Representing the Holocaust in Children's Literature by Kokkola Lydia;

Author:Kokkola, Lydia; [Kokkola, Lydia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2022-06-05T00:00:00+00:00

The Characterization of Maciek

Although the entire novel is focalized exclusively through Maciek, never allowing us so much as a glimpse into the workings of Tania’s, their persecutors or any other characters’ minds, the focalization pattern shifts from externalized focalization of the late middle-aged Maciek to internalized focalization of the young Maciek. Although the bulk of the novel is narrated autodiegetically, the narrative voice occasionally slips between the different voices of the two Macieks. The narrator of the frame story, for all his intimate acquaintance with the older Maciek’s thoughts, remains emotionally distanced. This narrator seems less certain of Maciek’s identity, referring to him a “sort” and suggesting a number of possible professions without ever settling on a single, correct choice. And although we are told that he lives in “a tranquil country,” we are never told that country’s name.

The narrative voice contributes to the readers’ understanding of Maciek’s character by remaining distanced from the older Maciek but coming close to the more open child Maciek. The older Maciek invites neither reader nor narrator to get to know him better. On the contrary, he has withdrawn from society and spends his time alone with his books. The classic works of literature he admires have taken the place of human companionship. He refuses to discuss his past, preferring to spend his time alternating between literature and accounts of torture. This fascination with torture is hard to grasp before the reader has travelled alongside the young Maciek and seen how he was forced to witness similar scenes, to see from whence his shame at having an intact skin “virgin of tattoo” (Wartime Lies, 1) originates. The older Maciek is presented as someone who can be known only externally, but who cannot be understood, even when his thoughts can be penetrated.

“Polite little Maciek”, the child without a childhood, narrates his life prior to the outbreak of the war in the brief expanse of some twenty pages. During the sequence, Maciek takes on the ability to recall events which he would not be able to remember: his parents’ marriage and his uncle’s suicide. However, the descriptions of Tania and Zosia, the two important women in the young Maciek’s life, do not extend beyond the child’s perspective. By this means, the reader gains access not only to the events of the prewar Maciek’s life, but also gains a sense of his emotional distance from his father (he is known only third hand), as well as the child’s egocentric acceptance of Zosia and Tania not as individuals, but merely as figures who affect his life. We do not know what either women thinks of Maciek or his behavior, but we do know how Maciek feels about them.

After the first chapter, the narrator’s perspective is more closely tied to that of the young Maciek. There are no further leaps into areas of which the child could have no knowledge. He directly witnesses or is told about each of the events until the very end of the novel. The final chapter is narrated once more from an external perspective.

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