Ficciones, by Jorge Luis Borges Essay

“Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day.” Every day in Nazi Germany, considering all conditions in the Hubermann household, was like a slap in the face. All citizens, no matter their belief, were forced to put on a fake smile and act like everything was okay because their Führer was going to save them. This is because of fear. A simple state of mind that few refused to defy caused a whole generation of the Jewish population to perish. There were those, though, that performed acts of courage and stated that they would not settle for this act of genocide, no matter the consequences. In Mark Zusak’s novel, The Book Thief, the setting of Nazi Germany is torn apart by Adolf Hitler’s wrath. As the

Intro: This book is about a Jewish boy named Yanek. This gives an inside look of what happened to Jewish people in the 1940s. He had a very hard life in the 6 year time duration he spent in the ghetto and concentration camps.

This novel was based on the true story of a boy named Yanek Gruener and how he defied all the odds of being a Jew in Poland during the infamous World War II.

In the American memoir, Night, Nobel Peace Prize-winning author Elie Wiesel constructs a story about the horrific events he endured during the Holocaust. In the pages of this memoir, he portrays the life of Eliezer, a child born Jewish. In the later chapters of the book, Eliezer endures the tragic hanging of a pipel who lost his life for not giving up the names of the inmates that worked to sabotage the power plant at Buna, a forced labor camp in Germany. The guards forced Eliezer and his father to walk past the child as he hung from the gallows stuck between life and death. The death of the child signifies the death of Eliezer’s faith. The author used this position in the memoir to signify the end of the main character’s religious views, which makes this the climax of the book. The climax fits into the structure of the memoir at this point by staying consistent in word choice and advancing the plot further. The use of the appeals and tone also ties this scene into the plot. However, each translation utilizes these devices differently. The scholar’s translation focuses on ethos, logos, and a helpless tone. Marion’s translation uses pathos and a bitter tone. Marion’s version more effectively uses the appeals and tone because it conveys more emotion to the reader.

As the famous journalist Iris Chang once said, “As the Nobel Laureate warned years ago, to forget a holocaust is to kill twice.” After experiencing the tragedies that occurred during the Holocaust, Eliezer Wiesel narrated “Night”. Eliezer wrote “Night” in an attempt to prevent something similar to the Holocaust from happening again, by showing the audience what the consequences are that come from becoming a bystander. Elie illustrated numerous themes by narrating the state of turmoil he was in during the Holocaust. In Night, Eliezer provided insight into what he experienced in order to teach the unaware audience about three themes; identity, silence, and faith.

“Why do you pray? He asked after a moment. Why did I pray? Strange question. Why did I live? Why did I breathe?” (Pg.5). Moishe the Beadle asked Elie Wiesel some questions that Elies did not know how to answered, he prayed everyday, he was alive but he didn't know why, he breathe and he didn't know why neither. But the real answer only Elie could find it within himself. The book is based on real-life fact about how the Germans or best known as Nazis came and slave all the Jews, they took away their freedom and their happiness. And this tell book the the story of the holocaust in the point of view of a person named Elie Wiesel. Elements of dark and light can change your faith, how you believe and in what do you believe, but how can it be changed

You would think, a young boy, sent to different camps, fighting to live, gets luckily abandoned by the surrendering Nazis and saved by the allies. But, the story is so much more. The boy is taken from everything he knows and loves and has to find a way to live. He is left with nothing and everything valuable is taken away. He is then marked as an object and treated worse than a

Life is a precious thing, and it is so precious that some people will undergo severe anguish to hold on to it. During the 1930’s and 1940’s in Germany, people of the Jewish religion were diabolically oppressed and slaughtered, just for their beliefs. Some Jews went to extreme measures to evade capture by the German law enforcement, hoping to hold on to life. Krystyna Chiger was only a small child when her family, along with a group of other desperate Jews, descended into the malignant sewers to avoid the Germans. After living in the abysmal sewers for fourteen months, her group emerged, and when she became an adult, she authored a novel about her time in the sewer. When analyzing the literary elements utilized in her novel, The Girl in the Green Sweater, one can determine how tone and mood, point of view, and conflict convey the message of struggle and survival that was experienced during the Holocaust, and how they help the reader to understand and relate.

When condemned to torture and inhumanity self-preservation will begin to arise. In his memoir Night, Elie Wiesel, a holocaust survivor discusses the pain and struggle he and millions of Jews endure. Nazis acts of cruelty upon people in concentration camps bring out a theme of every man for himself. Wiesel shows readers through his point of view how he deals with others and himself succumbing to self-preservation.

In Nazi Germany, the axis fought extremely hard to oppress Jews and dehumanize them. These ideals were pushed upon the German citizens relentlessly during Hitler's reign through laws. In the book, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, the author presents the readers with characters who are under Nazi rule. These characters are all affected by the government in different ways, but the overarching theme of the book is the dehumanization of good people. Hans, Rudy, and Liesel all give humanity back to someone who has been dehumanized, even in the face of adversity.

Pablo Escobar had a great impact on drug trade to the U.S. in the 1980s. How he got into cocaine, how he smuggled, it shows and how he was brought down.

The recuperative power of language is revealed when Liesel begins an intrepid career in book thievery, finding solace in books and words amidst the cataclysmic historical period of Nazi Germany. Liesel’s unconscious desire to overcome her traumatic experiences is discovered within the confines of the basement. This is symbolic as, in Freudian psychoanalysis, the basement represents unconscious drives, repressed fears, traumas and fantasies. In Liesel’s journey to process her trauma and acknowledge new traumas, she psychoanalytically seeks out the comfort of the womb due to the absence of a motherly figure in the form of the basement. Zusak alters the archetypal image of the basement, picturing it as a metaphorical ‘womb’ for Liesel, a place of salvation and safety. “Liesel revisited those dark rooms of her past.” (p. 117) When Liesel discovers it is unlikely she will ever see her biological mother, she retreads underneath the table in an attempt to alleviate her pain. However, when Liesel feels psychologically strong enough to face the trauma of her abandonment, she is able to leave her place of safety and security and share her story with Max. This demonstrates the complexities of trauma and how an individual utilises differing coping mechanisms to confront their psychological suffering. Liesel, whilst opening herself to the pain of others, learns to express and

Imagine walking into a deserted town, exhausted from the scorching rays of the sun. It becomes more and more difficult to muster up the last ounce of energy to take another step, and eventually you drop to the ground. In this example setting is enhanced in a way that a tone of hopelessness for the character is developed. First, the setting is developed in a manner that places a hardship on the character. Furthermore, the town is devoid of life ensuring that any help to the character is out of the question and the sun itself is creating the hardship for the character. Similarly, Juan Rulfo uses the setting of his novel, Pedro Páramo, in order to influence the tone, which ultimately leads to his purpose of writing the novel. Comala, the

Sandro Botticelli painted La Primavera between 1477 and 1482 for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici, a member of the powerful Florentine family. While many Renaissance works depicted scenes of Christianity, this work as well as the others in its group – The Birth of Venus, for example - are focused around tales from classical mythology. Designed to hang in a private room, the painting did not need to be made accessible to large audiences like other works of the time, such as the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo. An educated family with strong Humanistic ties, the Medici would have had the necessary knowledge to interpret the painting’s subject, while the common people would not have. Now located in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence,

Borges is known as a famous author of magical realism, a genre that combines real situations and real life with fantasy. This undoubtedly has an influence in the way Borges incorporates worlds of fantasy/ dreams/ imagination into his works. Borges creates these worlds by transforming something of such simplicity into something more complex and meaningful. By using these devices, Borges is able to impact the readers by allowing them to imagine them and maybe even change their point of view on that simple thing or situation.