Marika Blog # 2

            The first book I read was The Boy Who Dared and the protagonist is Helmuth. Helmuth is non- religious but his family is not Jewish and his grandparents are Mormon. He is a teenage boy who is confused by Hitler and doesn’t know who to believe, the British or the German? He was part of the Hitler youth and spoke two languages. He went to jail and was executed for, distributing leaflets telling the truth about the war. He is stubborn but amazingly brave, when he went to trial for allegedly distributing enemy propaganda he took all the blame so his friends wouldn’t be put through the same agony he was subjected to. Helmuth has many motivations for his actions, he wanted people to hear the truth and he wanted to make a statement. I don’t have any questions for Helmuth because My questions were answered when I finished the book.

The book I am reading now is Marika and the protagonist Marika she Lives in the town of Budapest located in Hungary. She is very stubborn but brave and stands up for what she believes in. She speaks three languages and can write. Marika is very spoiled whenever she gets a nice gift she turns it away and says she doesn’t want it, like her china doll and her new dress. She understands that she is Jewish by blood but was raised in the Catholic Church. When her father shows her an article about Hitler she is confused as to why that article would affect her family? Marika so far doesn’t have any motivations yet because she hasn’t run into trouble regarding the Nazis. My questions for Marika are how will she run into the Nazis? And if she does run into them, will she end up in a concentration camp?

            The protagonists in my book club books are very different in the sense that one is Jewish by blood and lived in Hungary, and one is a Hitler youth who lived in Germany. But even though these two characters are extremely different, they have just a few things in common. Number one, they both speak multiple languages, the one language they have in common is German. Number two, they are both stubborn yet brave. Number three they both have families that they don’t always understand but still love. These two Characters are extraordinary in their own ways.

            The protagonist’s may be different but the ways the books are conveyed are very similar. The way both of the books look back on what has already happened is similar. But the difference is that The Boy Who Dared was written in 3^rd person and Marika was written in 1^st person. The characters are seeing the war from different perspectives but they are both watching the war unfold. These books are similar yet different in different ways.