Schindler's ark

Schindler’s Ark - Essay
Throughout the novel ‘Schindler’s Ark’, Thomas Keneally highlights various aspects of loss greatly. He does this mostly through the mistreatment of the Jews but also emphasises loss through the Nazis and how they act. Keneally further emphasises loss by maintaining the idea that the Jews never give up hope throughout the novel, and they can’t bring themselves to believe people would actually commit these horrible acts of evil. As the novel progresses, the Jews go from one horrible atrocity to another but also as it goes on, Oskar Schindler develops as a character. At first it appears he’s just like any other German Nazi, he lies and cheats and is very friendly with women. But then he begins to change, he wants to help the Jews and so he does. He acts like a horrible Nazi when doing it but in truth he is helping them and will eventually save an entire generation.
In the liquidation of the Jewish ghettos, many had died, inhumane acts were committed and Oskar was watching all this from above. In watching this, something happened to him and from that point on he changed for good. This event reveals loss of life and even the loss of the old, selfish Oskar Schindler.
“Those who had escaped on Friday but were caught on Saturday”
¬¬¬The Jews of Krakushaw Street were slaughtered and those who had survived were given hope but the Nazis hunted them down like vermin. When they were caught, they did not lose hope but continued to survive. Most were killed and few were sent to the camps where most would have been executed for mere hilarity and fun by the Nazis. Keneally highlights that the Jews never gave up hope and because of that, they survived. The Jews were clinging on to very little hope, looking to the good when there world was collapsing around them. There was a Jewish woman who thinks of it as “life for a day was still life” and here the reader can see the extent of their reluctance to lose their hope.
Keneally goes into great depth in showing loss in the novel; it’s not only the loss of a physical object or the loss of something personal, but the loss of something as a whole.
“The death of the socially unappeasable Jew outbalanced any value he might have as an item of labour.”
The Nazis singled out the Jews, into the useful and the worthless and through this Keneally emphasises the loss of good in the world. No human being has a price of worth, the Jews are alive like everyone else and killing them for lack of ability or due to religious beliefs is truly evil and inhumane. What scares people most about murder, torture and mistreatment of people is when it is done to kids. Keneally uses this to highlight loss greatly and done this in the concentration camps:
“All the children knew about the gas. They grew petulant when they tried to deceive them”
It is truly horrible how the children know of these horrible things but the adults just won’t believe what they are saying. It signifies the Jews will not give up hope, they are denying all knowledge of it. They believed that “Hitler wouldn’t go that far”. Also, Keneally indicates that the children were also being executed which further underlines the loss of what is deemed to be human and this effects the reader’s perspective of the novel greatly.
The horrors of the Holocaust tested the Jews’ sanity in a way that they were in constant fear. They thought they had no one, they were hated by all and the reader would think they would have given up already. But the Jews never lost hope, possibly due to their religious beliefs; they simply did not fear death because they would have been going to a better place.
“They had been living in a world where their breath was begrudged”
By just breathing they were fighting the Nazis; they not only wanted the Jews to suffer but to cease to exist. Keneally highlights well the Jews hope and willingness to live through there simple outlook that “Life for a day was still life”.
Also, through the main character Oskar Schindler, Keneally emphasises the Jews grasp on hope. To the Jews, Schindler appeared as a symbol of hope and he was who the Jews believed would save them.
“He was our father, he was our mother, he was our only faith. He never let us down.”
From the start of the novel, Schindler seems to be a rich playboy but as the novel progresses he gets increasingly attached to the Jews and then to him. Keneally uses this throughout the novel to emphasise him as a symbol of hope, a sort of saviour to the Jews. He doesn’t save all the Jews but “He who saves a single life saves the world entire” and this further increase the Jews will to live.
Overall, Keneally effectively highlights loss in many ways throughout the novel “Schindler’s Ark”. Loss is shown in many aspects but is mostly shown through the willingness to not lose hope. Keneally highlights this through the main character, plot development and themes. In all, the aspect of loss truly gives a greater meaning of the text to the reader.