My opinion on this book is that it is a great a read, and really tells you a different story of the war, this time in a curious German boy's prospective. I would give this book a 5/5 Star rating because of its great development of the characters and description of what was going on at the time.

John Boyne, the author of this wonderful book has written mostly for children but this is a mix of both- It is easily readable for a younger person but has a lot of historical references that wouldn't be known for the younger - -makes this book what it is, along with "The Hopeless Case" of a sister it really provides laughs, curiosity and a bit of mystery.

This book has been set just before and during World War II, the commanding officer (Bruno's dad) has been asked to move closer to Poland and the prison camps along with Hitler. Bruno, the curious young chap that he is decides to go "exploring" in this new found place, winding himself up in a lot more trouble then first intended. During the war we get to see how the Jewish were treated and how family servants were punished for small mistakes.

The cover of this book has a good secret behind it; all we see is a boy in "striped pyjamas" (jail clothing) with an old style looking cover. “It haunts your mind for days after.” This quote is true, there is such a friendship built between the reader and the young boy that you wouldn't want it to end but it does; sadly.

I would recommend this book to anyone but probably over the age of 14, considering it would be most likely be easier to figure out what is happening around the time (history etc).

This concludes my review towards "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas". My final thoughts are that is a great book and is definitely worth the read!

 

Now Voldemort hated a certain kind of wizard. Anyone who wasn't of pure blood was considered inferior. He wasn't a pure blood himself. And like Hitler's case, no one under Voldemort leadership questioned this. Like the Nazi's, they were happy to wipe out those who they deemed inferior. Members of the Nazi group and the Death Eaters simply followed their orders to kill from men who were similar to those they killed.

Hitler started his reign of terror when he got in power over Germany. Voldemort started his a long time before he managed to take over the Ministry of Magic. Hitler wanted all of the Jews gone and thus had most of them sent to concentration camps. And anyone found to be helping anyone of Jewish blood was also punished and sent to a camp or killed. Voldemort didn't bother wasting time with camps. Most of his victims were killed on the spot. And anyone who angered him, mudblood or not, was killed.

Now both of these men also had others killed besides the groups they announced to be inferior. Voldemort made muggle killing into a sport. And Hitler also had blacks and gay people killed. Voldemort rose to power twice. Hitler only once. Voldemort was terrified of death and Hitler killed himself when he was defeated. Both these men were incredibly intelligent men to convince people to kill others who were similar to them. It must have been easier for Voldemort to convince the purebloods to kill the half bloods and muggle borns, the hatred was already there. For Hitler he had to start from scratch to create hatred for the Jewish people. Both managed to cause wars based on hatred .

In 1871 Charles Darwin published The Descent Of Man, from which his cousin, Sir Francis Galton drew inspiration and this chapter will discuss the origins of the science known as "eugenics" in Victorian Britain and how its principles laid out by Sir Francis Galton influence the novelists of the time. Gillham remarks, Eugenics ... deals with "questions bearing on what is termed in Greek, eugenes, namely, good in stock, hereditarily endowed with noble qualities." And so Galton had brought into the vocabulary a word whose dark connotations have ever since been associated with his name. (Gillham 2001, 207)

Charles Darwin in The Descent Of Man (1871) states, 'We civilised men ... do our utmost to check the process of elimination; we build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed, and the sick; we institute poor laws and our medical men exert their utmost skill to save the life of everyone to the last moment ... Thus the weak members of society propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man (Darwin cited in Gallagher, 1996: 76)' (Marks, 1999: 34)

This argument that not allowing people with disabilities to live or die according to natural selection without anybody helping those members of society most in need of aid carried a great deal of weight in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The view that comparing the breeding of animals to produce better stock can be likened to the selective breeding of humans is too simplistic. According to Gallagher, just what constitutes survival, strength or weakness in the human race is a complex issue with many ramifications. The relationship between prosperity in an industrialised society and survival and selection in the natural chain of evolution is not as clear as the first evolution enthusiasts believed it to be. (Gallagher, 1990: 77. cited in Marks, 1999:34)

That is to say; controlling the breeding of humans to eradicate undesirable traits, mental and physical impairments for example, is extremely complicated. Selective breeding may produce unexpected and potentially disastrous results. Gallagher is also saying that the ability to acquire wealth, power or status is not necessarily as clearly related to natural evolution as early supporters of selective breeding believed.

Since the ideas behind eugenics were very prominently featured in the public arena, it is logical that writers will be influenced by the debate. It would be difficult to establish a "middle-ground", as it were, about such an emotive subject. That is to say, it is reasonable to suggest that opinions would be either strongly in favour or vehemently opposed to the idea. It would be difficult to imagine that all writers of fiction occupied the same camp either for or against eugenics.

In 1883 Galton published "Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development" where he pulled together the results of his twin studies, his thoughts on anthropometries and statistics, and touched upon topics like psychometrics, psychology, race, and population. It was in this book that he coined the term "eugenics." (Gillham 2001, 7)

Galton applied the term to the science of breeding out those members of society who, if allowed to reproduce unchecked, would threaten the survival of the human race. Gillian Beer remarks, 'Francis Galton's eugenic theories were an attempt to apply evolutionary theory to the future and Darwin's own emphasis in The Descent Of Man (1871) upon acts of choice and will in sexual selection (however circumscribed by society's pressures) brought into the foreground questions of inheritance.' (Beer, 1983:191).

In the nineteenth century, eugenicists stated that aspects of physical appearance could identify those that needed to be prevented from reproducing.

According to Janet Browne, "Criminologists such as the Italian writer Cesare Lombroso proposed that there were physical stigmata to be seen in social deviants. These were sometimes explicitly linked with apish bodily features" (Browne 2006, 124-125). In the late nineteenth century, as Browne tells us,

The same threat of physical and moral degeneration was taken up ... by Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case Of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) where Jekyll's other self, the evil Hyde, progressively became more apelike as his murderous deeds increased. (Browne 2006, 125)

Mr Hyde is described by Stevenson as, "pale and dwarfish, he gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation" (Stevenson 1886, 59). In another story by Stevenson, Treasure Island (1883), Jim describes his apprehension when asked to watch for a one-legged man.

How that personage haunted my dreams ... Now the leg would be cut off at the knee, now at the hip; now he was a monstrous kind of a creature who had never had but the one leg, and that in the middle of his body. (Stevenson 1883, 16).

We read in Browne, "Conditions such as epilepsy or gross deformity categorized yet others again as undesirable. It was thought that such unfit individuals could be identified by "signs' and then removed from society.' (Browne 2006, 125). It is supposed that a person with epilepsy would be identified when they are witnessed having a seizure, since epilepsy, although a physical disability, does not have any other physical manifestations. It is also worrying that diabetic and epileptic seizures are almost identical and that people with diabetes as well as epilepsy could be removed from society using such reasoning.

According to Gillian Beer, "In Mind 5 (1880) Grant Allen wrote an important article on "Aesthetic Evolution in Man' which draws heavily on The Descent (Of Man) (1871) and particularly on the idea of sexual selection' (Beer, 1983: 212)

Allen also asserts, "the beautiful for every kind must similarly be ... the healthy, the normal, the strong, the perfect, and the parentally strong" otherwise, "the race or kind must be on the high road to extinction." (Allen cited in Beer, 1983: 212)

Thus Grant Allen lays down definite criteria for the continued survival of the human race based mostly on the physical attributes of the women that would be used for breeding purposes. Criteria that would exclude most people with physical disabilities and as Beer states, "His concept of beauty brings to the fore the idea of eugenics." (Beer, 1983: 212). The idea of a fixed set of characteristics to ensure good breeding stock is taken further by Francis Galton. He was invited to deliver the second Huxley Lecture at the Royal Anthropological Institute and Forrest tells us he begins with a familiar theme: the application of the normal curve to human variation. On this occasion he divides the population with regard to their "civic worth" into five classes (R, S, T, U, V) above mediocrity and five classes (r, s, t, u, v) below mediocrity). (Forrest, 1974: 250)

The Huxley lectures were sponsored by Thomas Huxley - a keen advocate of the eugenics idea. Thomas's grandson Aldous Huxley advocated the eugenics concept in Brave New World using a similar system of grading the population. In Huxley's perfect world, the population was genetically engineered, dividing it into five separate classes from Alpha plus - the most intelligent and physically perfect, down to Epsilon minus - simple-minded labourers.

According to Forrest, at another lecture delivered to the Sociological Society on the 16th May 1904 at the London School of Economics, Galton stated that, "the Society would need to be persistent in arguing for the national importance of eugenics" (Forrest, 1974: 257).

Forrest states that Galton also said that three stages would be needed, the first being, "familiarising the public with the topic, the second ... persuading people of the importance of implementing eugenic proposals ... the third ... introducing eugenics into the national conscience like a new religion." (Forrest, 1974: 257)

The public now becomes familiar with topics largely through television and cinema productions. Therefore, in a similar way, as Jopson suggests, it would be logical to suggest that the concept of eugenics might be promoted through written works in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Forrest states, "Galton"s paper was followed by a long and general discussion ... Among the speakers were Weldon, Benjamin Kidd, and H.G. Wells. Written contributions came from Bateson, G. B. Shaw and many others. (Forrest, 1974: 257). Jopson remarks, Wells and Shaw represent two of the foremost intellectuals of their day who were motivated to embrace the doctrine of eugenics by a hope that it could effect social change ... They also conveyed their eugenic ideas through the medium of their literary works (Jopson 2004, 1)

However Wells did not entirely agree with Galton's implied suggestion that criminals should not procreate, since "a large proportion of our present-day criminals are the brightest and boldest members of families living under impossible conditions and that in many desirable qualities the average criminal is above the average of the law-abiding poor, and probably of the average respectable person." (Gillham 2001, 329)

In Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), the naturalist Prendick is marooned on an island where the vivisectionist, Dr. Moreau is creating hybrids between men and animals. Upon Prendick's first encounter with these men/animals he describes them thus, "Imagine yourself surrounded by the most horrible cripples and maniacs it is possible to conceive, and you may understand my feelings with these grotesque caricatures of humanity about me". (Wells 1896, 57) In Man And Superman (1903) by G.B. Shaw, "John Tanner explains the socialist element in Shaw"s eugenics: ''Equality is essential to good breeding; and equality ... is incompatible with property.''' (Childs 2001, 15). Childs goes on, there never will be a God unless we make one - that we are the instruments through which that ideal is trying to make itself reality - we can work towards that ideal until we get to be supermen, and then super-supermen, and then a world of organisms who have achieved and realized God. (Childs 2001, 15)

An obvious problem with any eugenics programme is the matter of perception. In Britain, The Mental Deficiency Act 1913 made it easier to institutionise people with learning difficulties, or as they were known, those who were "mentally enfeebled". These institutions, in the past, have been regarded with suspicion by eugenicists such as Francis Galton. He states, "Aid given to institutions for the feeble minded are open to suspicions that they may eventually promote their marriage and the production of offspring like themselves." (Galton cited in Forrest, 1974: 262). Unfortunately, at that time, people with epilepsy were regarded as being feeble minded. It has since been observed that with improved medication and being afforded equal opportunities for education, people with epilepsy usually possess normal intelligence and in some cases above average intellectual capability.

The Act received support from Winston Churchill who tried, shortly after the Second World War to make sterilisation of the "feeble-minded" compulsory. Evidently allowing the "feeble-minded" to produce "offspring like themselves" was not part of the eugenicists' plan to help save the human race.

As well as epilepsy, other learning difficulties that came under a general category of "feeble-mindedness" might have been autism and dyslexia. The Act came under attack from prominent writers of the day such as G.K. Chesterton. Childs tells us, It was the newspaper founded by Hilaire Belloc, Eyewitness, that, as Jones points out, ''ran the toughest campaign against the 1913 Mental Deficiency Bill.'' 52 As early as 1901, G. K. Chesterton had accused Pearson of preaching ''the great principle of the survival of the nastiest.''' (Childs 2001, 19).

In conclusion then, this chapter has studied the rise of a so-called science known as eugenics, developed by Galton and inspired by the work of Darwin. Eugenics advocates the breeding out of existence of certain undesirable traits in the human race, thereby strengthening and purifying it. The interest and support of writers such as Wells, Shaw and Kidd has been looked at as well as the opposition of Chesterton and Belloc.

This dissertation will examine literature and how novelists in their writing, have been influenced by their social environment from the early nineteenth until the late twentieth centuries with regard to the representation of people with disabilities. It will demonstrate that the writing of Thomas Robert Malthus have been reflected in the work of prominent novelists such as Charles Dickens and Aldous Huxley. The influence of Charles Darwin and Sir Francis Galton on later writers, Aldous Huxley and Angela Carter for example, will be discussed.

Colin Barnes informs us, "twelve percent of Britain"s population are disabled people….Disablism in the media is no longer simply morally and socially reprehensible it is economically inept.' (Barnes, 1992, 39). Since such a large percentage of our population has impairments, Barnes is stating that they have the potential to become a powerful lobby, politically and economically. However, as Barnes says, "Disabling stereotypes which medicalise, patronise, criminalise and dehumanise disabled people abound in books." (Barnes, 1992, 38). According to Dr David Bolt in a paper delivered at Keele University "Literature informs and is informed by society" (Bolt, 2004:1).

Of particular importance are the eugenics movement and the Nazi "euthanasia" murders of thousands of disabled people. Both affected their social environments and the Nazi murders effected a radical change in the view of eugenical ideals. The role of Tiny Tim and Ebenezer Scrooge will be examined as symbols of the social ills of Dickens' time and his attack on proposals by the social economist, Thomas Malthus.

The birth of eugenics will be discussed and the interest shown by writers of the day; H.G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw and Benjamin Kidd for example. The popularity of eugenics and its political ramifications will be explored as the attitudes of modernist writers are demonstrated in the various extracts from diaries and letters written by Virginia Woolf and D.H. Lawrence.

Aldous Huxley's Brave New World will be examined next with regard to the influences of Malthus and Galton. The Nazis' keen interest in the theory of eugenics as practiced in the USA and other European countries culminating in Hitler's attempt to establish a "master-race" is to be examined. The Holocaust's beginnings with the so-called "euthanasia" killings of thousands of mentally and physically disabled people are especially important as it marks a turning point in global attitudes towards eugenical ideals.

Angela Carter's post modern novel The Passion Of New Eve will be the final novel to be studied since it also warns of the dangers of genetic manipulation. It also contains satirical overtones and it would appear, at first glance, that Carter has been particularly harsh in her portrayal of the disabled character, Zero. I will demonstrate that Carter uses Zero in juxtaposition to Eve to design the story to be read at different levels.

In other words the representation of the characters as metaphors or symbols can be interpreted in more than one way.

I believe this discussion of disabled people's representation in literature is important because, although many novels have been re-read to critique their sexist or racist aspects, comparatively little research has been carried out by disablist critics.

It is difficult to interpret every writer's portrayal of a disabled character. This dissertation will demonstrate there is the possibility that some writers use the disability of their characters as a criticism of society's attitudes towards disabled people.

Discrimination against disabled people takes many forms and is not always easy to detect but may be comparable to racism. In "A Thousand Plateaus" we read,

From the viewpoint of racism there is no exterior, there are no people on the outside. There are only people who should be like us and whose only crime it is not to be' (DeLeuze and Guattari, 2003: 178)

This interpretation of racism could be applied to "disablism" a term explained by Colin Barnes, "”Disablism” ... refers to prejudice, stereotyping or “institutional discrimination” against disabled people."(Barnes, 1992, 42). People with disabilities are the "people who should be like us" as DeLeuze and Guattari comment and as they also assert, "Racism operates by the determination of degrees of deviance in relation to the White-Man face." (DeLeuze and Guattari, 2003: 178). In other words, the "White-Man" face is perceived to be the norm and people from other ethnic groups are discriminated against according to the extent to which they differ from the norm.

Disablism operates in a similar way to racism as perceived by DeLeuze and Guattari. That is to say, a non-disabled person is the "White-Man face" or the norm and the severity of a person's disability decides how far from the norm that person is and the extent of discrimination against that person.

Chapter One: Malthus and Dickens

This chapter will begin by examining one of Malthus's proposals in his essay "The Principle Of Population" (1803) which will be studied in relation to Charles Dickens's work A Christmas Carol. The proposal in question is the attitude of Malthus towards "surplus population". The way in which Dickens expresses his disapproval of Malthus' idea is to be explored. There will also be an examination, in some of his other novels, of how Dickens uses disabled characters to symbolise opposing concepts.

Thomas Robert Malthus, an economist, published, in 1798, "Essay on Population" in which he posited, "that the power of population to grow was "indefinitely greater' than the power of the earth to produce subsistence' (Winch 1987, 19). In 1803 Malthus published another essay and as Glancy states,

In his "Essay on the Principle of Population" (1803), Malthus had argued that anyone who could not be supported by his parents and could not provide labor that society requires “has no claim of right to the smallest portion of food, and, in fact, has no business to be where he is.” (Glancy 1999, 60)

A Christmas Carol is used by Dickens to challenge this theory. When Scrooge is asked for a contribution to help poor people who preferred death to a workhouse existence, Dickens writes, "”If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it and decrease the surplus population.”"(CC, 13) So one method of population control has already been suggested by Thomas Malthus in 1803 and "Dickens was responding to the political economists of the time whose systems were partially based on the writings of Thomas Malthus." (Glancy 1999, 60). Dickens' response was to portray anybody who agreed with Malthus' idea as a miserly and miserable old man.

Charles Dickens tends to use disabled people in his novels as symbols of criminality and evil or, at the other extreme, as objects of pity. In Bleak House (1852-53) for example, a disabled but parasitic character "the subhuman Smallweed who fastens on his victims like some noxious insect"(Crompton 1958, 295). Set up in opposition to Smallweed is the sympathetic character of Phil Squod whose "Vulcanic deformity results from a warping occupational environment" (Arac 1977, 67).

Dickens had an obsession with deformities and Carey tells us,

When traveling in Switzerland he noticed that the women who sat by the roadside suckling their children had "such enormous goitres (or glandular swellings in the throat) that it became a science to know where the nurse ended and the child began." Dickens' obsession with deformity combines here with his habit of separating the body into inanimate bits. The two are closely related. Tiny Tim's crutch is a variant of the wooden leg fixation. (Carey 1973: 97)

Dickens writes many of his novels as social commentary and is demonstrating through particular characters his disapproval of the lack of political will to help those most in need. A Christmas Carol however is interesting because it is a ghost story as well as a criticism of the social ills of the time. As Lyn Pykett remarks, "A Christmas Carol is used to solicit the readers" sympathy for the causes (and Cause) of "Ignorance and Want" and the unreformed.' (Pykett 2002, 92).

Dickens makes effective use of Scrooge "to expose the horror of Utilitarian thought, laissez-faire economics and Malthusian population theory" (Pykett 2002, 92). Wilson states that crime, misery, inequality and violence came from lack of education and "by incorporating it into Scrooge"s terrible vision of the two children, Ignorance and Want, he involves it with his deepest personal apprehensions.' (Wilson 1972, 182)

At the Cratchit's house, Scrooge asks the Ghost of Christmas Present whether Tiny Tim would live. The spirit replies by reminding Scrooge of his statement concerning the decreasing of "surplus population". Again we are shown clear proof that Dickens believes some elements of society consider a disabled child to have no right to live.

This is commented on by Holmes,

A Christmas Carol exemplifies Dickens's vigorous opposition to those Victorian social reformers and businessmen who believed, like Scrooge, that charity

encouraged idleness and that the poor should be left to die and "decrease the surplus population" (Holmes 1999, 1)

In the novels which represent many of the harsh realities and social injustices of Victorian London, Dickens tends to use characters with disabilities as symbols of evil or pathos. This, it could be argued, was untrue of tales such as A Christmas Carol. However, "In A Christmas Carol ... Dickens adapts fairy-tale effects and fairy-tale techniques with marvelous skill" (Stone 1979, 120) and in doing so we are

immediately given the impression that all of the characters, not just the spirits, in A Christmas Carol are unreal. At the same time, they do represent the attitudes of their time. Christmas evoked a more spiritual feeling and was not regarded as an excuse for the kind of commercialization we witness of late. Waters remarks,

The presence of the crippled Tiny Tim adds an element of sentimentality to the description which helps to evoke the shared emotional response in the audience that would unite them in a community of feeling. The depiction of Tiny Tim elicits the empathy amongst his readers that Dickens saw as essential to the Christmas spirit. (Waters 1997, 76)

Dickens writes, "Alas for Tiny Tim, he bore a little crutch and had his limbs supported by an iron frame" (CC, 61)

Pope-Hennessey tells us of, "The Christmas scene at the Cratchits", the good cheer, the affectionate family atmosphere and above all the courage of Tiny Tim, the cripple' (Pope-Hennessey 1968, 197)

The pitiable Tiny Tim and Ebenezer Scrooge who was "hard and sharp as flint" (CC, 6) portray two extremes of human nature. As Irving remarks, "Also common is Dickens"s penchant for the juxtaposition of extremes. (In his own words: “It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things) "(Irving 1995, xiv)

Scrooge"s physical appearance is also abnormal as Dickens states "The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek ... made his eyes red, his thin lips blue;" (CC, 6). In Carey we are told, "Dickens" obsession with deformity combines here with his habit of separating the body into inanimate bits ... Tiny Tim's crutch is a variant of the wooden leg fixation.' (Carey 1973, 97). The ghost of Christmas past is similarly depicted as having a disjointed appearance, "it looked upon him with a face, in which in some strange way there were fragments of all the faces it had shown him" (CC, 49).

In his novels, Charles Dickens reflects the attitudes of his day towards women, ethnic minorities and people with disabilities. Campbell remarks of the patriarchal view in Dombey and Son (1846),

Dickens intends Dombey time to be at once a parody and a perversion of what can be called patriarchal time, the temporality sanctioned by both Victorian capitalism and nineteenth century British Christianity, which advocated obedience to the Victorian paterfamilias as the earthly, temporal representative of a heavenly father. (Campbell 2003, 89)

In Oliver Twist (1837), the Jew is represented as evil in the form of Fagin and mirrors a strong anti-Semitic feeling in Britain. During a meeting with the criminal Sikes, Dickens writes, "These words, in plain English, conveyed an injunction to ring the bell. It was answered by another Jew, younger than Fagin, but nearly as vile and repulsive in appearance." (Dickens 1837, 153). In Barnaby Rudge (1841), Collins writes "Barnaby is twenty three years old ... he is an idiot with the mind of a child ... his father is an absconded criminal, who is responsible for Barnaby"s idiocy' (Collins 1965, 194).

This chapter has examined how Dickens's and his contemporary writers' use disabled people to represent the sinister or pitiful, indicating that society already had very fixed ideas about disabled people. Their status as "surplus population" is expressed by Malthus in his "Essay On The Principles Of Population" and I have discussed the way that Dickens attacks this proposal in A Christmas Carol. Dickens' obsession with deformities has also been examined and how Dickens fragments some of his characters into inanimate parts.

In the poem “The Hangman,” there is a clear image of a bully present throughout the entire poem, clearly it is the hangman. In the poem the hangman blazes into town and brazenly sets up gallows in the courthouse square, and day by day he picks off the townspeople. Using his ability to instill fear he causes the townspeople to submit to his demands and go silently to their deaths instead of rising up. For example, “He laid his hand on that one's arm and we shrank back in quick alarm. We gave him way, and no one spoke, out of fear of the hangman's cloak.” The hangman frightens the entire town so much that not a single person does a thing to help another towns person when they need them most. In the end the bully does so much damage that an entire town is wiped out just because a bully scared everyone so much they were afraid to stand together, united against a common enemy.

Also, in my life I see bullies roam the halls looking for the small and weak just for a chance to cause them harm. Students will pick on students day after day after day until the students no longer feel the slightest will to fight back. Just as in the poem “The Hangman” day after day the townspeople lost their will to fight back and stand together, day after day they grew more and more submissive. For instance, a bully could everyday at lunch take a fry from another student, the first day the student would protest but days after that they would grow too afraid. The students around are just glad it isn't them even though the bully may eventually come to take their fries, so they don't help the person being bullied. That happens in real life just as it does in the poem, and it doesn't just happen in lunchrooms or in poems either, sometimes bullying happens on a world wide scale.

Before World War II the leader of Germany was the most powerful man in Europe and his name was Hitler. Hitler knew how powerful he was and began to torment the countries around him, he would just waltz into country after country taking them over. Each country that was not taken was just glad it wasn't them, until at one point there were very few countries left to stand up to Hitler leading us into World War II. Although what makes Hitler a bigger bully is what he did to his own people. Hitler in the beginning starting put Jews into ghettos and forced them to live there, later on he put more Jews into ghettos, little by little the Jews were being locked up but they were doing nothing about it. They did nothing about it because Hitler started with just a few and the other Jews were just glad it wasn't them so they did nothing to defend themselves. Then Hitler started on the gypsies a few at a time and the homosexuals a few at a time with the same thing happening to them as it did to the Jews. At the end of the war the bully Hitler had killed millions of Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and millions more allied fighters.

What Hitler did as a bully is take down each group piece by piece picking on each group until they wouldn't fight back and scaring other groups for the exact same thing.

For millions of years bullies have been around and they will be for millions of years later we don't know when they will come or what they will do but we do know this, every single bully uses the same tactics. They will be just like Hitler, lunchroom bullies, or the hangman, and the sooner people realize their tactics and stand together rather than every man for himself the world will be a better place.

In Animal Farm Mr. Jones is the master of the Manor Farm. Mr. Jones in history is actually the Russian ruler Czar Nicholas II who was the last of the Russian Czars. The hard life and poverty shortages in Russia made the middle and the low class people to slowly realize that their life is not so good.

In 1917, The Russians who was tried of the World War and tried of large food shortages finally led by the Bolsheviks took over Russian government. Little did they know that the Russian Bolsheviks was going to be no different than their former Czars and in fact they were soon to find out that history will always repeat itself on their beloved new government and their new loved leader.

The new leader the rose was “Comrade Napoleon” or otherwise known as Joseph Stalin. He used his fame and respect from the people of Russia to boost his own person welfare and his own public standing. Stalin began his rule as a righteous person paranoid of power struggles. He tried to provide for the good of the Russian people who are represented as “The Beasts of England” in the novel. Then as history proves right Stalin lost his righteous rule and abandoned the idea of socialism to become a power hungry greedy ruler.

This got Stalin and his nobles luxury and power while the common people of Russia suffered like slaves through out the seasons. Stalin's international and national political status changed drastically while the welfare of Russia became unchanged or worse. This is proven right when Orwell says “Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer--except, of course for the pigs and the dogs.”

The idea of Communism was adapted from Karl Marx. The character Old major portrays Karl Marx in the book. He invented the first idea of Animalism or other wise known as Communism. Then Lenin changed it to fit their party's needs as they rose to power. Than Stalin changed the rules to justify his rule and actions as the new “Animal Farm” or Communist Russia slowly falls under a dictatorship rule by “Napoleon” the person the “Animals” never truly elected to rule over them.

Animalism and Communism is best defined as “The doctrine of the conditions of the liberation of the proletariat.” Communism first started out as a government, which allowed all proletariat to share in the profits that they acquire from their works. This slowly decreased as Communism became more rooted in Russia as a dictatorial government.

Jones's Farm House from the book is actually Kremlin State palace in Moscow. This building was used by the Communist Congress Party to host their meetings and for official purposes. Kremlin and the Red square was used to host huge military parades in the Soviet era. Lenin's embalmed body is put on display at red square. All official proceedings of the Russian government were done at red square. Even the Czar's crowning took place at the red square. Red square was an important symbol of Soviet Russia and it's so called “reformed” government.

Red square got its name because in Russian red means beautiful and since the place had the shape of a square it was called the red square. This shows that the Animal uprising also revolved around the “Farm house” showing that the new government was no different from the old one.

The Gun and the Flag in the book Animal Farm represents the communist symbols of the hammer and sickle. The hammer and sickle started out to represent the working class of the Soviet Union. Then it turned into a symbol for the Soviet dictatorship and the reminder of the hardships of Soviet oppression. The gun and the flag also started out as a symbol for the animal's freedom then it turned out as the symbol for napoleon's oppression and rule.

While all the “beasts of England” or people of Russia was suffering the rich nobles were enjoying lavish life. This is showed as “ribbons and sugar” in the novel by George Orwell. The rich aristocrats of the Bolshevik Communist party were enjoying the riches and pleasures thrown by Stalin and his government.

Then religion was abolished from the U.S.S.R or Communist Russia. This is symbolized in the novel when the Raven Moses is banned from the farm and he never returns for a long time to the farm. The Sugar candy Mountain in the book represents Heaven and Christian and religious views. This was banned from U.S.S.R by Stalin and his government because they though it went against Stalin's propositions.

They also got rid of religion from Russia because many Russians were strict Orthodox Christians deeply rooted in the Christian religion and gave their complete obedience to religious leaders so Stalin viewed religion as an enemy and got rid of it. They used the church as propaganda and all churches that opposed were destroyed. Then as the pigs and Stalin's party became more like the old Czars, the Raven came back preaching about the Sugar Candy Mountain and religion. Then Stalin did not think that to be a threat because the Russian people were already subjected to the rule of his party and they never though the people of Russian could now make a difference or even revolt.

The book Animal Farm by George Orwell shows an inside view of Soviet governments radical changes using symbolisms. It shows how history repeats itself as time goes on. It also shows the inside corruption and damage and how anybody could become infected with the evils of the world even if it were made by the most pure and good people. The book's metaphors show inside views from both parties on their policy and how their ideas and feelings about the Russian revolution changed over time.

The crushed and hopeless people of Russia and their thoughts about their life are portrayed truly in this book. Then their hope rose as the U.S.S.R and Communist government collapsed and there rose a true government for the betterment of the people called the Federation of Russia. This gave a new hope for the Russian people and the cry “for mother Russia” became a true phrase.

Elie Wiesel is a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust. In his book, Night, he gives detailed accounts of his tragic life in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. This book is filled with horrific accounts of horrible, horrible happenings which took place in the concentration camps.

Hearing about the horrors which took place in the concentration camps is tough to hear about. Reading Night, written from a first-hand point of view, sheds a new light on how the Jews themselves felt while experiencing the suffering which they endured in the 1940s. There are so many different stories in this book that are simply heart breaking. After reading certain parts I would have to set down the book and stop to contemplate.

Night is intriguing and well-written but moreover, it will open your eyes, make you stop, think, and be grateful for what you have. It is a short book and I hope after hearing about it you will go pick it up and take the time to read it. Books like these enrich our lives and in truth, make us better people.

Hitler is obviously one of the figures believed to be at fault for such monstrously inhumane acts. The question on who should be blamed for the Holocaust exists to this day though. It was hard to imagine that such brutality in enormous scale could be the brainchild of one person alone. Hitler may have planned it and it was his idea but the bigger question is who were the people behind it?

The holocaust happened because a number of Germans believed that the Jews were behind the downfall of the German empire. A chilling plan then occurred to deal with these unwanted tyrants, the Jews. Einzatsgruppen and Police detachments were utilized by the government to carry out orders to contain the Jewish populations in ghettos or to eliminate them completely. The men behind the dreaded Einzatsgruppen and Police detachments were the focus of Christopher R. Browning' interesting book "Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland." The book is their story in a nutshell.

Browning uses as a basis for his story a compilation of documentation gathered on postwar German interrogations of men of comprising this unit who carried out the wartime atrocities. He takes a deeper look at the Reserve Police Battalion 101 from Hamburg composed mostly middle-aged men from artisans and working class non-career police reservists. These men were either too old for normal front-line service or those who had no desire to practice a career in the police outside their role in this reserve unit.

Browning was able to access more than 400 testimonies composed of over 500 men that were a part of the feared unit during the war. Their accounts, contained in these valuable documents, were used by Browning to analyze the actions and train of thoughts in detail particularly in these units.

In the book, Browning describes the dangerous use of even these units as first guards on trains that used to bring Jews to extermination camps. These units also participated in the in the rounding up Jews in the Polish Ghettos. Later, they exterminate entire villages.

This unit made up of 500 men broke down further into police reservists that did not have combat skills and were not central to the holocaust activity turned out to be the ones directly responsible for the killing of 38,000 people by shooting them to death. Also, they were directly responsible in transporting 100,000 thousand others to their deaths.

Browning made a brilliant documentation on the horrors committed by this representative small unit. Unfortunately, he did not really delved into the essential question of how an ordinary man - a gentle father to his kids in Germany, with no practically no combat skills could be the reason for exterminating thousands of women and children in the small village of Poland for a very flimsy excuse that they are Jewish.

Browning turned back the hands of time by showing us what kind of men made up this unit. They were a diverse class of Party members, members of the SS, working or privileged upper higher classes and others. Their first act of killing was looked into in detail. All members of the Police Battalion 101 unit were not aware that they were to shoot unarmed and utterly helpless Jews. The commander of the Battalion first asked those who wished to step out so they can be assigned to other less demanding jobs. Schmike stepped out but was scolded by Commander Trapp. After Trapp, "had taken Schmike (the man who stepped out) under his protection, some ten or twelve other men stepped forward as well. They turned in their rifles and were told to await a further assignment from the major (pg. 57)." No one was punished for their voluntary decision to step out, yet, other members of the unit shot five or six people. A few others were able to avoid being asked to shoot the Jews. Germans therefore had a choice if they wanted to take part in Holocaust or not.

Police Battalion 101 was also tasked to guard Jews on board trains that would take them to concentration or death camps. Their job was mainly to send thousands of Jews to their death. As the operations grew, the unit seemed to grow accustomed to their roles and even had the heart to joke about it.

Police Battalion's another significant job was being a hunting unit that hunt down Jews who were able to escape or hide. They were able to slay hundreds of Jews during the hunt. Ukrainians and Latvians helped carry out executions for the Germans by getting drunk and start shooting anywhere gravely wounding the Jews in the process.

The Poles also facilitated the jobs of the Germans by showing them where the Jews hid. The Germans would note down how often the Poles "betrayed" the Jews to them. The Poles however did not see this as betrayal since the Jews were neither friends nor family.

What could possibly draw supposedly decent people comprising Police Battalion 101 to do such ghastly acts? Some cite the need to do so since they were in battlefield. But many believed this assumption is wrong. Those in the Battalion as a matter of fact were not skilled in combat training since most were older men who were not allowed to join the the German Wehrmacht and were not used for the forefront but in rear area security.

Browning could be creating controversy when he called the book "ordinary men" to refer to the members of the Police Battalion 101. Their extraordinary callous acts could be attributed to the decaying effect of the racialist Nazi that was considered as the accepted truth in German society that brought the war. Browning does not give specific answer to the question as to why the atrocities occurred and why they were committed by seemingly good people. Those interviewed members of the unit did not bother to answer the question themselves. It is however the subject of confusion and the focus of the story as to how an ordinary person could kill children, women and old men with little or no remorse. It causes us to look closely and ask ourselves: how can racialist ideologies turned ordinary men into extraordinary monsters? That is the one question posed by the book which it did not address.

The book focuses on four commanders and leaders (alexander the great, arthur wellesley [duke of wellington], ulyses s. grant, adolph hitler) whose impact on history has more than compensated for their inclusion on this highly legible and surprisingly enjoyable book.

Mr. Keegan postulates that throughout history, the role of commanders/leaders in conducting battles has evolved and paralleled the level of man's technogical progress (along with a host of other sociocultural, economic and ideological factors) -- which he neatly labels into four types of leadership: (a) heroic, (b) anti-heroic, (c) un-heroic, (d) false heroic.

To pigeonhole his subjects into this classification, Keegan posits the question: "When conducting a battle, do you lead your men in front?" Each of the 4 possible answers -- (a) always, (b) sometimes, (c) seldom, (d) never -- defines a type (mask) of command/leadership.

• Thus we have alexander (Greece), who personifies the Heroic brand of leadership, always conspicuously spearheading his army's attack, because that's how he wanted to be seen and how his people expected him to behave. in this sense, the term "heroic" connotes a theatrical quality -- where a leader needed to highlight his presence (via distinctive attire, brilliant oratory, rash and bold actions) to encourage and lead his men into battle. This type of leadership equates to the classic concept of a hero.
• Then, we have the Duke of Wellington (UK) who, due to advancements in weaponry (artillery), had to constantly move in and around battle scenes so as to direct how much and which of his resources (men and supplies) should be moved where and when. Much of his style (reserved and sobriety in manner, dress and speech) was in marked contrast to alexander's larger-than-life performance, hence the term Anti-Heroic. In this sense, wellington is largely viewed as an aristocrat who waged war for England and his monarch..
• Next, we have U.S. Grant (USA), who largely directed his army from the rear due to the longer range of weapons and to effectively exploit the advantages of communication (telegraph) and transportation (railroad) gears of his time. Although this may seem Unheroic in a broad sense, it was actually a practical way to fight a war in a democratic and sprawling society. Grant, who would eventually become president of the U.S., held himself no better than the men who served under him.
• Hitler, one of the 20th century's 'monster' (both literally and figuratively) personalities, scarcely needs any explanation. Although he largely led a bunker existence for much of the war (esp. towards at the end), he would fiercely 'micromanage' many situations from the rear -- much to his commanders' bitter consternation -- and would repeatedly allude to his WWI experience (aided by a well-choreographed propaganda machine and his own gifts of demagoguery) to clothe himself in a 'heroic' mold (False Heroic). needless to say, among the four he could easily be seen as having ultimately failed the test of leadership.

As a parting shot, Keegan concludes that the 'mask of command' required for contemporary times (which he calls Post-Heroic) is the type of leadership that eschews warfare in favor of a rational, multipronged approach (here he cites Kennedy's handling of the Cuban missile crisis as an example). Such an approach, he hopes, would eventually render large-scale battles a thing of the past.

While this proposition seems a bit optimistic -- given mankind's war-making propensities -- the author presents an insightful and weighty case to promote his theory. And when one considers the bulk of his work so far, one can't help but appreciate the extent of the groundwork that he had undertaken in order to come up with this interesting theory on command and leadership.