Cit City Of Thieves Analysis

The citizens of Leningrad during German’s siege of the city suffered through horrors that left them and their country forever scarred. Somewhere between the opulent officials of the Red Army and the cannibals roaming the streets of Piter were citizens like Lev and Kolya, one a Jewish looter and the other an Aryan deserter. After meeting in a prison cell they are tasked to collect a dozen eggs in exchange for their lives. David Benioff’s City of Thieves is a case study of their unlikely relationship which uses the inhumanities of a besieged Leningrad as a backdrop. The humor employed by the two protagonists as well as their ever-improving relationship is used by Benioff to contrast with the bleak setting in which the book takes place.
Humor is used in
The events throughout the novel shape Lev, and act as an explanation for the behavior of the author’s fictional grandfather. Lev is a personified USSR, having been deeply affected by the situation forced onto them by the German invaders during a sensitive developmental period of their lives. Before chapter one, David Benioff writes in the point of view of a fictional author whose grandparents both experienced the Siege of Leningrad. To the unnamed author, the two were unlike the other retirees in Florida. “They don’t wear their seat belts in the car; they don’t wear suntan lotion in the sun. They have decided nothing can kill them but God himself…” (11). Modern day Russians are characterized as fearless, toughened by the history of their homeland. In this sense, the alleged author’s grandparent’s fit the description of the average Russian citizen, which is contextualized by the rest of the story. Lev’s character arc was heavily influenced by the books subject matter, with both being in opposition to Kolya’s personality. Despite their differences, both Kolya, Lev, and Leningrad were able to retain the humanity that their surroundings