I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors

Art as a Second Language Bernice Eisenstein’s novel I was a Child of Holocaust Survivors uses both art and modern language to express the feelings and emotions associated with her family’s traumatic history. Eisenstein blends images throughout her work to help the readers gain a better understanding of the emotional journey that she has undertaken through writing this novel. Not only does she tell the story of her life but she also incorporates the life stories of her family and community. She uses images to further express feelings which cannot be articulated in words. Not only does she use images throughout the story to visually represent things she uses extreme language and comparisons to demonstrate her desire to understand her families past in order to understand herself. Throughout the novel, I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors, Eisenstein explores the boundaries of graphic literature as well as memoir writing. The combination of the two forms of literature is used to draw attention to the repercussions of growing up in the shadow of the Holocaust. The images which are interspersed throughout the novel allow the reader to gain a better understanding of the emotions that the narrator is trying to express. The images she portrays are carefully drawn and placed throughout the work to reinforce a particular point or to express something which is impossible to articulate in words. In a literature review Margot Kaminsky states:
“The illustrations are necessary, not ancillary, to the story and its main points. Eisenstein creates thoughtful links between the captioned images and the text. Quotations that originally spout from a drawn character's mouth reappear much later in written sentences. Images also repeat themselves, creating a universe that reverberates.” (Kaminsky).
Without the illustrations the reader would not grasp the entirety of the novel and Eisenstein’s purpose for writing the novel would be lost. The illustrations allow the readers to gain

Cited: Eisenstein, Bernice. I was a Child of Holocaust Survivors. Toronto: McCelland & Sewart Ltd., 2006. Kaminsky, Margot. "S.F Gate." 18 August 2006. The San Francisco Chronicle. 10 March 2008 . Pan Macmillan. "Pan Macmillan.com." An interview with Bernice Eisenstein. 11 March 2008 .