imagined the horrors that would befall them as their lives changed under the Nazi regime. The Jews all lived peaceful, civilized lives before the German occupation. Eliezer Wiesel was concerned with mysticism and his father was “more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin” (4).
Director Mark Herman presents a narrative film that attests to the brutal, thought-provoking Nazi regime, in war-torn Europe. It is obvious that with Herman’s relatively clean representation of this era, he felt it was most important to resonate with the audience in a profound and philosophical manner rather than in a ruthlessness infuriating way. Despite scenes that are more graphic than others, the films objective was not to recap on the awful brutality that took place in camps such as the one in the movie. The audience’s focus was meant to be on the experience and life of a fun-loving German boy named Bruno. Surrounding this eight-year-old boy was conspicuous Nazi influences. Bruno is just an example of a young child among many others oblivious of buildings draped in flags, and Jewis...
This book left me with a deeper sense of the horrors experienced by the Polish people, especially the Jews and the gypsies, at the hands of the Germans, while illustrating the combination of hope and incredible resilience that kept them going.
In chapter 27 when Joe comes to see Pip, he treats Joe in a different manner than before because Joe was now in a lower social class. His feelings about Joe's arrival were "Not with pleasure. I had the sharpest sensitivity as to his being seen by Drummle." p. 203 - "The 'Standard' of the 'Standard' of the 'Standard' of the 'Standard' of the 'Standard' of the 'Standard' of the 'Standard' of the 'Standard' of the 'Standard' of the 'Standard He was afraid that Drummle would look down on him because of Joe's lower class.