Asher's first struggles between art and religion begin when he is a young boy. Because he goes to a Jewish school, all of his potential friends are Jewish and they do not take kindly to his drawing habits. They ostracize him and therefore force him even deeper into his drawing habits. "'A boy Asher's age should not be by himself all the time.' 'Asher likes being by himself.' 'It isn't healthy. It leaves scars. You don't want to leave scars on the boy.'" (Pg. 19). Asher spends much of his time by himself, often drawing in his room. Asher's father is the only one who recognizes the significance of this and how it could affect Asher's social life later on. This simple ostracizing eventually turns into explicit insults and attacks on Asher.

"I could also hear the high piercing voice, 'Here comes Asher Picasso Lev, the destroyer of Torah. Make way for goy Lev. Hey, Asher, do you draw dirty pictures, too? Draw a dirty picture for the Mashpia.'" (221). Asher tries to satisfy his artistic desires and fit in as a normal Jew at the same time, and obviously it isn't working very well. Now his peers don't just ostracize him, they openly criticize him. By trying to satisfy his art and religion, Asher loses many potential friends, and he never really connects with any of ‘his people'.
While Asher's peers immediately reject him for his artistic tendencies, his parents are a different case. When Asher is younger, his parents are able to see the dangerous potential in his drawing, but they blow it off as a phase. "Go wash your hands. You are driving us all crazy with your pictures and your stubbornness. What kind of Jewish boy behaves this way to a mother and father? You ought to be ashamed of yourself.'" (Pg. 106). Asher's parents express their disappointment and annoyance in Asher's habits by scolding him, but they never take action.

They support his drawing a little because all good parents should support their children, but they expect that he will grow out of his drawing habit, move on, and join the rest of the Jewish community. However, as time goes on, Asher's parents slowly begin to realize that their expectations will not be met. "'Asher, come with us to Europe.' ‘No,' ‘We miss you. I miss you. There are great art schools in Vienna.' ‘No.' ‘Asher-‘ ‘He'll try to take it away from me. No.'" (Pg. 257). At this point, Asher's parents realize that it is too late to save their child from drawing and that all they can do is hope that he doesn't do anything worse. "'Do not forget your people, Asher. That is all I ask of you. That is all that is left for me to ask of you.'" (Pg. 216). Asher could simply desert his family and deserted his religion, but he decides to keep trying to find equilibrium.

Towards the end of the novel, he takes his parents to an art show to show them a picture he had painted for his mother. The drawing of a crucifix did not go over very well with his parents, and after that they spoke to him very little. Additionally, the Rebbe kicked him out of the Jewish community he had been a part of. In the end, Asher ended his relationship with his parents because he kept trying to establish a connection with them between art and religion.

As if losing all of his friends and family were not enough, Asher also loses most of his sense of identity. Asher first realizes the insecurity of his identity when he tries breaking out of his obedient Jewish mold by staying out very late. "Where had I been? Did I know what time it was? My mother was sick with fear and had gone to bed. They had called the police. She had just called them back to tell them I was home. What was I doing? I was driving everybody crazy." (Pg. 115). Asher finds himself second-guessing his own motives and he asks himself if he should continue to act rebellious or if he should try to honor his parents and his religion. "I would not paint on Shabbos. I spent Shabbos mornings praying and reviewing the Torah reading. I spent Shabbos afternoons studying a book on Hasidus I had brought with me." (Pg. 239). It appears that Asher wants to remain committed to his religion, but all this really shows is his lack of identity. After deserting his parents and being ostracized by most of the Jewish community, there is no reason for Asher to continue his traditions other than to regain some of his lost identity.

While Asher does have some identity in art, people have been attacking it his whole life. At the same time, his aggressors always stressed religion, and so that is what he is reaching out to for identity. Sadly, striving for identity is not the same as having identity and in the end, the only identity he has is what little he has left in art.

Asher Lev constantly tries to bring his artwork and religion to an equilibrium. Yet when tries to be two people at once, he fails utterly, and he slowly destroys himself and his relationships. All the other kids at school dislike his drawing habits, and so he never develops any friendships. Asher's parents want to help him and they want to understand, but they are so engrained in their own culture that it is impossible for them to connect with their son. Finally, he loses his sense of identity because he attempts to immerse himself in both the secular world of art, and the religious world of Judaism. Neither of these offers him very much comfort or security while the other is preset in his life because of their complete incompatibility. Asher's unwillingness to be decisive and choose one or the other causes him to lose many that are dear to him

In the novel, Danny first experiences suffering after he furiously hits a baseball into Reuven's eye, causing serious damage. Although Reuven is the one who suffers physically, Danny suffers emotionally from all the pain associated with the guilt and remorse of his actions. "His voice wasn't angry, it was sad. ‘You want me to say I'm miserable? Okay, I'm miserable.'" (Potok 62). Danny's grief causes him to suffer, but at the same time it opens doors to a new relationship and to new ways of thinking. Before, Danny had been consumed with being superior, but this incident causes him to branch out and become more understanding of the world around him. "‘No hard feelings anymore?' he asked me. ‘No hard feelings,' I said. ‘I just hope the eye heals all right.' ‘I hope so, too,' he said fervently. ‘Believe me.'" (Potok 71). Danny's attitude has been transformed from that of superiority and self-righteousness to that of mutuality, and even humility.

While Danny is studying experimental psychology, he is greatly troubled by the differing approaches of studying the human mind that seem to be polar opposites of what he is used to. "‘Psychoanalysis is a scientific tool for exploring the mind. What do rats have to do with the human mind?'" (Potok 199). Danny can't stand the new methods of studying psychology and goes through a long period of suffering. Although he does not know it, his suffering allows him to become more open-minded, and accept things more easily. This is shown when he decides to talk to his professor about how he feels, and comes away enlightened. "‘He said that experimental psychology was interested in applying the methodology of the natural sciences to discover how all human beings behaved. It doesn't generalize about personality behavior only on the basis of a certain segment of people. That makes a lot of sense.'" (Potok 211). Danny's new understanding did not come about simply from talking to his professor, it was also due to the pain and misery he went through.

Later in the novel, Danny goes through an immense amount of suffering when his father forces him to stay away from Reuven for two years. "I wondered often during those months whether Danny was also going through these same dreadful experiences. I saw him frequently. He seemed to be losing weight, and I noticed he was wearing different eyeglasses." (Potok 220). Danny is obviously suffering terribly, shown by Reuven's observations of Danny losing weight, and the look in Danny's eyes. Reb Saunders had apparently made this final test to be hard; he wanted to ensure that his son had a soul, and would be empathetic. "‘He suffered and learned to listen to the suffering of others. In the silence between us, he began to hear the world crying.'" (Potok 267). Danny's father is pleased with the results of his son's suffering and he fearlessly sends Danny off as a ‘tzaddik of the world'. His father knows that the suffering which he put his son through has paid off, and that Danny can understand love, pain, and other emotions which one cannot grasp with just a mind.

Danny suffers quite often in The Chosen. The most notable of his sufferings include his misery over Reuven's eye, the pain and confusion he experienced over experimental psychology, and the two year silence between him and Reuven. Each time, however, his suffering leads to him becoming more empathetic and understanding which are shown by his words of compassion and enlightenment. Despite all the confusion and misunderstanding surrounding Danny's sufferings, he and others know that he has ultimately become a well rounded and open-minded person.

Danny, the Hasidic Jewish boy, is constantly struggling throughout the novel. His father, the leader of the synagogue, wants his son to assume his role. Danny on the other hand, wants to study psychology. He is trapped in this cycle where his father and the rest of society want him to become the new tzaddik, and he wants to turn away from all of them and go off on his own. He describes a trapped feeling. “I'm trapped now, too...It's the most hellish, choking, constricting feeling in the world. I scream with every bone in my body to get out of it.”(Potok, 202) This explanation and description of Danny's problem can be closely viewed as the same problem that the European Jews were facing. They were kidnapped by the Germans and tortured in death camps. They, too, were trapped in the most “hellish, choking, constricting” environment. Danny's character and situation parallel that of the European Jews of World War 2.

Reuven, the Orthodox Jewish boy, helps Danny through his problems in the novel. He is the one who recommends Danny start reading books suggested by his father, and he often helps Danny deal with the challenges of living within the Hasidic society. On page 202, Danny states, “...One day I will...I'll need you around on that day...”(Potok, 202) The author italicizes the word “need", giving the impression that there is something more to that sentence than meets the eye. Reuven helps Danny just like the American and British soldiers helped the European Jews conquer the Germans. The soldiers liberated the Jews from an almost guaranteed death. Reuven helps to liberate Danny from the confusing cycle. He shows him a new independence and confidence that Danny can rely on to get through the social stubbornness. Reuven's character and circumstance parallel the American and British soldiers, and their state of affairs, in World War 2.

Reb Saunders, Danny Saunders' father, is "an extraordinarily limited character, who embodies the stereotypes of the intolerant religious fanatic and of the provincial immigrant father."(Kurshan) Mr. Saunders is endlessly trying to persuade Danny to follow his example and become a tzaddik. Saunders is also a very powerful man of high priority in terms of the Jewish Hasidic Community. As the reader finds out, Mr. Saunders has an odd, unnatural way of teaching Danny how to become independent and less reliant on his father. This process of "changing" Danny through isolation is somewhat like how Hitler and the other fascist leaders tried to "change" the face of the earth by isolating and exterminating the European Jews during World War 2. Reb Saunders exhibits other parallels to Adolf Hitler like the excellent, convincing speaking skills he shows when he communicates with the Jewish and German community. Hitler was known for his persuasive speeches and rallies that convinced the German people to vote the Nazi party into office. In addition, large rallies and speeches motivated the German men to join the army. Adolf Hitler actually coaxed the German citizens into thinking that they were the “master race” and that Germany would become the greatest world power. Reb Saunders' character and condition parallel to that of Adolf Hitler at the time of World War 2.

David Malter, Reuven's father, represents the ideal American Jewish father. "He combines religious rigor with scientific inquiry and a love of knowledge, all of which he tempers with his overwhelming love and respect for his son."(Kurshan) He is always willing to teach one about anything. Mr. Malter is an individual who understands the importance of relationships. He values and accepts the dual perspectives of tradition and secularism. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the US President at the time of World War 2, understands many of the same things that Malter understands. Roosevelt was a respected politician for many years as a Senator, a Navy Secretary, and the President. Mr. Malter is very much like a politician. By definition, a politician is an individual who is involved in influencing public decision-making. Mr. Malter not only teaches Danny the importance of opening up to new opportunities, but he also teaches him how to make decisions for himself, and not his father. Just like Malter believes that tradition and secularism should be balanced, Roosevelt understood the importance of bringing a new era into the White House but not completely stomping out the past eras and accomplishments. David Malter's character and status parallel to Franklin Roosevelt's character during the time of World War 2.

Many of the major elements from the era of World War 2 parallel major characters of the novel, The Chosen , by Chaim Potok. The author of this popular novel, whether purposefully or accidentally, alluded to the parallels present between the elements of the war and the characters of the story. These parallels are not random comparisons. They advance the plot of the novel and directly reveal the theme of the book. These clever equivalents also reveal how intelligent and passionate the author is towards this story.

“It is as though both narrator and listener have seen the holocaust through the author's eyes. This translation of Wiesel's book conveys all the terror, anger and despair that the Nobel Peace Prize winner endured as a 15-year-old boy.” (Wysocki 1).

Barbara Wysocki supports my thesis by saying Wiesel has brought the reader into the story by telling his tales of horror. The reason the book is not too harsh on the reader is because this is what really happened. It is not a science fiction book about violence and killing. This is a significant event in the history of the world. The things these prisoners went through were horrifying. Wiesel is telling the story how it should be told.

Lisa Katz, writer from about.com, says “the book is not pleasurable reading” (Katz 1) because of the way Wiesel describes the death camps. The reason the book is not too harsh on the reader is because this is what really happened. I think Wiesel wrote this book with a little bit of horror yet not to the point where it is impossible to read. This is a first hand witness at the scene. Wiesel did not just make this story up to write about violence and killing with no purpose. The way he wrote it really brings the reader into the story and feels like they are witnessing these horrific events.

“Not far from us, flames, huge flames, were rising from a ditch. Something was being burned there. A truck drew close and unloaded its hold: small children. Babies! Yes, I did see this, with my own eyes children thrown into the flames. (Is it any wonder that ever since then, sleep tends to elude me)” (Wiesel 32). This quote is the bottom line to what Wiesel thinks about his experiences at the German concentration camps. Utopia.utexas.edu believes that Wiesel's description of the babies being burned is too disturbing and not enjoyable to read. Wiesel does a very good job describing the babies being killed because it is giving the real truth behind what happened.

Stephanie S. of Teenink agrees with my thesis statement and says Night gives what you need to know. They think that the book won't give you facts, numbers, and pictures of the Holocaust; it just gives you the truth behind the death camps. The book is filled with emotion of all sorts but it is not too depressing because it is what really happened and we all need to know about it.

The point that needs to get across is that Night is not too harsh on the reader. It is good to read a book about the Holocaust like this one because it really brings the reader into the story. The reader feels the pain that Wiesel felt during the time he was in the camp because the way Wiesel writes the book.

The novel opens up quickly with a confrontation between Danny Sanders and Reuven Malter. When Reuven first spots Danny Sanders and the rest of the Hasidic Jews he is somewhat annoyed by their religious rituals such as the clothes they wore. Reuven does not fully understand the Hasidic Jews and there rituals so he basically sees them as foreign and strange. He somewhat knows Danny because they both went to the same school, but he has never really met him because Danny's Hasidic community "kept to itself."

As the game progresses, Reuven finally gets a chance to talk to Danny after Danny had reached second base. Reuven, trying to start conversation, congratulates Danny for his hit but is shocked when Danny replies rudely by telling him that they were going to kill him. Later on in the game, at Danny's next time up at bat, Reuven is hit right in the eye by the pitch thus causing him to lose sight in that eye for weeks.

This is where the novel really begins. Potok is trying to show that yes Reuven was physically blinded by Danny Sanders hit, but he also became blind to the ways of Danny and the Hasidic Jews. Potok even makes a point to show how blind he really was when Reuven imagines seeing Danny smiling at him when he is on the floor injured.

As the introduction to the novel continues, Potok decides to show the effect of blindness to other cultures and religions, when Danny comes to visit Reuven at the hospital. Reuven has just learned about his eye, and that he would be unable to do various things, such as reading, when Danny comes to visit. Reuven, blinded by hate, wanted nothing to do with Danny and quickly told him to leave. Though Danny tried his best to try to start a conversation and to reach out to him, Reuven would have none of it. He demanded him to leave because he wanted nothing to do with Danny not only because of what had happened, but because he was different. He simply just didn't and him and thought that everything he did was "weird."

As the novel continues, a change begins to take place in Reuven. Right after he rudely dismissed Danny from the hospital, he beings to regret it and feels remorseful about it. When Danny comes to visit again the very next day, Reuven apologizes for his behavior, forgetting all that had happened between them. They talk for a long time and he actually begins to enjoy his company. Later, he tells his father about the conversation and that Danny is nothing like what he thought he would be like. He states that he doesn't sound like a Hasidic, but rather, he likes to study secular books such as Freud. In this scene, it appears that Potok's goal is to show what can happen when we ignore our differences and become more open minded. Though Reuven is not fully there yet, he is beginning to slowly open his eyes to Danny's world.

Not long after their first real conversation, they meet up again. This time they have an even deeper conversation talking about various subjects like family and their religious rituals. Reuven is amazed to find out that he and Danny were both born in the same hospital. Danny then reveals to him that his father has raised him in silence and he only speaks to him when they are studying the Torah and Talmud. Reuven has a hard time understanding why someone would do such a thing but he continues to keep an open mind. As their conversation progresses, Reuven finds out that Danny reads multiple secular books a week. Much to his surprise, Danny is not a strange as he first suspected him to be and they actually share a lot of things in common.

In chapter 7, Danny comes over to Reuven's house to see if he wants to walk over to the Shul to meet Reb Saunders (Danny's father). Reuven excitingly says yes and they begin their walk down there. On the way, they have yet another deep conversation where they talk about mostly family. Surprisingly enough, the two boys have even more stuff and common and Reuven is again amazed to find out that they were born only two days apart. Danny then explains to Reuven that his father is a tzaddik(Spiritual leader of the people) and this makes him even more anxious to meet him. When they arrive, two men approach Danny and ask him to interpret a passage of the Talmud.

After giving a great explanation, Reuven is amazed by the intelligence of Danny. After the party, the two began to walk back to Reuven's house. Reuven, still amazed by how much they have in common, becomes even more aware of this when he finds out that Danny is planning on going to the same college as he is. As you can see, they have a lot of things in common and this is where Reuven begins to fully open up his eyes to Danny's world and accept it.

As the novel continues, Reuven begins to fully dig into Danny's world and starts to embrace their differences. Though Danny is against the Zionist movement which Reuven supports, Reuven looks past this difference and still continues to be friends with him(though later in the novel Danny's father forbids them from talking). He studies the Talmud with Danny and his father and he realizes that he has almost the same amount of knowledge as Danny does. They are in a way, the same person just from different backgrounds. Reuven becomes so connected to Danny that they are pretty much inseparable, like Jonathan and David. They become so close that he even begins to feel his pain/joy when Danny's father explains to him why he has raised him is silence.

It is clear, at least it is to me, that Chaim Potok wrote this novel to get us to think and to change. He wanted us to open ourselves up to different cultures and religions for that we could fully understand them. He understood that unity is a beautiful thing; you can see this through Reuven. He changed throughout the novel, from a closed eyed blinded person to an open minded person. He became a better person for it as well (studied the Torah more and decided to become a Rabbi).

Just think of what he would be like if he hadn't looked past the differences between him and Danny. He gained so much by accepting him. If we open ourselves up to others who are different from us, we will reap the many blessing and benefits from it just like Reuven did.

Hoberman doesn't really have a main argument or point of view, although he does pass judgment on almost each film, and sometimes on critics' responses (especially when those responses were in some way anti-Semitic). Hoberman writes about the cultural significance of almost every film--i.e., what cultural values it expresses or signifies (in many cases). Sometimes he also passes

judgment on the personalities of people involved with films, especially when they were egotistical or exaggeration-prone (e.g., the director Joseph Seiden; Boris Thomashefsky, one of the biggest stars of the Yiddish stage).

Many themes relating to Jews and Judaism appear, directly and indirectly, in these films. These include: Jewish history; the Jewish religion; the conflict of assimilation vs. tradition; the Jewish laborer vs. the (often Jewish) boss; the great social transformations in the Soviet Union (and Soviet propaganda);

Jewish folklore; the Bible (in the form of Biblical fantasies); what occupations Jews should perform (e.g., laborers, scholars, farmers, allrightniks [self-made men]); persecution; genocide.

Some films portray Judaism and rabbis positively, while others portray them in a negative or mixed way. Not surprisingly, the films that are pro-tradition and anti-assimilation also tend to be pro-religion. Soviet films usually portrayed religion negatively, with religious tradition holding Jews back, and often rabbis were often shown as allied with the rich and bourgeois against the worker and revolutionary, including the Jewish worker and revolutionary. (In the Soviet Yiddish film His Excellency, set before the Russian Revolution, the same actor plays the governor and the rabbi; and as the rabbi, he promises that "The law of Israel will be used to crush [the Jewish revolutionaries].") However, in one Soviet Yiddish movie, Border, Judaism, the local rabbi, and the cantor are portrayed in a way that is "at once comically anticlerical and subversively nostalgic."

In other times and places, Yiddish movies often portrayed Judaism in more mixed or positive ways. The especially sentimental genre known as shund often appealed to religious feelings. The many films that Hoberman refers to as "canned cantorials"--i.e., recordings of cantors displaying their power and virtuosity as singers, or movies that were vehicles to allow them to do this--demonstrate the status of cantors as beloved entertainers, like opera or movie stars, in the Jewish world. The Yiddish movie protagonists who were cantors (often played by real cantors, and sometimes by their sons) tended to be torn between roles as cantors and as secular entertainers--a form of the conflict between religion and secularism, and between tradition and assimilation. Which role the protagonist chose by the end of the movie showed the values and viewpoint of the film and its makers. (Although The Jazz Singer [the world's first talking picture] is in English, it also concerns a cantor torn between secular entertainment and religious performance as a cantor and as a cantor's son, and Hoberman discusses it in regard to this subject.)

The question, What is the proper occupation for Jews? is also reflected in Yiddish films. Historically, Jews had usually been forbidden to be farmers and work the land; this forced them into other occupations, whether marginal and often menial, or, sometimes, positions of potential wealth (e.g., trade, finance) and precarious power. Zionists generally believed that Jews must become farmers and workers of the land, that this was the proper and noble role for Jews. The Soviet Union, though anti-Zionist, also offered and advocated a role for Jews as farmers and workers (at least in theory). The Soviet advocacy of this is shown in such films as Nosn Beker Fort Aheym (Nathan Becker Goes Home), in which Nosn Beker returns to the Soviet Union after twenty years as a bricklayer in the United States, and adjusts to a fulfilling life as a Soviet Jewish worker. In the United States, Edgar G. Ulmer made Grine Felder (Green Fields), which shows an idyllic world in Eastern Europe that never existed, "a timeless, verdant world of earthy Jewish farmers and barefoot sheyne meydlekh " (beautiful maidens). This movie suggests an ideal of Jews as farmers, living close to the earth and in harmony with it, a harmony which is a "natural religion of the heart" to which "Talmudic learning is secondary."

These are some of the themes that are reflected in the Yiddish cinema, which Hoberman discusses in this book.

In his book, Levi details various survival methods his fellow comrades used to escape internment alive. These include trading cloth for bread or soup, as well as trading gold fillings for more cloths to begin the cycle anew. The economic system presented here is vast, with various suppliers and demand points. Currency became null and void, bread was the currency, and it gets you anything you wanted or needed. Anything one might want could be acquired provided s/he posses the proper amount of bread. Every item, he says, has value and if one drops their guard for a millisecond the item will be stolen.

Also, his portrayal of the German guard could leave one a bit perplexed. If he did not talk about them, one might forget that Levi was in a concentration camp or that the Germans were keeping him there. He also makes no strides to demonize of dehumanize them, despite the conditions they kept him under. The author portrayed them as just cogs in a larger machine. The author portrays the beatings that the German captors gave out as routine, failing to give them any context or descriptive words such as horrible, terrifying, or inhumane. One might also find it surprising that he records the German's orders word for word despite admitting to only possessing a cursory knowledge of German and spending a considerable amount of his story on the harshness of the language barrier.

He evens goes so far as to recall the story of Babel to fill make tangible his plight with speaking all these languages. Yet, he still manages to present German (or Yiddish) as perfect as he can, recalling every detail on what is said and the signage, if any, that appears around him.

Every time he presents someone new for the reader to meet, he immediately tells you everything about them. This includes what their name is, what part of Europe they lived, and what job they had "on the outside" as well as a physical description. For example, when he introduces the reader to Walter Bonn on page 52, he says: “One is Walter Bonn, a Dutchman, civilized quite well mannered”. Levi then goes on to recount what disease lands Walter in Ka-Be, which is organic decay, before asking him for a spoon as Levi lost his. He spends much of the individual "chapters" time introducing the reader to various people, whether they are prisoners, or guards, or watchmen. Even if the author did revisit his tale years after the fact, he makes no citations. Why might he include everyone's name with whom he interacts? It is clear that he wished to give you people's names as part of a process of re-humanization. Having their names robbed and taken from them and replaced with a number by the Nazi's, he attempts to restore theme somewhat. In essence, he makes it possible for them to live again.

Furthermore he uses two analogies during his book that hearken back to stories told before, and relies an at least mentionable part on Greek tales. First, to describe and make vivid his struggle he uses (albeit indirectly) the story of Sisyphus, who was condemned by Zeus to push a rock up a hill only to have it fall down again. Secondly, to make vivid the not just the want but the need of food and its acquisition he compares dreams that other have to the figure of Tantalus, who was condemned by Zeus to always be denied food and water. Hence the part of the book where the author speaks of tantalizing dreams where the dream's mouth moves as if to imitate the act of eating. One is left wondering if when food is of that significant importance, if one really is thinking of Greek stories to satiate themselves. His use of allusions and literary devices suggest to me that he took substantial time after the fact writing this book. However, I am still left questioning why he presents information that he, frankly, could not have known. More then just language, he presents how soup is acquired and who is responsible for its creation. Where did he get such information? Did he do outside research and if so, why did he not cite any sources? Even if he did as little as interview survivors of the Holocaust, why not at least cite that?

In some places, his phrasing seemed to be a bit simplistic and general for what his was referring. For example, on page 84 he says: “Everyone knows that it is the nurses who send it (various trade goods) back on the market”. Who is everyone referring to? Could it be that his audiences, or at least his intended audience, are people that do not deny the Holocaust? Is it referring to other people in the camp? Certainly, one would not think that nurses did such things.

Levi admits to the following “The chapters have been written not in logical succession but in order of urgency.” This means that his book is not in a certain chronological order that one might expect. His "order of importance" argument suggests he has an underlying agenda. What is this agenda? A simple Google search reveals his motivations. According to another book Levi wrote, “His view was that the Nazi death camps and the attempted annihilation of the Jews was a horror unique in history because the aim was the complete destruction of a race by one that saw itself as superior. It was highly organized and mechanized and it entailed the degradation of Jews even to the point of using their ashes as materials for paths.” I believe on the whole, in simply telling his tale, he has accomplished his goal.

Beyond this however, it seems to me that he uses his voice very well, in that he delivers all of these events to you somewhat dispassionately. He makes no value judgments about the things transpiring around him, he just presents them with, and it seems, unbelievable accuracy. Memory can be tricky and beguiling entity as various authors, such as Abe Akira in his essay Peaches, have suggested and elaborated on. What has the effect of time done to his story?

In the end he summarized the book with “No one must leave here and so carry to the world, together with the sign impressed on his skin, the evil tidings of man's presumptions made of man in Auschwitz”. And so, after spending 10 months moving from death camp to death camp, Primo Levi relates to us, one man's struggle. Although I found fault with his structure and mechanics of his harrowing story, I found it refreshing that he acknowledges this, and handles it by, saying in the Preface: “I recognize and ask indulgence for, the structural defects of the book…The need to tell our story to "the rest" and make "the rest" participate in it”. I am convinced that everything he recounts happened to him and that he has not fabricated anything within his tome. Despite what some people like British Historian David Irving or Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad say the Holocaust did, indeed, happen and this story should be required reading for anyone in the field of history.

In both MAUS I and MAUS II, the reader is made aware of the eternal presence of the Jewish Holocaust in the Spiegelman house as well as every relationship that the first (Vladek) and second (Art) generation survivors participate in. This looming, horrific presence is enough for Art Spiegelman to struggle with the idea of how the Holocaust and its aftermath play into his own identity. This is a huge complication absent from Peter Balakian's life and therefore the construction of his identity. All humans, regardless of their age, economic status, heritage, nationality, and family will struggle with forming a comfortable identity when the most important event of their lives occurs before they were born and did not directly involve themselves. It is evident that Art is a victim to this struggle of identity formation because of the Jewish Holocaust that his father and mother survived during World War II in Europe.

In addition, circumstances found in Richard Rodriguez's Hunger of Memory also can be possible explanations as to why Rodriguez struggles with balancing the ethnicity of his parents as well as the American portion of himself that is derived from the world around him. In Richard Rodriguez's autobiography, much emphasis is placed on the socio-economic status of Richard's family and the impact of education on one's life. Mexican-American Rodriguez writes of his sense of betrayal when he feels forced to give up his native Spanish for the English spoken in the larger world around him (Rodriguez 50). However, Rodriguez soon immerges himself into collecting all of the knowledge and education he can. Because of his poorly educated parents, Richard is living with an example of what he does not want to be (Rodriguez 49). There is also an emphasis placed on the lower economic class that the Rodriguez family falls into (Rodriguez 46-48). Convinced that education is the key to life success, Richard is influenced by what he feels is the necessity of rising above lower class. He visits the wealthier homes of his classmates and learns to acknowledge things like how to please friends' parents that will allow him to be invited back to a more luxurious life (Rodriguez 122). To do all of this, Richard feels he must give up Spanish language and his Mexican lifestyle. Caught up in his desire to leave his ethnicity behind but unable to do so because the world sees it as written in his face and color, it is little wonder that Richard Rodriguez struggles to balance his ethnic identity with the larger world around himself.

In contrast, the life of Peter Balakian is in many ways different enough from Art Spiegelman's and Richard Rodriguez's that he does not feel the struggle in assuming a confident ethnic identity. One major difference is the family of American-Armenian Peter Balakian. Although, like Art Spiegelman and Richard Rodriguez, Peter's parents speak a language other than English, they are not limited to this other language and they are not limited in their ability to speak English. Art's father speaks a broken English and often reverts back to other languages to express himself (MAUS II 99). Richard Rodriguez's parents struggle with their mastery of the English language as they learn the language at a much slower rate than Richard (Rodriguez 13). Mrs. Rodriguez is the family spokesperson, but often prefers to speak the minimum to accomplish a goal than to struggle with words (Rodriguez 24-25). In contrast, English is the primary language spoken in the Balakian house, unless the content of the conversation is not for Peter's ears (Balakian 5). The only person in Peter's life that is chooses to use Armenian words in general conversation is Peter's grandmother, who does not live in Peter's house. She sprinkles in words of her native language during their time spent cooking and bonding once a month when Peter visits her home (Balakian 10). Peter does not feel forced to learn a different language and thus accepts his Armenian heritage as a substantial portion of his identity. He benefits from the rich culture his grandmother can provide through her language and the Armenian food they prepare together. However, Peter does not feel the pressure to choose between an Armenian and American identity and thus can easily flow between the more American lifestyle at home and school and the Armenian one while with relatives such as his grandmother.

Another way Peter Balakian can easily flow between the Armenian world and the American one without having to choose one over the other as his identity is because he has numerous role models that have allowed him to see how this can accomplished. One such example is, again, Peter's grandmother. Her Armenian ethnicity remains evident in the food she cooks and the language she avidly speaks (Balakian 8). She chooses to teach Peter important words that are significant to their Armenian heritage, as well as passages from the Bible. However, Peter Balakian can also see how his grandmother has accepted that she can now also identify herself as an American. She loves Babe Ruth and the Yankees only as a true American can (Balakian 11-13). She glues herself to the television during times of national significance as only a true American can (Balakian 15). Peter's grandmother is an excellent example of how to have the best of both worlds.

Another role model for Peter Balakian is his own mother. Comfortable living in the middle of the family's high middle class New Jersey suburbia, she still insists on making Armenian meals for her family. She adamantly refuses to yield to any pleas for a purely American casserole (Balakian 48-49). Mrs. Balakian also has a mastery of both English and Armenian, and is well aware of when it is appropriate to use each one. She is a walking, talking example for Peter to use in how to form an identity that does not cause oneself to compromise any parts. With such a role model, it is little wonder that Peter Balakian appears to travel easily between his Armenian world and his American one with a confident sense of ethnic identity.

A final socio-economic and educational component of Peter Balakian's life is a possible explanation as to how Peter is so confident in his ethnic identity. Because of the middle-class lifestyle, Peter does not face some of the challenges that Art Spiegelman and Richard Rodriguez face. Art's father, Vladek, is very stingy with his money and possessions after surviving the Holocaust. Determined to never go hungry or lack anything again, Art is always battling his father to loosen his purse strings (MAUS I 93). Art has a difficult time convincing his father that there is no need to be quite so economical anymore because the Holocaust is over. Money has always been a contributor to the unease between Art and Vladek. Art struggles to acknowledge what his father endured during the Holocaust because of his ethnicity, and the repercussions of such a tragedy.

Richard Rodriguez also struggles with the lifestyle his family follows because of their economic situation. Convinced the key to success is a good, well-rounded education, Rodriguez is determined to achieve what his parents did not have because of the expense of such an education (Rodriguez 49). During his younger years, Richard's father had to choose between an education and starvation, or leaving school to earn money doing manual labor to feed himself. Richard feels he must chose between the Mexican identity of his poorly educated parents or the cushier American identity of his friends and their families.

There is quite a contrast between the Rodriguez/Spiegelman families and Peter Balakian's. Coming from a middle class family rather than the lower class one of the other families, Peter does not feel the pressure to educate himself now so he can get a good job and feed himself later. Without this pressure, Peter does not have to choose between an Armenian and American identity and thus struggle with his sense of identity throughout his entire life. Such a stress appears to have had a huge impact on the decisions and lives of Art Spiegelman and Richard Rodriguez.

In conclusion, a reader can draw much information on how ethnicity can be formed by comparing the lives of Art Spiegelman, Richard Rodriguez, and Peter Balakian. Factors such as family and its members, and socio-economic status have a significant impact on identity formation. Coming from a home with good role models and a comfortable financial cushion, Peter Balakian can smoothly move between an Armenian world and an American world with a confidence in his ethnic identity.