Analytical Essay: The Cruelty Of War

War is cruel and war is kind. One one hand, lives are ended pointlessly and cruel regimes have no mercy; but on the other, there is an odd sort of kindness, contrary to the cruelty that war can bring, people putting themselves in danger selflessly and the war itself brings about these sudden and extreme acts of generosity. Albert’s struggle to find his horse Joey in the trenches of World War I and Liesel’s hardship as she understands and use literature to combat the issues in the world in World War II show that some people can still be kind in the cruelty of war. These are stories that are set in wars that show the relentless cruelty people, and at the same time, the heartfelt kindness of people. Albert and Joey were very close before the
Albert is rewarded for his kindness, his reunion with Joey at the end of his story is his return for his kindness and hard work in the war. Liesel, on the other hand, is almost punished for her actions; she does not get any reunion with a long lost friend, she gets no happy ending, instead she has everything taken from her at the end of the story as her family and friends are killed in an indiscriminate bombing. The hatred for the other side, Ally or Central, in World War I and the genocide of the Jews in World War II were combated by the average citizens back home, who sympathized with their enemies and sheltered Jews from the searching eyes of the Gestapo. This is shown as Albert is not as happy as he thought he would be fighting in a war, seeing the brutality of it, losing friends and killing people back to back; and Liesel sees that no matter how good or kind people are, the world does not care with her alone surviving due to her books, while the kind Rudy, Hans, and Rosa are wiped out by bombs. It was this dual kindness and cruelty that made Death afraid of humans and crushed Liesel’s spirits for