Survial of the Human Spirit
Survival of the human spirit (including courage and heroism)
Role: it shows how heroic Gemma and Josef’s story is, the power of survival, great empathy, human spirit’s resilience, more from the novel, moral and lesson. Its purpose is to inform people on the effects of such wars and things as the holocaust and destruction of human life. To let people get an insight into this different period in time – nothing like (we hope) anyone could experience in their lifetime. What Characters?: Gemma, Josef, Partisans. What can the reader learn?: Overcoming traumatic truths can be excruciatingly difficult for someone who has experienced the presence of evil. We notice that Gemma slowly reveals a degree of truth in her fairytale story as she told the entire lyrics of a song “look at me: I’m pale and dead. I had already washed and said the blessing when in walked the khapermenshn (kidnapper)…”. We learn about that the resilience of the human spirit is so strong that they were determined to move on with rather than giving up. How does Yolen present the theme?: The theme is mostly evident in Josef’s account of his Holocaust experience. Gemma’s telling of Briar Rose uses a simplistic contrast between the character of the prince and the peasant. Yolen uses a diverse range of characters in the real life story to display different examples of survival of the human spirit and courage. Josef expresses numerous times his survival of the Holocaust and his views on heroism, courage and survival. “this is a story of survivors, not heroes…a man are not a hero if he scrabbles to stay alive, if he struggles for one more crust of bread, one more ragged breath. We were all heroes of the moment”. Josef provides the reader with an interesting idea of courage and the human spirit. Initially, we see a man, who perhaps believes in the ideal of strength and courage, but does not follow it through into his actions, “…started to say something…about being men, about fighting, about dying with honour…”
Role: it shows how heroic Gemma and Josef’s story is, the power of survival, great empathy, human spirit’s resilience, more from the novel, moral and lesson. Its purpose is to inform people on the effects of such wars and things as the holocaust and destruction of human life. To let people get an insight into this different period in time – nothing like (we hope) anyone could experience in their lifetime. What Characters?: Gemma, Josef, Partisans. What can the reader learn?: Overcoming traumatic truths can be excruciatingly difficult for someone who has experienced the presence of evil. We notice that Gemma slowly reveals a degree of truth in her fairytale story as she told the entire lyrics of a song “look at me: I’m pale and dead. I had already washed and said the blessing when in walked the khapermenshn (kidnapper)…”. We learn about that the resilience of the human spirit is so strong that they were determined to move on with rather than giving up. How does Yolen present the theme?: The theme is mostly evident in Josef’s account of his Holocaust experience. Gemma’s telling of Briar Rose uses a simplistic contrast between the character of the prince and the peasant. Yolen uses a diverse range of characters in the real life story to display different examples of survival of the human spirit and courage. Josef expresses numerous times his survival of the Holocaust and his views on heroism, courage and survival. “this is a story of survivors, not heroes…a man are not a hero if he scrabbles to stay alive, if he struggles for one more crust of bread, one more ragged breath. We were all heroes of the moment”. Josef provides the reader with an interesting idea of courage and the human spirit. Initially, we see a man, who perhaps believes in the ideal of strength and courage, but does not follow it through into his actions, “…started to say something…about being men, about fighting, about dying with honour…”