Alan Ruff - Prisoner B-3087

By -
Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Grantz is the story of 10-year-old Yanek Gruner, a Polish Jew held in the concentration camps of WWII Germany.  Prisoner is based off of the true life of events Jack Gruner and his struggle to survive amidst so much death.
                The Holocaust is very difficult situation to write about because of the seriousness and reverence of the subject matter.  By choosing to tell the story through the eyes of a young boy, Grantz is able capture innocence in the middle of so much senseless death.  Grantz uses bread as a symbol of life throughout the book.  Yanek and his father sneak out in the middle of the night to bake the hidden bread that they will take to the others.  Under cover of darkness in the bakery, Yanek is made a Jewish man in the presence of ten other men.  It is his memories of this bread and the small pieces of bread that he was able to save for himself that would help him survive for the next six years.  This bread is much like the manna that God provided for the Jews while they wandered in the wilderness.
                One day while bathing beside the water pump, Yanek remembers back to a time when he used to own a toothbrush.  Having seen so much suffering and death, the thought of a toothbrush seemed like it belonged in another life.  Yanek recalls this moment after being liberated as he lays in a bed with sheets and a pillow.  “Beside my bed there was a little table, and on the table the Americans had given me more gifts: a wash cloth, a cup, and a toothbrush.  I picked up the tooth brush reverently and cried as I held it in my hands. I remembered that day, standing at the pump in the camp – which camp had it been? – when I wondered when I had ever been so fortunate as to have something so simple as a toothbrush?” 

                Grantz foreshadows how it is the little things in life that we miss and take for granted in the opening of the book.  It is Yanek’s memories of these little things along with the memories of his family that give him hope to survive.

Comments

  1. StephanieDawkinsOctober 26, 2016 at 5:38 PM

    I love the way that you ended your blog post. We often do take the little things in life for granted but when we have nothing, it is the little things that we remember and what pushes us to continue on to survive in this dirty, cold world. We often do not think of what life would be like if we didn't have a toothbrush like Yanek. Once he did receive the small gifts the Americans gave him, he cried. I could never imagine myself crying because I had a wash cloth, cup, and a toothbrush, but at the same time, I've never had to go without any of these items.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lucy McElroyOctober 27, 2016 at 6:23 AM

    Alan- I also like what you said in the last part of your post. It seems that Yanek starts to lose himself in the camps, which can only be expected of a survivor of the Holocaust. He tried so hard to hang on to every memory he had of his family and his past life until it seemed foreign. It's tragic. Great post.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Growing Pains - The Symbolism of the Tree in Speak

By -
I have felt the paralyzing pain of internal disease. The kind of trauma that causes your mouth to curl in and swallow you whole. I, like so many other women, are walking the halls in Melinda’s shoes in “Speak.” I thought Laurie Anderson did a phenomenal job of twisting all of the tribulations a high school girl goes through, into the tree that Melinda is. Whether we’re as strong as an oak or weak as a bush, we have all gone through the disease that strikes Melinda from the inside out. Melinda is like a half-dead tree. Some parts of her strive to blossom and create beauty. Other parts are broken and diseased. Like a dead tree, Melinda needs to save herself and “cut off the damage, [so it] is possible for the tree to grow again” (187). The symbolism of a tree is significant in “Speak.” Trees reflect her growing process. In the beginning, Melinda is a sick and lifeless tree. Her view is negative and dark. She’s so far past repair, bursts of sunlight do her no good. Sunlight would be pe...
Read more

How Starr Goes from Acting to Embracing in The Hate U Give

By -
In The Hate U Give, Starr Carter is caught between two worlds. She lives in a predominantly black neighborhood, but her father sends her and her brothers to a private school where she is surrounded by white people. She talks about acting differently depending on what group she is around, which can create some identity problems. She says on page 11, "Funny how it works with white kids though. It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black." When at Williamson, she sees white kids that think it's cool to engage in black culture, but she knows they don't understand what she goes through in her Garden Heights community. She witnessed her friend Natasha's death when she was 10 years old, and she sees gang activity in her community all the time. When she is among her black friends, like at the party, they tease her for hanging out with the white kids. This reminds me of a Drake song where he says, "I used to get teased for being black, and now I'm...
Read more

Postmodernism in Curious Incident

By -
Before I start writing, I first want to acknowledge that I just really loved this book! It seemed like a lot of the class had trouble enjoying or appreciating the novel because it's so different stylistically, which is understandable, but all of those unique elements helped make the novel more authentic. The main topic I want to focus on (also what I'm writing my paper on) is how a lot of postmodernist elements were used in the novel to make Christopher come to life. While obviously not every postmodern novel is about an autistic kid, I think Haddon really used a lot of these elements to his advantage and they ended up working out really well to characterize Christopher. One of the major postmodern elements which helps this book really craft an authentic portrayal of autism is the fact that it's metafictive. Basically, this means it's a "story within a story." Readers would be extremely limited just reading the parts of the novel which are meant to be C...
Read more