novel, Thomas Muritz. Thomas Muritz was not a typical French Jew, because ever since he was
a little boy, “flat on the floor, in front of the porcelain stove”, - reading and devouring Dumas,
Balzac, Eugene Sue, Alexandre Farcas Boloni and Hugo, admiring the “Mysteries of Paris,
France, Justice and liberty” which captured the heart of an enthusiastic young boy, and filled it
with loyalty – he wanted to be a Frenchmen. His uncle Bela recalls in his recount Thomas
asking: - “Aren’t I a bit French Uncle Bela?” (pg 11). Eventually, after finding out about his
cousin Latzi’s suicide (for being a jew) he, left for the “radiant, generous domain of intellect and …show more content…
So Thomas becomes as the innkeeper had told
him, one of them, marries Chambord, and settles there. While in the first part of the novel we
see the nature of this love for France, in the In the second part, we see the “murder of this
love”- Thomas’s son Andre’ died for France during the WWI. When WWII comes, Because
Thomas’s mother was a jew, the French turn him in to the Germans.
One of the most powerful literary devices, that grabbed my attention, and would like to
mention, is the symbol of the STAR. Becoming French, Thomas had reached his star, but the rise
of fascism, turns his destiny. During the Occupation, the Vichy Regime had imposed on June 7
1942, that French Jews wear the yellow star – although Thomas was not a jew by Vichy’s
definition, he wore the infamous star, without an obligation. In a way Thomas wears the star of
shame, of giving of self, because he is blinded by the belief and ideals, and cannot accept that
France was capable of stigmatizing its citizens or foreign refugees in its territory, but remains
confident in its moral