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The Holocaust in short
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Recommended: The Holocaust in short
Vergangenheitsbewältigung in The Reader
Germany's history is different from all other countries in the world. From 1933 to 1945 Adolf Hitler and the Nazis ruled the people. Everyone was forced to follow the Nazis rules and individuals were stripped of all of their freedom. The Nazis were also committing mass executions of certain classes of people. Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, handicapped, and other groups of people were treated unfairly and stripped of all their rights. This cruel treatment attracted the attention of countries from all around the world. The events taking place in Germany and neighboring countries led to the outbreak of World War II. Many Germans are not proud of their country's history. It is hard for individuals to do, but everyone must cope with it. Coping with the past, or Vergangenheitsbewältigung, has influenced the way people in Germany have lived their lives.
In The Reader there are many examples of individuals having to cope with the past. Hanna Schmitz was a member of the SS during the Holocaust. She served in concentration camps in Auschwitz and a camp near Cracow. Although Hanna never killed anyone herself, she was involved in taking people to be executed. She must go to court for her actions while being in the SS. When Hanna was a guard she would pick certain girls to read to her. "Yes she had favorites, always one of the young ones who was weak and delicate," says a survivor of the Holocaust during Hanna's trial (Schlink 116). Hanna knew the younger, weaker girls would not tell anyone what they were doing for her. Hanna was illiterate so she enjoyed being read to by the girls. Hanna's entire life is being influenced by all the actions that happened in her past.
Hanna is involved in a love affair with a boy less than half her age named Michael Berg. Their relationship is kept secret from people and is rather strange, mostly because of Hanna's past. Their relationship is based around the same principles as Hanna's special prisoners in the concentration camps. After many meetings together Hanna and Michael do not know each other's names. When Michael asks Hanna about her name she suspiciously replies, "Why do you want to know?
Symbolism: When Michael describes the airplane crashing at a curve, I remembered that earlier in the chapter, he had asked himself if he genuinely loved Hanna, or he felt he had to love her because they made love. He said he would have felt guilty for not loving her. The metaphor of the plane symbolised that their relationship would end, but also guilt.
...then and now by the immense controversy involved and the large amount of faith, responsibility, and bravery needed for the people. Pushing aside the major setbacks Germany had undergone, people today know Nazi Germany as the country that had always found a solution and pushed through, even during the least hopeful times. However, people also know the Third Reich as the horrific time of oppression and discrimination by Hitler and his colleagues; according to some, these actions that made Hitler all-powerful and everyone else weak or nonexistent actually led Germany to their success. This time period will always remain a many-sided topic of debate because of the many ways Nazis were victors, victims, and totalitarians.
..., Gilman acknowledges the fact that much work is needed to overcome the years of injustice. Through the concluding scenes where the narrator goes into her mental illness rebellion, Gilman encourages women to do what they can to stand up for themselves.
It all started when Hitler became the leader of Germany in 1933. He believed that the German people were of a “superior race” and that they should rule the world. Anyone else that was not German were considered to be an “inferior race.” This was all non-aryan people, including Africans, Slavic’s, and Jewish people (Background Information about World War II...). He took the rights from Jewish people and wanted to diminish them completely (World War 2: A Brief History). In 1938 Hitler ordered that Jews were removed from their homes and moved to the “Ghettos” where they had to live with way too many people and the conditions of living were horrendous. They didn't have enough food, and they didn't have any of the other necessities that they would normally have in their own home. (Background Information about World War II...). They sent the Jews to concentration camps where they were forced to work against their will and they were also sent to gas chambers where they were murdered (Background Information about World War II...). It is estimated that between fifty and seventy million people died during World War 2 and millions of them were Jews (W...
Although our past is a part of who we are nowadays, we will never be happy if we can never let go of the painful feeling attached to our suffering. In addition, “suffering pulls us farther away from other human beings. It builds a wall made of cries and contempt to separate us” (Wiesel 96). We should not be afraid to let go of our haunting past and grow closer to others because “man carries his fiercest enemy within himself. Hell isn’t others. It’s ourselves” (Wiesel 15). The wise advice this book gives its audience is one reason it won a Nobel Peace Prize. The books are also part of a very famous Holocaust trilogy, which is one reason it has been so widely read. In addition, it blends everyday stories with Holocaust stories.Therefore, readers are very compassionate towards the narrator and readers create a bond with this character due to his hardships and the similarities he shares with us. Lastly, Day speaks to the needs of the human spirit by intertwining a love story. Readers wonder if his girlfriend will change his attitude towards life because he tells the doctor, “I love Kathleen. I love her with all my heart. And how can one love if at the same time one doesn’t care about life” (Wiesel
After Germany lost World War I, it was in a national state of humiliation. Their economy was in the drain, and they had their hands full paying for the reparations from the war. Then a man named Adolf Hitler rose to the position of Chancellor and realized his potential to inspire people to follow. Hitler promised the people of Germany a new age; an age of prosperity with the country back as a superpower in Europe. Hitler had a vision, and this vision was that not only the country be dominant in a political sense, but that his ‘perfect race’, the ‘Aryans,’ would be dominant in a cultural sense. His steps to achieving his goal came in the form of the Holocaust. The most well known victims of the Holocaust were of course, the Jews. However, approximately 11 million people were killed in the holocaust, and of those, there were only 6 million Jews killed. The other 5 million people were the Gypsies, Pols, Political Dissidents, Handicapped, Jehovah’s witnesses, Homosexuals and even those of African-German descent. Those who were believed to be enemies of the state were sent to camps where they were worked or starved to death.
John Donne's, "The Flea," is a persuasive poem in which the speaker is attempting to establish a sexual union with his significant other. However, based on the woman's rejection, the speaker twists his argument, making that which he requests seem insignificant. John Donne brings out and shapes this meaning through his collaborative use of conceit, rhythm, and rhyme scheme. In the beginning, Donne uses the flea as a conceit, to represent a sexual union with his significant other. For instance, in the first stanza a flea bites the speaker and woman. He responds to this incident by saying, "And in this flea our bloods mingled be."
The Holocaust tends to be a bitter memory and an unpleasant subject to discuss. Although this event took place many years ago, repercussions are still present in the twenty first century. Especially in Germany, the Holocaust not only influences patriotism, but it also influences education and immigration policies. In contrast to other countries where nationalism is common, Germany has been forced to lessen the sense of nationalism in order to dispose false beliefs some individuals have of German racism. By allowing people from other countries to become German citizens, Germany avoids transmitting the sense of being a better and a cleaner race. A further sector influenced by the Holocaust is the education system. Approaches to teach about this event are difficult since the Holocaust is a sensitive issue and continues having vital importance in numerous families. Although the Holocaust continues conveying negative influences, the Holocaust also led to positive medical and technological improvements. In fact, numerous improvements are unknowingly implemented in societies today. Therefore, the Holocaust is one of the most horrific and influencing events in history whose repercussions are still felt in Germany today. However, in spite of the horrific occurrences, the associated medical findings and technological improvements make it intricate to look at the Holocaust as plainly evil. Thus, societies should view the Holocaust with a broader perspective.
Kathy is engaged in the difficulty of understand life in order to comfort themselves, even if she has to lie in order to discover the truth. Kathy speaking about her life when she is older, signifies that she wants to be felt important and have her own impact to others lives in some way. In depicting the dynamics of memory, Kathy rewrites their past so they can have access to her identity. However, memory can be twisted so easily that she hides the failure in her life by bending the truth of what happened. Ishiguro explores the profound effect of memory in a manner in which it shapes one’s life as well as how humans subject events incoherently.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman brings to light the inequalities of patriarchal society and marital inequality in the 19th century via her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper.” First published in 1892, “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written and takes place in a time when marriage was acceptably unequal and gender roles were clearly defined. Now it is regarded as a literary masterpiece in feminist ideology. The story was written as a series of journal entries from the perspective of the narrator, a young woman who has been diagnosed with a temporary nervous depression by her husband, John, who is a physician. The couple moves into a rented house for the summer and her husband orders her to strict bed rest. Isolated in a room that is covered in “hideous” yellow wallpaper and with bars on the windows, she becomes increasingly obsessed with the paper and slips further down the rabbit hole of psychosis (Gillman 13). On the surface, the story may seem that it is simply about a woman suffering from mental illness and a loving husband trying his best to take care of her. Digging deeper, it becomes clear that her husband is controlling every aspect of her life including her freedom, creativity, and sanity; disregarding her as a subordinate - far less than equal.
There are many themes that occur and can be interpreted differently throughout the novel. The three main themes that stand out most are healing, communication, and relationships.
John Donne’s “The Flea” details the attempts of a lover to convince his partner of the insignificance of physical love through conceit. The desperate lover hopes to woo ahesitant woman to have sex with him because physical love means nothing. Donne utilizes biblical allusions through symbolism and slant rhyme as the speaker builds and rebuilds his crooked case for the unimportance of sex. When the action of the poem shifts, the speaker’s argument shifts accordingly. The flea transforms into a symbol of the conscience that is the main obstacle to the physical love that the speaker seeks. Through the speaker and overstatement, Donne satirically asserts that physical love is not important, mocking a theme of contemporary carpe diem poems.
John Donne, an English poet and clergyman, was one of the greatest metaphysical poets. His poetry was marked by conceits and lush imagery. The Flea is an excellent example of how he was able to establish a parallel between two very different things. In this poem, the speaker tries to seduce a young woman by comparing the consequences of their lovemaking with those of an insignificant fleabite. He uses the flea as an argument to illustrate that the physical relationship he desires is not in itself a significant event, because a similar union has already taken place within the flea. However, if we look beneath the surface level of the poem, Donne uses the presence of the flea as a comparison to the presence of a baby, thus making the sub textual plot about aborting the baby.
Many debates have been sparked by Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country. Even the essence of the book's title examines South Africa and declares the presence of the inner conflict of its citizens. The importance and meaning of the title of Cry, the Beloved Country is visible in Paton's efforts to link the reader to forthcoming ideas in the novel, Paton's description of South Africa's problems, and Paton's prayer for the solution of South Africa's difficulties with race and racial oppression.
In John Donne’s poem, “The Flea”, Donne uses the conceit of the flea to contrast the insignificant size of the flea and the incredibly significant metaphor attached to the flea. The speaker of the poem is talking to a woman, trying to convince her into having sex with him outside of marriage. This poem can be broken into three stanzas, of nine lines each, utilizes the image of the flea to convey three main ideas: the first as a vessel where their essence mingles, second as the institution of marriage, and finally as an insignificant representation of honor which would have no effect on them. Donne’s hyperbolic use of the flea extends through the poem as a metaphysical conceit to convey a logical argument out of something seemingly unrelated to the situation at hand.