In 1983 Aharon Appelfeld published a work of fiction titled Tzili that closely resembled his own personal Holocaust experiences. This work of fiction revolves around a maturing teen who is alone and on the run during the Holocaust. In Tzili, Appelfeld brings to life his characters, which include Tzili, Katrina, Mark, and Linda. Throughout this literary analysis Appelfelds’ memoir Story of a Life will be used to access the parallels that exist between Appelfeld’s own personal experience and his fictional work Tzili. As a Jewish child Aharon Appelfeld spent years on the run, always in hiding from those who would turn him over to the Nazis. Throughout his journey Appelfeld encounters many obstacles that shape who he becomes as a person. In …show more content…
One of the first characters Tzili encounters in the novel is an old prostitute named Katrina. Katrina takes Tzili in due to the fact that Tzili informs her that she is Maria’s daughter. In the beginning Katrina is caring and protective of Tzili. Even though Katrina may have had a suspicion that Tzili is Jewish, she still provides her with food and shelter. Overtime Katrina becomes verbally and physically abusive towards Tzili, throwing things at Tzili when Tzili does not immediately get her what she wants. When Katrina demands Tzili to entertain one of her customers, Tzili realizes that it is time for her to leave and find a new place to stay. Later on in the story, Tzili encounters a Jewish refugee named Mark. Mark is a Jewish man who escaped a concentration camp but was unable to bring his wife and children with him. This leaves Mark with the feelings of intense gilt, and in order to escape this guilt, Mark turns to addictive behaviors such as drinking and smoking. As the relationship grows between Mark and Tzili, a sense of co-dependence forms leading to the emergence of a romantic relationship. Even though this relationship is loving in nature, Mark develops the sense that he is becoming to dependent on Tzili. This leads to Mark deciding to venture into the village to retrieve supplies where in the end, the readers infer Mark was captured. Lastly, Tzili meets a refugee named Linda, who is
The concentration camps of the Holocaust were home to countless injustices to humanity. Not only were the prisoners starved to the brink of death, but they were also treated as animals, disciplined through beatings nearly every day. Most would not expect an ill-prepared young boy to survive such conditions. Nevertheless, in the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, Wiesel defies the odds and survives to tell the story. Wiesel considers this survival merely luck, yet luck was not the only factor to come into play: his father had an even greater impact. Prior to their arrival at Auschwitz, Wiesel lacked a close relationship with his rather detached father; however, when faced by grueling concentration camp life, the bond between Wiesel and his father ultimately enables Wiesel’s survival.
Night by Elie Wiesel is an autobiography about his experience during the Holocaust when he was fifteen years old. Elie is fifteen when the tragedy begins. He is taken with his family through many trials and then is separated from everyone besides his father. They are left with only each other, of which they are able to confide in and look to for support. The story is told through a series of creative writing practices. Mr. Wiesel uses strong diction, and syntax as well as a combination of stylistic devices. This autobiography allows the readers to understand a personal, first-hand account of the terrible events of the holocaust. The ways that diction is used in Night helps with this understanding.
Furthermore, Appelfeld also isolated himself to hide his true identity, however he was also isolated during the beginning of his new life as the result of a language barrier with his own people, which further resulted in suppressing the anger he felt towards his parents for straying away from the Jewish culture. The abandonment of Tzili’s family, mistreatment of other people she encountered, and the stillbirth of her baby are just a few points of sadness expressed within the story. These situations of sadness help express what it might have been like to live through such a horrific event as the Holocaust. This is done by paralleling these stories and using a fictitious work, Tzili, to accentuate key points in Appelfeld’s own true story of survival.
Many themes exist in Night, Elie Wiesel’s nightmarish story of his Holocaust experience. From normal life in a small town to physical abuse in concentration camps, Night chronicles the journey of Wiesel’s teenage years. Neither Wiesel nor any of the Jews in Sighet could have imagined the horrors that would befall them as their lived changed under the Nazi regime. The Jews all lived peaceful, civilized lives before German occupation. Eliezer Wiesel was concerned with mysticism and his father was “more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin” (4). This would change in the coming weeks, as Jews are segregated, sent to camps, and both physically and emotionally abused. These changes and abuse would dehumanize
Aharon Applefelds’ short story Tzili depicted what it would be like to be a maturing teen on the run. Readers will comprehend the true meaning behind the work of Tzili, the tone, connotation, plot, as well as the reason why certain characters were chosen to be portrayed within the story. These characters include: Tzili, Katerina, Mark and Linda. Applefeld’s memoir Story of a Life will also be referenced throughout the analysis in order to provide a parallel to the work of Tzili.
Trudi is the town’s librarian and informant. She knew everything that happened in the small town and takes it upon herself to remind others of the truths they would rather forget, “She knew everything. As soon as it happened. Before it happened” (20). Trudi fell from her mother’s arms as a child and most people in the small town believed that the fall caused her “stunted growth”. The accident ruined her mother’s saneness and was eventually admitted into an asylum and thus Trudi was raised by her father. Trudi is a representation of a simple person who refuses to set back by what people think about her or her physical appearance. Her appearance has been used to give numerous warnings to children against doing things considered wrong, “… fragments of warnings, they had come together to form the essence of one woman” (27). Maybe her appearance led her to leave a lonely life. Trudi did not have a wedding, husband or children which translate to a lonely personal life. This could be the reason why she was occupied in the town’s gossip to fill the void that lack of love and affection left. However, the major highlight was the encounter by the river. Hegi used this scene to show how Trudi’s life was in general, in that; one episode of “love” could make her feel different about herself.
Being a prisoner of war can change a person, dramastically. World war two, one of the most devastating wars; over fifty million people died, and yet this number is just a roundabout. One main factor, called the Holocaust, the extermination of six million Jews, gays, and anything German’s deemed unfit. Based on a true story, we venture through the mind of a young Jewish boy named Elie. Elie one day was taken from his home, and sent to a German concentration camp known as Auschwitz. Elie is soon to realize that this place is no joking matter. Through the process of selection, the disassemblement from his loved ones, and the deportation of saved ones to specialized camps, Elie questions his faith in God, himself, and his welfare of family members.
Such a heinous event that has marked the world and the Jewish religion, Eliezer Wiesel as a young man recalls the story of the horrid occurrences that he went through in the concentration camps. He has been able to express throughout the book changes in himself, changes in his faith, and changes in his decisions as he went through the course
The Holocaust was life changing for the Jewish people. Inside the book Night, Eliezer Wiesel is a Jewish boy whom’s emotion and spirituality changes after his imprisonment in the concentration camps. The Jewish people, including Eliezer, faced dehumanization many times during this period of time. Teenagers should learn about the Holocaust because it engages students to think critically and self-reflect, by doing so they can make essential connections between the history and the contemporary moral choices they confront with their own lives.
Eliezer Wiesel was a young Jewish boy who cherished his faith and family. During the Holocaust, Wiesel and his family were first taken to Birkenau where he and his father, Chlomo, were separated from his mother, Sarah, his older sisters Hilda and Beatrice, and his younger sister Tzipora. Throughout Wiesel’s memoir, Night, he uses many themes, techniques, and figurative language to express his time in the concentration camp. He develops the theme of struggle to maintain faith by using the foreign language, sensory details, and questions techniques.
The Holocaust came in 1933, splitting Jewish families apart and causing the relationship among the individuals who remained together to change. During the novel, Eliezer and his father experience many different changes in the relationship. Three of these included the average relationship a father and son had, trying to convince one another that they would be perfectly fine, and eventually telling each other the reality of what was going to happen to stop disappointing not only themselves, but each other as well. Eliezer and his father, through the horrific events of the Holocaust, have provided an insight on how a relationship was tested but remained strong as they watched others’ fall apart.
While Elie Wiesel, a Jewish boy subjugated to the violence of the Holocaust in Night, embarks on his atrocious journey in struggling to survive the brutality perpetrated on him, he loses his innocence in the traumatic circumstances. Wiesel’s main aspiration of writing about his development from childhood to adulthood is to showcase how cruelty within society can darken innocents’ souls. As Elie grows throughout the story, he starts to understand that he has changed from a pure, little child to a young man filled with distress and thoughts of danger. He reflects over what kind of individual he has evolved into because of the all the killings and torture he has witnessed: “I too had become a different
The Holocaust claimed more than three million European Jews lives; this act is carried out by the German Nazi regime during the Second World War. Eliezer Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, and author of Night, a memoir, recounts the atrocious events he endured as a teenager in the Holocaust. He lost himself and his beliefs through that horrific experience. He had been a young, observant Jewish; Eliezer had yearned to gain more knowledge pertaining to the spiritual customs of his faith. Throughout the duration of the memoir, Eliezer loses hope in the goodness of God. He believes he is not good because He is not stopping the frightening acts that were occurring all around him. In Night, irony conveys Eliezer’s change in faith.
The four life stories I have chosen to reflect on are Santos, Raven, Chip, and Manuel. Santos endured many hardships as a young boy, as he was raised in a farm in Mexico without an education. He then came to the United States where he had many jobs, such a washing dishes and cutting wood boards, but never a high pay job. Throughout his life, he lost a brother and his father. He then came back to the farm to build a house out of adobe. Raven, from Dallas, loves music and this was the main reason she came to Austin. She had around eight jobs in Austin over a three-year period and she started to dislike Austin. She always had two jobs to support herself, but she was not liking it as she had to deal with many customers and faced sexual harassment.
To see the love of a couple flourish is the best thing ever! Let me tell you, I have known Carly and Joe all my life. I went to Highschool with Joe and was his best friend since freshman year. I still remember meeting him for the first time in Robotics class, he always laughed and smiled. It would brighten everyone else’s day, even when he was truly sad. I never really known him to be sad. He always was happy, even when he got in a accident and his baby, this red Ford Focus was completely wrecked.