Mrs. O’Conner
English Honors- 3rd
3 October 2014
Cleansed Stained Soul
During the 1940’s there were many dark secretes that were held captive from the whole world. It was called the Vélodrome d’Hiver, shorten to Vél’ d’Hiv, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, separated, and killed. They were kept imprisoned at the Vélodrome d’Hiver outside the city and then sent to Auschwitz by their own homeland French soldiers. Out of thousands and thousands of Jewish families, several individuals managed to escape the horrible torturous place that marked these innocent souls for life. In Sarah’s Key, Tatiana De Rosnay uses characterization and figurative language to convey that one’s loss of childhood innocence leads to premature adulthood. De Rosnay uses figurative language to convey that Sarah grows up to fast as she has personal experiences that negatively affect her. This metaphor reinforces loss of innocence during the beginning of the story before the main character realized she has already left her childhood behind. It demonstrates how society loses their innocence to early during their childhood before they even reach their teenage years. At the age of ten, Sarah was arrested and taken outside the city to Vélodrome d’Hiver. Sarah had to think and process things trough in order for her to decide what to do with her younger brother. Michael "wriggled out of [Sarah’s] grasp and slithered into the long, deep cupboard hidden in the surface of the wall of their bedroom" all on his own (De Rosnay 8). The author uses this metaphor in order to reinforce Sarah’s decision of leaving her brother behind. Leaving her brother behind depicts how Sarah is willing to leave him behind and sacrifice herself for him in order for him to be safe. It describes a snake-like movement to exhibit how quickly Sarah’s brother hid himself in a very tight tiny place in order to be at safety. In the end, “She closed the door . . . [and] turned the key in the