The Message of Hate in Babi Yar

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The Message of Hate in Yevgeny Yevtushenko's Babi Yar

There are very few people in the world who are willing to go against the popular trends and do what they feel in their hearts is correct. But Yevgeny Yevtushenko is one of those people. In his poem Babi Yar, he tells the story of the modern persecution of the Jews, focusing on atrocities like those of the massacre at Babi Yar and the pogroms at Beilostok, and also the general anti-Semitism that killed men like Dreyfus and pervades the entire Russian people. The poem uses many literary devices, such as graphic imagery and contrasts, while painting a very clear picture of the scenes of pure horror.

Babi Yar is written in many different voices, all of which, however, have the same message. The author starts off with his ownperspective, then goes on and describes certain people in modern Jewish history whose lives will forever be remembered as symbols of the time. At the end of the poem the author comes back and speaks in his own voice, yet this time he delivers a message to his people about how they have committed a large number of these crimes against the Jews, yet think that such actions are pure and good for Russia. By switching from the voices of those who were so afflicted by the persecution to a voice of accusation, the author effectively points out how foolish the arguments of the Russians are when they try to point out any validity in killing millions of Jews.

The poem starts out with a description of the ravine at Babi Yar. However, all it says is that there is nothing to describe. It calls the steep ravine, which is the grave sight of one hundred thousand people, the only memorial that is there. This frightens the author, because the massivenes...

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...taphor for bad times. So the author contrast the two seasons of winter and spring showing how right now hatred is keeping everyone in winter, but once there is peace then spring can start and life will get better.

The rest of the poem focuses on what the Russian people must do to change their attitude about Jews. First the author criticizes them for acting so shamelessly, and then he says that Jews must be accepted by all Russians who can honestly call themselves that. This is compounded when it says that one can truly be a Russian only when he undergoes the same treatment that the Jews go through, only when they experience the same type of hatred. This final statement is a reversal of the general view of the Russian people, and it reaffirms how Yevgeny Yevtushenko is a person who is not afraid to go against the popular opinion in order to make life better.

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