Literary Analysis : ' Blue Tigers ' By Cynthia Ozick

The Holocaust: The Repercussion Everyone is different in the way they think, act and speak. These differences lead to disagreements and wars but there is one theory that connects even the most different people, archetypes. Archetypes are universally known symbols in every human psyche that further enhance stories, movies and other forms of media. Night by Elie Wiesel is a memoir about the real experiences of a Holocaust survivor named Eliezer and archetypes can be found within the book. The symbolic archetypes of corpses and night as well as the ‘Battle Between Good and Evil’ plot pattern help to guide readers into a further understanding of the victims’ perspectives because of the archetypal meanings of the symbols and the central plot pattern.

The Holocaust is arguably one of the most horrific events in human history. As the last Jewish survivors are passing away from old age, the importance of Holocaust related documentation is going to be imperative in teaching the next generations about the monstrosities that went on during this time. In the 1960 novel, Night, Elie Wiesel utilizes several literary devices, including the symbology of nighttime, motif of religious practices, and theme of father-son relationships, in order to emphasize the atrocities of the Holocaust specifically for Jews. Wiesel’s first hand experience in concentration camps allows for a vivid retelling of what many people had to endure.

The poem is rich in the images of the senses which aid the reader to imagine this terrible massacre. By employing an auditory image in “Babies wailing from hunger” (8), Kimel evokes sympathy. The Nazis even tortured those innocent babies who needed nothing but tenderness. He also uses an organic image in “Fathers shaken with helpless rage” (10), which depicts the complete sense of loss of control, fear and rage that the Jews suffered from.

Many characters’ lives are enveloped by a mental issue and they are a representation for these issues. Art covers these multiple issues. The Holocaust affected millions of people and of these millions, Vladek, Anja, and Mala all were left with

In the annals of history, the Holocaust registers as one of mankind’s most “unspeakable” offenses. And yet, over the past seventy years, survivors have strived nonetheless to transform torture into language—to verbalize the violence against man’s body and spirit that occurred at the hands of the Nazis.

The shawl symbolizes the necessity for illusion as defense against struggle in uncomfortable circumstances. In “The Shawl”, Ozick highlights the process in which said illusion can easily shift into a dehumanizing delusion. The characters share their perception of the “magic shawl” (517) as a source of hope and comfort. For Magda, it makes her “dumb” (518) to the reality she lives in. Although the infant’s use of the shawl is understandable, Stella and Rosa’s belief in it is a sign of desperation, regression, and the breakdown of rationality in the face of extreme deprivation and loss. Stella suffers inadequate mothering and as a result desires the shawls powers to revert to infancy as an escape from responsibility. For Rosa, the shawl acts as an illusionary umbilical cord between her child. Once cut, she is stripped of her motherhood and is forced into a delusionary sense of helplessness. In dire

The Holocaust was a time of great suffering and inhumanity. The novel Night, which took place during this time, was written by Elie Wiesel and talks about his teen self-experiencing the concentration camps of Auschwitz. This is related to the movie The Boy in the Striped Pajamas which is the story of a young German boy named Bruno who befriends a Jewish boy in a concentration camp. The many similarities and differences between the movie The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and the novel Night include their many themes of “inhumanity” and “guilt and inaction”, and the two also share and differ in the loss of innocence of the characters and how they develop in each medium.

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.

The main characters are people who want to survive but there is a long and difficult way in front of them which they will have to conquer. However, they have already adapted to this kind of life and they are survivors. This page is interesting and admirable because of the middle panel where the readers can see Anja and Vladek from behind going in the unknown direction. They are singled out because other survivors seem to know where they are going because one of the people says: “We’ll be hiding at this address. When you find a safe place, try to contact us, Vladek” (Spiegelman 125). The survivors care about the well-being of one another. Anja and Vladek are depicted from the upper angle which implies their vulnerability and the fact that they have no shelter. There is nowhere to go and the only path is through the road in the shape of the swastika. It is clear that they are the survivors of the Holocaust, but it does not mean that they have solved all of their problems. They are alive and they have to find new life now which is going to be difficult. It can be observed from the panel that they are elegant and brave people and they are Art’s parents. They are holding hands, because their intimacy is all they have and they are probably wearing all of the clothes they possess. It is obvious that they were people who were not poor, but the Holocaust happened and made them lose their

Primo Levi, in his novel Survival in Auschwitz (2008), illustrates the atrocities inflicted upon the prisoners of the concentration camp by the Schutzstaffel, through dehumanization. Levi describes “the denial of humanness” constantly forced upon the prisoners through similes, metaphors, and imagery of animalistic and mechanistic dehumanization (“Dehumanization”). He makes his readers aware of the cruel reality in the concentration camp in order to help them examine the psychological effects dehumanization has not only on those dehumanized, but also on those who dehumanize. He establishes an earnest and reflective tone with his audience yearning to grasp the reality of genocide.

What does it mean to be American? The American identity has always been a complicated discussion. It is by nature identified by diversity. Many think it has to do with the birthplace of the person and others think it has to do with their inheritance. In 2011, Amy Chua published Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother as a memoir. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother presents the evolution of this American woman. The elements of Chuas evolution seemed to involve; native identity; inherited identity; resisted identity and resolved identity.

A powerful and provocative graphic novel, Maus, generates a Jewish individual’s life of grotesque and horror. With its ability of perception and interpretation, it tackles the main points of the ominous Holocaust and delivers a spooky aura to the absorbed audience. In comparison to Schindler’s List, the graphic novel shines brightly than the pale movie due to its realism and humor that is constantly present throughout the storyline. The novel has the ability to connect to the audience; thus, it gives an in-depth look and overall comprehension of the massacre that Spiegelman is trying to communicate. The graphic novel, Maus by Art Spiegelman, brings an honest account of the Holocaust to a wide audience because of its historical truth and intriguing viewpoints and characters that shows the effect and process of the genocide.

The spine chilling experiences Jewish individuals faced during the holocaust are conveyed well in the short story “The Shawl” as the author, Cynthia Ozick illustrates the horrific battle of motherhood and strife for survival they faced. Rosa, Ozick’s main character experiences an internal battle of nurturing her infant Magda and following her motherly instincts or fighting for her own survival. Magda another crucial character grips onto the ropes of life through the threads of the shawl but when she loses her shawl she loses her life showing the harsh realities of the concentration camps. Through the use of symbolism and carefully orchestrated imagery Ozick brings to life the unspeakable struggles the Jewish faced to survive in the midst

First, let’s start off with the central symbol Ozick uses, the shawl. The shawl itself carries various meanings to the reader and symbolizes something different to each character. “Rosa, Stella and Magda form a group on the basis of their shared illusion concerning the “magic shawl”” (Gordon 322). One of the first symbols the shawl delivers is life and death. This “magical shawl” has nourished Magda for three days and three nights due to Rosa not being able to produce milk for her. In the story it says “The shawl was Magda’s own baby, her pet, her little sister.” (Ozick 248) which tells us that the shawl has become Magda’s life. The shawl somehow seems to feed her, protect her and keep her alive. “For Magda, this shawl has become everything: mother, food, clothing, and shelter.”(Gordon 322). Even though the shawl in some way kept Magda alive and it symbolized her life, unfortunately at the end it became the symbol of her death. “Even though the shawl did not literally wrap her in death, the shawl that nourished her and protected her in life was the same cloth that brought about her death” says (Jones 1) Stella started getting cold and took the shawl away from Magda which became the reason of Magda’s death. She then started howling after noticing she didn’t have her shawl which made a Nazi officer notice her existence and caused her death.

A young girl of 14, Stella barely holds on to her own life in the concentration camp, she desperately seeks comfort and protection. Like many others, Stella’s deplorable shape reverts her to an infantile state of mind, she constantly wants to be comforted, soothed and cared for. Stella is “jealous of Magda” (paragraph 1) and wants the shawl to herself. Like Magda, she wants “to be wrapped in a shawl” like “a round infant in arms” (paragraph 1). Although she is forbidden to touch the shawl, Stella endlessly longs for it because she is always cold. Rosa believes that the cold has gotten to Stella’s heart. Not caring about the consequences, famished and callous Stella steals Magda’s shawl for warmth. Although she only benefits briefly from the shawl, Stella’s desperate need for comfort results in the death of Magda.