Frances Bowles - Yanek, from a boy to a Man

By -
When it comes to the Holocaust I've learned about it all throughout school; but in terms of this novel I think it did a really good job capturing the imagery of what the camps were like and the people there. It's descriptiveness made me feel as though I was there with Yanek watching things turn for the worse in front of our eyes.

I think Gratz's portrayl of adolescence demonstrates the fear and also strength that children have in the appropriate times; therefore , Yanek being 12, going on 13 symbolizes not only the transition but the balance of a boy and a man. It honestly saddened me when Uncle Moshe told Yanek that his parents died and they were the only ones left. What made that moment sad was Yanek breaking down crying; "My legs felt wobbly. I had to sit down on my bunk, or I would have collapsed. I had known my parents might be dead...I didn't try to stop the tears that filled my eyes and coursed down my cheeks" (68). This was also the moment where Yanek realized that despite having his uncle, he was alone, not having his father to protect him or mother to comfort, his beliefs made him a man but the discrimination made him grow up.

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 24, 2016 at 10:48 AM

    The last sentence of your blog post is so well-put! The way you distinguish between Yanek becoming a man and becoming an adult is very interesting. And I completely agree with your point about the strength children have and how Gratz really shows us that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownOctober 24, 2016 at 12:00 PM

    I agree that this book definitely does a great job at giving readers a great idea of what life was like during the Holocaust. I think that Gratz purposely wanted Yanek to have this birthday happen during a time like this. Like you said, it shows Yanek developing from a boy to a man. My question to you is, do you think that Yanek would have still made all the same decisions had he not turned 13, had he not lost his parents, and had he not been all alone? And yes! When Yanek found out that his parents were gone it broke my heart as well. I could only imagine what he must have felt like.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousOctober 24, 2016 at 8:09 PM

    I like your idea of the novel serving as a symbol of the struggles of adolescence. I agree with you that Yanek goes through a powerful transformation throughout the novel.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownOctober 26, 2016 at 8:51 PM

    Love this. This is probably one of the darker coming of age stories that I've read. Yanek deals with the "typical" adolescent problems on a much larger, much more real scale that I think puts a lot of other books in perspective.

    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