Characters And Characterism In German Boy By Wolfgang Samuel

Recalling his devoted years to the Hitler Youth program, author Alfons Heck states “I have never once during the Hitler years thought of myself as anything but a decent, honorable young German, blessed with a glorious future” (206). This honesty conveyed by Heck elucidates the selfish ideals of those in the Hitler Youth, a theme apparent in the novel A Child of Hitler. Although Heck’s thoughts are self-conceited, they convey the opinions of those decieved by the Hitler Youth principles. As politically incorrect as these principles were, A Child of Hitler portrays them differently than other literature reporting on the subject. Through his descriptions of daily activities, Heck describes the pressure that children faced as Hitler Youth.

The powerful and gripping novel The Boy Who Dared, written by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, is a Newbery Honor book. The novel is based on Helmuth Hubener who lived during the Holocaust when the Nazis were rising to power in 1933. Helmuth was one of the very few young boys who tried to expose Hitler to the people of Germany. Hitler was torturing the Jews and declaring wars on countries just because he wanted war. He also ruined Jewish shops and destroyed their futures. The Boy Who Dared shows historical accuracy in many ways, especially as it focuses on Helmuth’s life, the

This Boy’s Life shows that boys need reliable adult role models in their lives. Discuss.

Throughout history, people all over the world have discovered the importance of freedom, the difference is how each person reacts to it. In The Boy Who Dared, by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Helmuth, the protagonist, lives in the dark, tragic time of WWII, under HItler’s rule. Everyday, in Germany, a freedom is taken away, one by one. Helmuth is one of the few, who dares to stand up against the Nazis to fight back for his freedom. In this novel, the author uses techniques such as symbolism, flashbacks, and descriptive language to emphasize the importance of freedom.

Paul Bäumer is a German, young boy, who, together with his classmates, enlists for the army to fight in the Great War. Full of enthusiasm and adventurous thoughts, they arrive at the front, but then are faced with the horrific and soul-destroying war. One by one the classmates are fall in action…

The book “This Boy’s Life” by Tobias Wolff is a memoir written about the author’s childhood memories and experiences. The author shows many different characters within the book. Many of them are just minor character that does not affect the author much in his life choices and thoughts throughout his growth. But there are some that acts as the protagonist and some the antagonist. One of them is Dwight, the protagonist’s or Jack’s stepfather. This character seems to be one of the characters that inhibit Jack’s choices and decisions. This character plays a huge role in Jack’s life as it leaves a huge scar in his memory. The author here spends the majority of time in this character in the memoir to show the readers the relationship between

In All Quiet on the Western Front author and World War I veteran Erich Maria Remarque tells the story of a young soldier named Paul Bäumer who enlists in the German army with a group of his classmates. In the novel the reader comes discover the many horrors that Paul has to endure during his service before his untimely death in October 1918, only weeks before the war ended. The events that happen in the novel to Paul and his friends in his company during the war are very similar, if not identical, to what the German soldiers had to endure while World War I raged on in the real world. The way that the novel portrays the soldiers’ rations and reliance on food, their life on the front and in camp, how the young soldiers’ lives were destroyed before they even began, how the older generations pushed the younger ones to enlist, the death of soldiers in battle, and the refusal to surrender matches almost perfectly to how things were during World War I, particularly for the German soldiers.

Literature encapsulates the human experience, reflecting facets of our culture, traditions, and beliefs. Literature functions as a tool to develop and explore empathetic links with other individuals and can provide insight into experiences removed from our own reality. Peter Fischl’s poem ‘Little Polish Boy’ is one such text in which we can attain a unique understanding of the horrors catalysed by war. An expression of Fischl’s own Holocaust experience, this poem is set in WWII, and addressed as a letter to an innocent child of the war from a photograph Fischl found years after the war ended. We can also learn of the loss and grief children face in times of war through the picture book ‘a Soldier, a Dog and a Boy’ by Libby Hathorn. The story follows a young boy orphaned by the Battle of Somme and he’s only left to survive with his dog before an Australian soldier comes to his rescue. These texts allow us to reach a better understanding of the different effects conflict has on children.

Even though the soldiers join the war as naive youths, the war rapidly changes them and they develop into young men. Surrounded by death, the boys are bound to foresee the fragility of their own lives and are stripped of the carelessness and brazenness of youth. The dreadful horrors around the boys bound them to consider a world that does not accommodate to their childish and simplistic view. They want to only see a separation between what is right and what is wrong, they instead find moral doubt. Where they had wanted to see order and meaning, they only found senselessness and disorder. Where they wanted to find heroism, they only found the selfish instinct of self-preservation. These realizations destroyed the innocence of the boys, maturing and thrusting them into their manhood.

impacts on the soldiers. This novel depicts the life as a soldier in the German Army fighting

Book Thief Author’s Craft Essay by Sydney Paunan World War II was one of the darkest periods of time in human history. This is a fact widely known and accepted by most people, and this era of history is studied very often in schools so the horrors of the past may be taught and not repeated. But how did this two-front war affect young German children? They were growing up in a wildly violent time whilst being told that the horrible crimes committed by their country were justified, though this view of the war is often overlooked. Though The Book Thief does not tell a true story, it is very possible that the events in the story were the reality for many young children growing up in Nazi Germany.

The Great War, also known as World War I, is a defining moment in Europe’s history. Its aftermath consists of the demolition of Germany’s economy, the rise of Adolf Hitler, and the loss of an entire generation of young men who were sent into combat. All Quiet on the Western Front chronicles the experiences of Paul Baumer, a 19-year old student who volunteers for the military during World War I along with his classmates Muller and Kropp. They are compelled to enlist by Kantorek, their fiercely patriotic but misguided schoolmaster. Paul’s life in the military is told in short entries that reveal the reality of war: horrifying battles, violence, alienation, emotional indifference. His accounts of war are personal and emotional, and the bleak tone

Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front is one of the greatest war novels of all time. It is a story, not of Germans, but of men, who even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war. The entire purpose of this novel is to illustrate the vivid horror and raw nature of war and to change the popular belief that war has an idealistic and romantic character.  The story centers on Paul Baümer, who enlists in the German army with glowing enthusiasm.  In the course of war, though, he is consumed by it and in the end is "weary, broken, burnt out, rootless, and without hope"  (Remarque page #).

Mark Twain once said, "We are creatures of outside influences -- we originate nothing within. Whenever we take a new line of thought and drift into a new line of belief and action, the impulse is always suggested from the outside." In the memoir This Boy’s Life, by Tobias Wolff Jack shows that he is a creature of outside influence. Some examples of this are that he copies what his friends do, he doesn't try to shape his own life, and he is heavily influenced by the male figures in his life.

Furthermore,Wolfgang’s experiences helped to make him mature. The main character in German Boy is Wolfgang, the author. He starts out as the immature child, not questioning the world he lives in. He is very young when the war hits his town. Wolfgang says while leaping from clod of land to another, “I’m nine years old, almost ten”, “I’m almost grown up”(Samuel 2). Wolfgang is not as mature as he thinks in the beginning of the novel because there is much that he will learn throughout his life. But as he continues to try to survive he become more and more mature. Mutti, Wolfgang’s mother, is always there for Wolfgang and Ingrid. She will do anything for them to help them get away from this war