Different Texts, Similar Themes

Today and forever in the future we will look back and reflect on the past, the good experiences, the bad experiences. However, the bad experiences always seem to be the most remembered. This is because the bad experiences the world has suffered have been horrific in many cases and have ultimately changed the way we live today.

Authors and composers continue to recap the happenings of the past through novels, reports, movies, articles and much more. But do they really grasp the ideas? Do they really know how the people of the world suffered in the recounts they produce, when they really happened? It appears today that some composers have more ideas than others, what life was really like in these times and the way they present their work shows this.

Two of many examples convey the times of the past to do with dehumanisation include; “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” by Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn and the film “Schindler’s List” directed by Steven Spielberg.

Schindler’s List is the true story of Oskar Schindler, a very well respected man. A native German, he relocated to Corocon, Poland after it fell into German hands so he could capitilise on Jewish labour at slave wages. There he established an enamelware factory and made obscene amounts of money, while wining, dining and bribing nazi officials to get his way. But while Schindler was profiting from the Jews work, he became disgusted by the way they were being treated. He slowly became more sympathetic towards the Jews, his attitude changing while realizing that what was happening was wrong and that he could do something about it. He began to use his money and his influence to bring more Jews into his factory, a haven where they were not beaten or killed. Or as Mr Welsh placed it; “Schindler used his power to gain things for himself then used it for the Jews”. “By the end of World War II., Schindler’s List of Jews to be saved had grown to over 1,000, and he ended up spending his entire future to buy their lives from the Nazi’s.”

Solzheitsyn’s novel; is based around the camp life of some political prisoners who were being prosecuted under Stalin’s rulings. These “prison camps” were initiated by Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1953 until 1956, who constructed one of the tightest and toughest Communisim’s in history. In relation to this book; being a prisoner at a “special camp” meant that you had rebelled against Stalin’s system of government and you could face imprisonment unjustly with sentences for as long as 25 years.