48 pages • 1 hour read
Carol MatasA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
“What has happened to me? I feel just like I did when I was around ten years old and I got hit by a soccer ball right between the eyes and I wandered around the field disoriented, not knowing who I was, where I was, where I should be going.”
The opening quote introduces the themes of Lost Innocence and Dehumanization and Genocide. Daniel compares the disorienting childhood incident to the Nazi policy of deadly displacement. The quote features repetition—it repeats “I” several times, as if Daniel is trying to hold onto his identity as a person.
“The three of us laughed and joked about it, but as I lay in bed that night, I knew that none of us had found it fun—or funny. We were separate now from everyone else in Frankfurt. Separate and somehow less important.”
After the fight with the Hitler Youth boys, Daniel and his friends try to laugh it off, as if it’s a harmless juvenile incident. Yet they’re not so innocent. They realize the fight represents a serious threat to their safety. Daniel uses a blunt tone to tell the reader that the Jews are isolated and depicted as inferior.
“Friedrich and I made a pact that we would photograph everything we could as a record of our ill treatment by our fellow Germans.”
Canadian Literature
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Coming-of-Age Journeys
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Family
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International Holocaust Remembrance Day
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Juvenile Literature
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Memorial Day Reads
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Memory
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Military Reads
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Mortality & Death
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Sexual Harassment & Violence
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World War II
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