Write
a four-to five-page literary analysis essay
on the topic from the list below. A literary analysis asserts an interpretation
of a literary work and supports that interpretation with analysis of specific
examples and details from the text of the literary work.
"[My grandfather]
talked about his childhood, about the war, about coming to America. But mostly
he talked about one week in 1942, the first week of the year, the week he met
my grandmother, made his best friend, and killed two Germans." David
Benioff, City of Thieves
Is it ironic
that war - the insane, murderous collision of men and deadly machines that has
marked society since the ancient Greeks began to record history - generates the
other extreme of human behaviour? Does cruelty provoke its opposite, tenderness
and a realization that salvation lies in our shared destiny? Most of us can't
answer that from first-hand experience, but if experience was the only way to
learn about the world we'd be in trouble. In City of Thieves, David Benioff brings us to Leningrad in 1942, and
introduces us to Lev Beniov, 17 years old, born and raised in "Pita."
In that one week, Lev learned about war, about courage, about friendship, and about
love.
1. Your
assignment is to examine that first week of 1942. Find the horrors -
hunger-weakened doctors treating casualties nightly without anesthesia; starving
citizens dying on their neighborhood sidewalks; young women raped nightly by
German officers; Russian prisoners executed because they could read and many
others. Then, examine the other side of this coin by examining the world of Lev
and Kolya, which - despite the insanity around them - is bursting with curiousity,
discovery and an appreciation of life. Theirs is an unlikely friendship, but
it's forged in these incredible circumstances. Explain the relationship between
the loss of humanity on one hand, and heroism and self-sacrifice on the other.
How did all this produce the rich, lifelong friendship?
2. At the beginning of the novel, Lev is a scared teenager, too shy to tell Vera he likes her, but by the end of the book he shows he is capable of acts of both bravery and calculation. How does Kolya help Lev develop as a young man?
2. At the beginning of the novel, Lev is a scared teenager, too shy to tell Vera he likes her, but by the end of the book he shows he is capable of acts of both bravery and calculation. How does Kolya help Lev develop as a young man?
At the beginning of the novel, Lev is a scared teenager, too shy to tell Vera he likes her, but by the end of the book he shows he is capable of acts of both bravery and calculation. How does Kolya help Lev develop as a young man?
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