In Bettelheim’s essay, The Ignored Lessons of Anne Frank, he criticizes Anne Frank’s father because of the way he had his whole family hiding out in the attic of one family. Bettelheim claims he is not criticizing Mr. Frank, he just wants his readers to reexamine the way we read history. In his essay, Bettelheim concinced me that we, as readers should look again at the text and realize all the possibilities that the Franks had.
In the essay, the author points out that most of the other Jewish families who did decide to go into hiding did so separately, so if one family member were to get caught, the others still might have a chance. As Bettelheim points out that the chief desire of the Franks was to continue to live together as if they were free, in the same manner that they had been living in. At the time when I was reading The Diary of Anne Frank, I had never thought that there was any other way that they could have lived. I never once considered that they should split up.
Another important issue that the author brings up is the fact that the Franks were better informed than other Jews about the extirmination camps. The other Jews had no knowledge about these camps, making it a little bit more reasonable for the others to want to stick together as a family. The Franks, however, knew this and they still did nothing to prepare for the Nazis. The author also had some ideas for the Franks to prepare for the invasion when the Nazis came, even though they stayed together. He suggested that Mr. Frank could have had some form of protection, such as a gun; Mr. Frank could have tried to detain the police when they came, while his family could try to run to safety. Sure, Mr. Frank would have been killed of beaten, but he could have done a better job of protecting his family.
The most important point that Bettelheim makes is why he thinks that the movie and play are such enormous successes. He declares that the ending in which Anne says, “In spite of everything, I still believe that the people are really good at heart,” is ficticious. He says that this sentence is improbable when one considers that she was starved to death, had watched her sister meet the same fate before she did, knew that her mother had been murdered, and had watched untold thousands of adults and children being killed.
Free Essays – Ozymandias by Percy Shelley
Ozymandias by Percy Shelley
Daniel 4:37:
“Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all of whose works are truth, and His ways justice. And those who walk in pride He is able to put down.”
Shelley tells us about this statue of the great King Ozymandias, and engraved on his pedestal reads: “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings, Look on my Works, ye Mighty and despair!” We read that passage and immediately think of the arrogance and pride that this man must of had. “Look on my Works, ye Mighty and despair!” Works is capitalized as if it deserved reverence and awe. Shelley also tells us that this great statute has been shattered: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desart. . . . . Near them, on the sand Half sunk a shattered visage lies,” So we imagine these pair of legs on a pedestal in the middle of a desert and look to the ground to find the rest of the sculpture shattered into pieces. We read the engraving on the pedestal and look around to see his works so that we can “despair” and we find that “Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.” I can’t help but laugh at the whole situation. Nature has smitten man. Nature won out in the end. Man tried to build a huge empire and then mocked all of natures work and even asks that all “despair” because who could beat his work. Nature has in the end won out and we sit and laugh with nature as Ozymandias’s face is in the ground, shattered with a frown half sunken in sand. Nature’s arrogance is also evident too though. Nature destroyed man’s Work and leaves us the pedestal to read. Nature kept the pedestal as a sign for all of us: “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings, Look on my Works, ye Mighty and despair.” Now replace the name Ozymandias with Nature. “My name is Nature, King of Kings, Look on my Works, ye Mighty and despair.” We can replace Ozymandias with Nature because Nature won out in the end. Nothing that Ozymandias accomplished survived. Nature survived and destroyed all that man had done.