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The Book Thief, Night And Schindler's List

Decent Essays

Different works can often share a common theme. Three works in particular have a similarity within their main ideas, The Book Thief, Night, and Schindler’s List. These books and movie all take place during the 1940’s in Nazi Germany, each with a different point of view. Individual identity versus conformity to social expectations however, is a theme that makes these three works similar. What is meant by this theme is that one will go against or along with the beliefs of everyone else to either do what they believe to be right or to fit in with everyone else. These three works all share the recurrent theme of individual identity versus conformity to social expectations. Elie Wiesel’s Night has many themes present within each page, and …show more content…

Oskar Schindler is apart of the Nazi Party, and he starts a business with the help from a Jewish accountant to make extra money during the war. Though Schindler starts the movie out as a selfish, greedy business owner, his horrific experiences cause him to inherit a growing respect for Jews, and he puts both himself and others in jeopardy to save them. Spielberg makes the theme of individual identity versus conformity to social expectations apparent with the use of a bildungsroman. One time when this is proven is when Schindler was told that his factory must start making ammunition for the war efforts. Though he does not want to contribute to the war efforts in any way, he must have a product going to the war, or he would be shut down. To compensate for this problem, Schindler goes out of his way to buy bullets from a separate company to pass as his own. This allows the Jews to keep a job, and stay out of concentration camps, but it also keeps him in business. Another time when this theme is shown is during the last mass killing of Jews before Germany’s surrender, Schindler’s workers are to be taken to death. Using the excuse that he does not want to train new workers, Schindler spends most of his fortune to buy all of his workers back. When Schindler is forced to go into hiding, he beats on himself for not selling his belongings to buy more Jews, and to save their lives. Oskar Schindler went against all social conformity to do what he believed was right, and in the end, he ended up saving over 6000 lives

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