"The Pianist"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines Wladyslaw Szpilman's novel "The Pianist," in which the author details his account of his survival in Nazi-occupied Warsaw and how he managed to make it through the horrors and atrocities that were committed there during the seven years he writes about. It evaluates how there is no question that the life that Szpilman was forced to endure during the period from 1939 to 1945 was painful for him and many others who were there as well, and attempts to explore why
Szpilman managed to survive the terror while many others succumbed to it and lost their lives during that period in history. It analyzes the factors and forces that Szpilman describes when accounting for his survival so that an understanding of his desire to live and the forces both internal and external that spared his life, can be more easily examined and understood.

From the Paper:

"Another circumstance that accounted for the survival of Szpilman but was also outside of his influence was the kindness of one officer who discovered Szpilman hiding in Warsaw late in his ordeal. He should have killed Szpilman, but instead he brought him food and a quilt. To say that Szpilman was incredibly lucky on that day would be an understatement of the largest degree. This was probably the only kind officer that Szpilman had ever met, but yet his novel does not reflect bitterness or hatred toward the Nazis (Frank, 2000). He saw the German officer that helped him out during that time as the 'only human being in a German uniform that he ever met', and he tried to find out what happened to the man. He eventually learned that the German had been imprisoned by the Russians for sympathizing with the Jews, and remained a prisoner until his death (Pleszczynski, 1999)."

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