Marika: Blog # 2

The protagonist, Marika, in the novel Marika has changed greatly throughout the story. She has grown older and far more mature. In some ways, Marika is like Elie, the protagonist in the novel Night and Helmuth, the protagonist from the story The Boy Who Dared.

Marika, Elie, and Helmuth all have one thing in common. They’re young people dealing with the Holocaust in some way. Marika is dealing with the Holocaust because of the Nazis invading Budapest. Helmuth is dealing with the Holocaust because he is rebelling against Hitler’s ways. Elie is dealing with the Holocaust because he is in Auschwitz. Some similar characteristics between Marika and Elie are that they are both Jewish people, confused about what is going on. Contrary to that similarity, Helmuth from The Boy Who Dared is a Christian German boy who wants to make a difference. He doesn’t believe what Hitler was doing was right. He broke laws in order to carry out what he believed in. So far, none of the characters have had similar experiences. Marika has had hardly any experiences so far, Helmuth rebelled against Hitler, and Elie has been placed in a Concentration Camp.

Although their experiences differ so far, they all have the same motivation. Their motivation is to keep their family safe. Elie doesn’t want to be separated from his family, because he wants them to be with him and he wants to be able to comfort them. Helmuth makes sure that his family isn’t involved in any laws he breaks. Also, before he is executed, he writes a letter to his family. By writing the letter, it shows that he is motivated to tell his family what is going to happen to him and that he was satisfied for demonstrating his beliefs. Finally, in the novel Marika, Marika fills out the blank identification papers that would show Catholic as her religious identity instead of Jewish. The motivation to do this is that if the Nazis ever invade Hungary, her family would be safe.