Summary Of Esther Hautzig's The Endless Steppe

In the year 1941, Lithuania was invaded and many Jewish families fled from Lithuania. Margarets family didn't leave because her brother Alik was at a children's holiday camp. Margaret was never sent to a camp, she lived in the ghetto. Margaret's description of the ghetto years as “dreadful”. The people were forced to do hard labour and were deprived of their food.

In the book of Elly My True Story of the Holocaust Elly is a Jewish girl who her family is living in a little town in Romania. As Romania invades their small town and get thrown into a ghetto where there are crowded into little homes. This was the day that Elly and her family was sent to the concentration camp called Auschwitz II were her mother and brother were sent to the left and she was sent to the right were she lived she never saw her family. Elly was working for years in the camp when it was liberated in January 27, 1945 elly was sent free and wrote this book

There are some characters in the novel such as Eliezer Wiesel, Chlomo Wiesel, Sarah Feig, Hilda, Bea, Tzipora, Moishe the Beadle, Juliek, the SS officer and many more. But the writer will only discuss the character that give an effect to the story like Elie Wiesel, Chlomo as Elie’s father and Moishe the Beadle as Elie’s teacher.

All of the characters were forced from their home sometime during this book. Josef, a German Jew during WW2 had to leave his home due to the violence brought by the Nazis. “Josef didn't want to leave. Germany was his home.” (6). Josef’s father was taken to a concentration camp and was released 6 months after but only if he left the country within 14 days. Josef knew it was unfair, that because he was Jewish that he must be punished for it. Later, Josef settled in France but the Nazis have begun to take over most parts of France. “One of Rachel Landau’s children would go free, one of her children would go into the camps”(291). The Germans find Josef, his mother, and Ruthie his sister and are asked for their papers which have a big stamped “J” on it for Jew. His mother tries to bribe the soldiers but they say it is only enough for one of her children to go free. Josef senses that this is the time to finally become a man and save his sister from the horrors inside of those camps. He sacrifices himself so Ruthie can escape the Nazis and is taken to the concentration camps with his mother. Josef and His mother, died in the camp and never got to see Ruthie again.

“Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.” (Johann von Goethe) “The Endless Steppe” by Esther Hautzig is a novel about a family’s determination to survive. In the novel it tells of how determination, the human ability to adopt, and happiness can hold a family together and help them even preserver over all odds. In addition, “The Endless Steppe” tells of Reisa, Ryia, and Esther tales of how they overcame these ordeals and survived in Siberia in their own way.

Sofia Petrovna follows the life of Sofia Petrovna, a typist who works at the Leningrad publishing house. After the death of her husband and capture of her son, Sofia goes insane. It’s a type of unhinged that demonstrates itself in mirages minutely dissimilar from the deceits those surrounding her voice to guard themselves. Sofia Petrovna proposes an extraordinary and fundamental account of Stalin's Great Purges through simple fictional story arcs. First, there is the vanishing of seemingly innocent people. Sofia looses several people in her life throughout the duration of the novel with almost no warning or explanation. This provides an effective look into

The setting was different from most books about the World Wars. I had never heard of Latvia or Stalin until I read this book. The flashbacks in the story helped give a better understanding of how Lina’s life was before and the difference now. The event of the mother and father dying showed the hardships that the young children and teenager had to go through. Although there were some sad parts that I disliked, such as when Jonas changed into a mean person and started to smoke, those were the reality of what had happened during the wars. This book is one of my favorite books I have ever read! I would recommend this book to everyone and

In One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn shows how Soviet prisoners, known as Zeks, are treated while being in the gulag for one day through the eyes of the protagonist and omniscient narrator named Ivan Denisovich Shukhov. Despite being in an environment such as the Soviet Union, where there is harsh tundra and not much food to eat, Shukhov tries to make good use of what he has received while trying to keep himself alive. The purpose of Solzhenitsyn’s portrayal of food is to show its overall significance and that it is used as a means of trade and survival. Over time, the power of food reveals its significance to the Zeks and especially to Shukhov and food allows both groups understanding towards the necessity of food for their vitality and well-being additionally.

Many new characters are introduced to us in this chapter. One of the first is Artie’s therapist Pavel who survived Auschwitz like Vladek. He helps Artie to get come to grips with his feelings of guilt and the thought that he is using his father’s memories and pain for profit. Pavel also helps with visualizing the process of what Vladek would be doing while working in the tin shop, so Artie would be able to draw it. Mancie was I believe the most important character here and was a very important part of this chapter. She was a Hungarian woman who was in Birkenau with Vladek’s wife Anja. She protected Anja and was the reason that her and Vladek were able to get in touch with each other again.Felix was the last character I chose to look at. He was a Belgian boy who Vladek tried to calm when he would scream about being taken at night. Vladek would tell him that all of them would be taken eventually, and that he should try to be brave. Vladek never

Esther’s problems started during the summer when the Rosenbergs were electrocuted. Her reaction was evidence when she stated that, “the idea of being electrocuted makes me sick and that all there was to read about in the papers—goggle-eyed headlines staring up at me on every street corner and at the fusty, peanut-smelling month of every subway” (Plath, p.1). Esther’s pressure started to mount up that summer. For example, Esther wanted to enjoy herself when in New York but instead she was stressed with unpleasant memories of the Rosenbergs. Because of the Rosenbergs’ forthcoming executing, she viewed 1950s America as unfair and dark causing suffering (Plath, p.1). Again, she felt pressured on how to behave as a female by the society around her. For example, her mother sends her a pamphlet on female sexuality when she was in New York and reminded her to keep her virginity. Lastly, Esther found herself surrounded by eleven other girls who came from a wealthy family background. Esther felt stressed when she could not afford all what the other girls could.

Esther is experiencing internal conflict. This is a book about mental illness, so majority of the conflicts will be within her own mind. Esther in unable to understand why she is not taking advantage of her trip more. She knows many other girls would have done anything to be like her. She lacks the excitement she thinks she should have and doesn’t understand why she does not have it. At this point in the book Esther is just seeing the tip of the iceberg. She thinks the feeling of not belonging will go away and doesn’t treat the feeling as a major problem.

The events in New York introduce us to the beginning of Esther’s psychological transformation. The story first inaugurates with the

Esther’s mother and society’s expectation as a woman, which is to be a good wife and a mother, suffocate and demoralize Esther’s dream as a professional writer. Esther’s mother wants her to “...learn shorthand after college, so I’d have a practical skill as well as a college degree” (Plath 40). Her mother believes that Esther cannot further advance her education as a writer and simply wants her to be a secretary since professional career for women was uncommon and discouraged because it disturbs the role as a married woman. These pressures often obliged her to fall into the societal expectations, to give up her higher education, and to marry somebody. However, she knew that the marriage and the babies were not for her, “because cook and clean and wash were just about

Esther was constantly pushed around by men, which was a stereotype in the 1950’s that men controlled the women and were always in charge. Esther had a relationship with a man named Buddy Willard who was expecting that she was just going to marry him. Men believed that they had everything a woman may desire, but actually they did not. Women were forced to marry men because of their fortune or family relations.

The setting of the story takes place during the 1860s in St. Petersburg, Russia for the majority of the book where there is poverty everywhere with a grim aspects of a place where no one is safe, including drunkards, molesters, thieves, etc. The conclusion of the book takes place in Siberia, Russia where there is less corruption and well suited for people who seek atonement for their crimes, such as the prisoners.