My Experience With Schindler's List

Character Sketch

14/4/2012

Oskar Schindler is a German industrialist who made enamelware. He had the idea to help Jews seek refuge in return for work in his factory. He was a man who saved as many as he possibly could, and was different from every other German thinker of the time. I would definitely be friends with Oskar because he thinks for the future. He knew that the war could end at any time, and that the popular though that Jews don't deserve life would die off with it. He was a nice man, and he didn't like the killings, he actually though that they were horrible.

I don't disagree with him about anything except the forced labor part. Though essential, I don't think it's right. Oskar didn't pay his workers, he payed the SS certain amounts of money for different kinds of workers. Polish people were worth more than Jewish woman, for example, which is why he used Jewish people; they were cheaper. I do agree with the fact that he allowed them safety for the work that they did, which is basically a payment of life. Obviously the time period is the 1940's, and Oskar does not fit in with society, because Germans were not "fond" of Jews at the time, and Oskar was harboring them in his factory.

One big decision Oskar had to make was whether he was going to convert Emalia; his factory, into a Plazow sub-camp or not. Plazow was being converted into a concentration camp, and after the Krakow ghetto was liquidated, the Jews were all being taken from Krakow to Plazow to die, and some of Oskar's workers were those Jews. He wanted to get permanent residence of them in his proposed sub-camp of Plazow, where they would be safe. He got Amon Goeth, who was a powerful person during WWII, on his side to build it, and it ultimately happened. I am glad he did this and support it fully, because it saved hundreds of lives. This was probably where a majority of his 1100 saved lives came from.

Being Leonard Maltin

14/4/2012

Schindler's List actually has a pretty basic story line. Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist, is compelled to use his enamelware factory as a housing for Jews. He ends up making a list of over 1100 Jews that will be saved from Auschwitz's gas chambers. There was amazing casting and amazing actors. These included Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler, Ben Kingsley as Itzhak Stern, and Ralph Fienees as Amon Goeth. Neeson acted in Wrath of the Titans as Zeus, Along with Clash of the Titans, as Zeus. Ben Kingsley, another well known actor, also acted in The Love Guru, and Hugo, while Ralph Fiennes was inHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 And 2as Lord Voldemort, and he was also in Wrath of the Titans, as Hades. Steven Spielberg directed Schindler's List, and is known for making all kinds of movies, the biggest ones being Jaws, Raider's of the Lost Ark, and E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial.

There are a fair amount of similarities and differences. These include the fact that Stern & Oskar met in the same place. Stern was the one who started his enamelware factory, and without him, Oskar wouldn't be saving Jews the same way. The film lacks any information on Schindler's early life, while the novel is flooded with information. That's the big missing scene. I think that should have been in the movie. Overall the casting seemed very well done and realistic. It seemed like WWII was happening as I was watching it, and the realism that the actors acted was amazing, the emotions were real, the dialogue was real, and it was overall an amazingly directed movie. The characters definitely looked as I thought that they would, because Keneally, the author, described them in great detail throughout the novel.

Big Summary

10/4/2012

I haven't posted a blog in a while because I went away for spring break, but I still read the book. One big thing that is happening now is Schindler made a camp called Emalia, where instead of torturing the Jews, he treated them well so that they would survive. He spent a lot of money on everything for them, and this is the start of him saving that 1100 Jews that he is know for saving. He even went so far as to prevent executions in his camp, which nobody else in the Nazi party would do. There is currently talk about closing this camp, and Oskar wants to move his 'skilled' workers to Czechoslovakia. The story is getting really good, and I'm getting close to the end. I really want to see the movie now so that I can see why it's so popular, aside from being based on the popular book.

Chapter Summary

2/4/2012

I've been reading a lot more as of late, because this book has finally finished this extremely long exposition, or what seems like an exposition. I'm currently on chapter 15, going on 16. Chapter 15 was extremely gruesome. It mainly focused on how a little girl watched an SS kill a mom and her son/daughter. She didn't seemed 'phased' for say, but she definitely wasn't pleased, nobody would, unless you count the good-for-nothing Nazi's. This is probably going to be one of the most gruesome scenes in the movie too.

I can't wait to watch this movie so that I can see what they kept in that was relevant, for example, the little girl as mentioned above, wore only red. Maybe that will be the same in the movie. It's small details like that that I pay attention to now, because It symbolizes something. I read somewhere that the little girl in red is the only color in the movie, but I still have yet to see what it means.

Stylin' And Profilin'

30/3/2012

Let me start off by saying how ridiculous this title is. But moving past that, Thomas Keneally is a very formal styled writer. An author's style is obviously how they write. In Schindler's List, Keneally is very formal, uses long sentences, and a very large amount of adjectives. I believe that this makes sense, because he is trying to provide as much information about the Holocaust as he possibly can. It's also justified because this is a historical novel, and you need information to convey what you are trying to say.

I do enjoy this formal kind of style, because it's something different. You don't see it everyday, and it's fun to switch things up. I think that just adds even more reason as to why this novel is a classic, because you just don't see this anymore. The author did a very nice job of fitting it, and I don't think he really needs to do anything, because it's as good as it will get.

This formal style includes very descriptive words, along with authentic dialogue. They speak how they would have when this setting was taking place, which was the 1930's going into the late 1940's. I also believe that the point of view in this story, which is third, makes it more lively, because you can describe more things. If it is from one person's point of view, and you can't explain something that you would be able to in third person, then you're losing some possible valuable information.

Setting the Mood

29/3/2012

The setting in Schindler's List has a very large impact on probably every person's mood that has ever read this book. As stated many times, this book takes place in Germany during the Holocaust. This is a very scary time for the Jews, and their lives were awful. Obviously they didn't deserve it, and that makes it even worse. We don't really have this happening now, but it has lived on to this century, and probably will for a very long time. To think that anybody would have a want to kill is crazy, even if Hitler, a very powerful and strong man tells them too. I believe that no mood but sad could be used to describe the mood of this book. I sympathize with any Jew that died, and anybody who was affected by the Holocaust, which was and probably still is a VERY large amount of people.

Although, if you think about it, there were some- dare I say, 'good' things that came from the Holocaust. Things like antisemitism became larger in Britain and the U.S, and rightfully so. Everybody has the right to live in a place, Jews included. Also some of the data from medical institutes probably went to good use as well. Hitler was also killing his own people, which definitely made winning the war more difficult, and focusing on making it harder to win the war, Hitler was also very focused on getting Jews on trains, and had less focus on winning the war. That's probably a fairly decently large factor on why he lost.

To Be Or Not To Be...A Classic!

28/3/2012

Schindler's List is definitely a classic. To be a classic, the main requirements are that a novel has to be timeless, and timely. This novel is about the Holocaust, which is still a large topic, it even has a museum for it. The Holocaust happened in the Mid 20th century. Adolf Hitler is also a widely talked about topic, because this was pretty much the biggest murder of people in such a short amount of time ever. Classics also present what is true. Schindler's List shows the accounts of Oskar Schindler, a German who helped save the lives of over 1100 Jews in WWII. This is completely true. Classics also appear long after they first appeared. It's still fairly easy to get a copy, and the movie is still talked about, so it fits that criteria, too. Schindler's list is a clear classic that has been loved for decades by everybody.

Picking Up

27/3/2012

I just finished chapter 5, and everything is starting to pick up and move at a faster rate. I finally saw some action, which I hope expands into what the book is entirely about, because I got a book about the Holocaust for the action aspect. The action that I saw was the SS forcing Jews in a synagogue to spit on the Torah, shooting everybody, and eventually burning it down. There were some earlier signs of action, which was just ransacking apartments for valuables. This is something that I think will keep me interested, and was good on Keneally's part, too. I have high hopes for this novel, and hope that it will pick up even more. I'm going to read until chapter 7 tonight, and will read until I reach chapter 10 tomorrow, and complete another blog. I'm also pretty sure that I've already figured out the theme too, which is "He who saves the life of one man saves the entire world". I figured this out in chapter two where this was clearly stated. I figure that this is the theme because I know that Schindler was a man who saves thousands of lives during WWII. Therefore this is saying that he saved the world, which makes perfect sense. The theme basically means that if you want to save someone or something, you have to make an effort. After you make this effort, it will become easier and easier to continue saving.

First Read of Schindler's List

26/3/2012

This book is a lot different from what I thought. So far, after about 15-20 minutes, I've only managed to read about 15 pages. This has taken me a little bit past the beginning of chapter two. The first chapter mainly talks about how Oskar Schindler, who is the son of a businessman and Catholic mother in Czechoslovakia marries when he is young, and ends up joining the Nazi Party. I have a feeling that I'm going to enjoy this book, because although it is controversial, I love reading stories dealing with wars, especially World War II. It starts out slow, but that's how most books seem to go, because they have to introduce everything and everybody to you. I'm definitely going to assume that it will speed up and get more action packed because it's about a war, and because it's a classic that was turned into a movie which was directed by Steven Spielberg. I think that says something special about this novel.