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Blog Entry 6
The Monomyth Part 2

In Jerzy Kosinski’s The Painted Bird the monomyth is highly exemplified both litereally and figuratively. The Crossing of the First Threshold is a literal crossing within the first page or so of the book. The boy is separated from his parents during the mess of World War II. His family has given him up without much choice and he is placed with an old lady named Marta who lives in a hut. This begins his literal adventure as he has been transferred from the city life to the country life. He is more educated and of a different rank socially than the people in the area he is traveling through. It is at this point that he is first separated from his parents and must lead a life of self-sufficiency.
However, the figurative threshold is when the hut burns down and Marta dies. Since he was placed with Marta after he was taken away from his parents, she is more or less still his protective and parental source. After he death, the boy is now truly left to live on his own and is forced to be self sufficient for the first time. It is totally the boy’s responsibility to find food and shelter. He has to figure out a way to survive and not get caught by the Nazis. Therefore, it is his jump into the “belly of the whale” in Campbell’s monomyth and he is ready to begin the “road of trials. This is also considered his crossing the “threshold of adventure” so that the initiation phase can begin for the novel.

American Lit
4/6/08
Apotheosis in Painted Bird

I thought at first the apotheosis might be the part where the boy loses his voice, on page 139 to 141. In the hand out on the major steps of the monomyth, it says that the apotheosis is to “die a physical death” or that it’s “the period of rest, peace, and fulfillment before the hero begins the return.” That seemed to fit pretty well with the part of the story, because the boy almost dies when he loses his voice, and he also has a period of relative peace afterwards while he lives with Makar and then with Labina.
On looking at it a second time, I thought that the apotheosis might also be when he finds out about Ewaka’s infidelity and the conclusion he raises on page 154. On the link to www.wiu.edu there was a small summary of apotheosis that said it was when “Father and son are often pit against each other for mastery of the universe…The hero must reconcile with this ultimate authority figure.” I thought this fit pretty well there because the boy finally comes to the conclusion that he will never be reconciled with God, so he must turn instead to Satan. As apotheosis means “to deify” the sudden burst of strength and power the boy finds could be a type of deifying himself. Unfortunately, this opposes more than it fits to the handout’s idea that apotheosis gives a state of “divine knowledge, love, compassion and bliss.” Instead, the boy makes a resolution to do evil and create destruction. I think, though, this might just be him failing at the apotheosis, though it does occur.

Amanda Farabaugh
Monomyth response

In the book The Painted Bird by Kosinski, the protagonist is faced with the call to adventure or the refusal of the call. The refusal of the call may be found on page 4 of the text. In the first sentence towards the bottom, “I lived in Marta’s hut, expecting my parents to come for me any day, any hour. Crying did not help . . .” When you think about this sentence, the protagonist is refusing to accept the call to stay and live with Marta in her hut. He wishes that he could be with his parents instead of her.
In almost every chapter, the protagonist is faced with the refusal of the call or accepting the call. For example in Chapter 2, the beginning sentence, the protagonist refuses to accept that his parents are not coming and that he has to live in a different hut. He refuses to be alone and he must find a new place to live. This shows that he is unwilling but forced to live without his parents. In Chapter 3, he refuses to accept that he would be alone. He believed that Olga set spells on him to find his way back to her, though as we find out in Chapter 4 it doesn’t happen. In the chapters, the protagonist has to either refuse the call or accept the call to either stay at his new home or seek another home to stay in.
My partner and I also found that at the end of the book, the protagonist refuses to go with his parents, but goes without a fight. In actuality he is waiting for Gavrila (The Red Army Soldier who took him under his wing and cared for him and watched over him, without being beat, molested and hated). This is whom the protagonist wanted as his family. He was afraid to go with his “real” parents, on page 226, the protagonist says ‘I could not readily accept the idea of suddenly becoming someone’s real son, of being caressed and cared for, of having to obey people, not because they were stronger and could hurt me, but because they were my parents and had rights which no one could take away from them.” By the protagonist accepting the call at the end of the book, means that the new life will be with his “real” parents and not with Gavrila. You could take this as it’s a new journey that the protagonist must go on.

My partner and I had The Ultimate Boon for our part of the journey in “The Painted Bird.” The Ultimate Boon is described as when the hero achieves the goal of the quest. It is what the person goes on the journey to get. The previous steps in the Monomyth serve to prepare and purify the person for this step. The boon in many myths is something that is transcendent like the elixir of life itself, or a plant that supplies immortality, or the Holy Grail.
When we first began thinking about the boon in “The Painted Bird” we had a hard time figuring out what it was. After thinking about it, I realized that the “comet” was the boon for the boy. He used the boon in order to stay alive in a couple different situations. I think that this would be one of the boons in the story. Also, I think that the survival skills that Olga taught him were a boon in a way as well. Without those skills that she taught him, the boy would not have been able to survive throughout the book. These are the literal boons in the book.
I think that the symbolic boon in the book was the fact that the boy was able to survive on his own. He left his family and was able to survive on his own at a very young age. He made things work and helped himself through the events that he encountered.

While it seems that supernatural aids appear throughout the entirety of this book, one aid stands out to me as being the most consistent and most important. The aid of light, or a “comet,” proves invaluable to the boy as he moves from place to place. The Jewish child is made aware of the importance of this little bit of fire by one of his “foster” parents. While she teaches him seemingly everything he needs to know about wildlife, herbs, remedies, and other, more superstitious affects, the comet is stressed as being the ultimate necessity, by far. Her apparent pagan lifestyle was tied to the land and lent itself to living the type of life the boy will lead for the next few years.

“The comet was also indispensable protection against dogs and people” (pg. 25). Swinging this article through a darkened sky would surely send any evildoer away so the boy made sure he had the comet with him each time he traveled. The comet was not only a protective source, it was the only source of fire he had for heat, cooking, and as a means to light his way. Keeping this fire lighted was of extreme importance. Other means of creating a fire were scarce so it was imperative that he protect this aid.

The comet was symbolic of life; as long as the comet remained afire, the boy had no worries. This guide enabled him to walk freely and safely through his own mind as well as any dark forest. Light is an extremely important facet in Jewish culture, so the importance of Light as a life force, a symbol, and a guide in this story was pulled directly from the culture. More than any single person, although he had many aids throughout the story, the comet proved a necessary aid that guided him through dark areas both literal and symbolic.

The main character in the story finds his parents in the end of the story, and is forced to return back to his original life. This marks the return of threshold. Even though he does not want to return home, and he even pretends that his parents are dead, he goes home with his parents after being identified by his birth mark. He survives all that he has been through during the war time, and beats incredible odds. He masters both worlds in this novel. The worlds are actually the same world, they are just different perspectives. On one end of the spectrum, the young boy is dealing with educated city people, while on the other end, he is struggling to adapt and survive in a world with superstitious rednecks. He learned how to survive in both worlds, which made him a strong, educated person. He is very worldly and independent after this experience.
Amanda S.

As we discussed in class, it seems that Kosinski’s, The Painted Bird, portrays the main character going through one full journey in the span of the novel; however, we also see the beginning of what appears to be another journey at the end of the novel. For each of these journeys, the boy can be seen in “The Belly of the Whale.”
For his first journey, it is quite clear that the journey has been initiated prior to where we meet the young boy. From the first words he speaks, in chapter one, he is in the belly of the whale. This is the point where he knows he has been separated from his known world. He mentions that he’s already passed the point of expecting his parents to come get him, and he mentions that he no longer cries, for it does no good. This is the transition point for him—he’s moving into a new world and a new self. After this, he continues on his road of trials skipping from place to place.
His second journey begins when his parents show up at the orphanage. It is when he goes back to live with his parents that he is in the belly of the whale for the second journey. He says that he could have run away, or not shown them his birthmark, but he does anyway. Yet as he lives with them longer and longer, he regrets his decision. He wants to go back to the orphanage and wait for his Russian friends to adopt him. He even wants to be on the run again. Anything seems better than the situation he is currently in; however, he knows it is too late. He’s already in the belly of the whale, there’s no returning to the old world now.

Apothesis can be described as a period of rest or peace before the hero in the story begins his return. Apothesis is in the Initiation stage in The Hero’s Journey. In The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski, a Hero’s Journey can be described. The boy or main character in the story experiences Apothesis when he is thrown into the mud.
Throughout the entire story up until this point, the boy had suffered and wandered from town to town. He comes into unbelievable circumstances and is never really at rest. The only way that I can describe apothesis in this story is when the boy is thrown into the mud and he becomes deaf. This is a point where the boy is at peace. Also, this is a point before the Return in the Hero’s Journey.

The boy’s “father figure” was Mitka. Mitka guided him through the journey since the boy entered the regimental hospital. Mitka got the boy back to a healthy state by feeding him and helping him though the medical examinations. Mitka even went as far as helping the boy to get better while he was vomiting for two days, by holding his head.
The first threshold was when Mitka started looking after the boy at the regimental hospital. Mitka “literally” helped the boy along their path. He feed him, helped him get through examinations, introduced him to poetry, and taught him many other things. He basically got the boy from point A to point B (hospital to home).
The boy’s symbolic state really came about through the journey, but more so toward the end. Mitka, as I mentioned before, taught the boy many things, but they became more meaningful and helpful the farther along in the journey they got. By the time he reached his threshold again, the boy was changed. It was showed when the boy finally got home to see his father. It was expected for the boy to be ecstatic upon his return; however, the boy’s immediate thought is of Mitka. He thought about how much he missed him.

T. Wineland
Prof. Hobbs
Intro. to Literature
April 2, 2008

“The Painted Bird” by Jerzy Kosinsky

Crossing of the First Threshold

The crossing of the first threshold is represented at moment that the hero, the young boy, is sent away by his mother and father, and his home, for his own protection. He is taken by a stranger to a village in the country to stay with a woman he has never met. From there he will enter many similar villages which are unlike his hometown.

The villagers he encounters are poor, uneducated, superstitious and fair skinned with blue eyes. The boy obviously stands out in these villages, with his olive skin, dark eyes and dark hair. Many of the villagers call him a Gypsy or Jew and treat him as if he is a curse or demon of some kind.

He was from a town of individuals who were well educated and wealthier than the villagers. He had a nurse and nanny to look after him when his parents could not so he was obviously from a privileged family. He probably didn’t want or need for much and it seems that his parents cared for him deeply, especially in their sacrifice of him to save his life. He had probably never been on his own before in a town with common folk, let alone a country village with strange looking individuals, who speak a different dialect and do not seem to like him very much.

This crossing of the threshold takes the boy from the ordinary world where he is looked after and cared for, lives life well and amongst educated, well to do individuals, into the special world of country villagers, with little to no education, strange superstitions, shabby living conditions and strange language. Once he crosses this threshold he has crossed into a new chapter of his life where he is forced to rise to the challenge of the unknown along his journey.

Ryenn Micaletti

American Lit (1915-Present)

Road of Trials

In our last class discussion, we were assigned a certain stage in “The Hero’s Journey” or “The Monomyth” in which we were to determine what we thought took place during this stage, in the book, “The Painted Bird”. My group assigned stage was “Road of Tests/Trials or also known as “The Belly of the Whale”. The Road of Trials takes place during the “Initiation” phase of the hero’s journey. The Road of Trials is a series of tests, tasks, or obstacles, the hero must face before they begin their transformation.

In the novel “The Painted Bird,” the hero is the six year old boy. During the book he moves from place to place. My group felt the people he lived with were his tests/trials. In each home he lived in he witnessed things not someone of his age normally witnessed. He was widely exposed to sex and violence as a child. This caused him much pain. After, going through the tests and trials of going from place to place, began his transformation from innocence to adulterate.

The hero’s literal journey was when he began living in Marta’s hut. This started his literal road of trials. The roads he traveled to get to his different shelters were his Roads of Trials. Symbolically, when he first moves into Marta’s hut, was his road of trials mentally. With every place the boy went to, he became more and more exposed to the cruelty of the world. Every place he lived was a mental and emotional “Road of Trials”.

In class last week, my group discussed how the young boy in “The Painted Bird” was the master of two worlds. The young boy was the master of two worlds because although he had been through so much at such a young age, he overcame the obstacles and survived. He was taken away from his parents and given to another caretaker. After two months of living with her, she died. He witnessed a lot of sexual acts during his time in the village. That is a lot for a six year old to take in and witness. He was basically passed from place to place and was left to fend for himself. But through all that he still found the courage to move forward and find his parents. Any other child would have been affected mentally but he still strived to survive in a rough situation.

In The Painted Bird, the little boy goes through a huge journey that has many little journeys along the way. The little boy bounces from home to home, place to place, while trying to survive and find his parents. He wants to survive and have the freedom to live when the war is over. Throughout the book he is literally fighting to fit in, to find a place that’s safe, and to finally get freedom to live. In the end he ultimately achieves that. He is reunited with his parents and although he doesn’t know whether he wants to be with them again; he has survived and has gained the freedom to live.
In the Hero’s Journey, the small journeys combine to make the bigger picture; the ultimately journey. Usually, the hero’s journey depends on his survival, but sometimes the ultimate journey is for the hero to die.
In this story, the little boy’s destiny is that he survives the journey. He does all the he needs to get by during the different trials that face him. In the end, he finds the freedom to live by surviving all the little obstacles that made up his journey. He is a survivor and is a true hero.

In The Painted Bird, the little boy goes through a huge journey that has many little journeys along the way. The little boy bounces from home to home, place to place, while trying to survive and find his parents. He wants to survive and have the freedom to live when the war is over. Throughout the book he is literally fighting to fit in, to find a place that’s safe, and to finally get freedom to live. In the end he ultimately achieves that. He is reunited with his parents and although he doesn’t know whether he wants to be with them again; he has survived and has gained the freedom to live.
In the Hero’s Journey, the small journeys combine to make the bigger picture; the ultimately journey. Usually, the hero’s journey depends on his survival, but sometimes the ultimate journey is for the hero to die.
In this story, the little boy’s destiny is that he survives the journey. He does all the he needs to get by during the different trials that face him. In the end, he finds the freedom to live by surviving all the little obstacles that made up his journey. He is a survivor and is a true hero.

The belly of the whale for the gypsy boy in Jerzy Kosinski's "The
Painted Bird" seems to start right at the beginning of the book, as the boy
is being forced from his old life and starts into this new life where he
eventually ends up traveling around after his foster mother dies. He
begins traveling around from town to town, and the people of the villages
are different ethnically, and spoke a different language. The people the
boy encountered where not able to understand much of what he was saying,
and looked down upon him as a Jew.

There also comes a time at the end of the book where the belly of the
whale seems to come again, and it is unclear if there is another story
starting. The boy is finally reunited with his parents and all the while
he starts to regret it, and begins to miss his old life. He regrets
showing the birthmark and now feels trapped. He describes a hare and how
it is irritated and unhappy in the cage, and it seems he is relating his
life as it would be with his parents.

The Road of Trials in “The Painted Bird” by Jerzy Kosinski

Jerzy Kosinksi’s book, “The Painted Bird” is a good example of literature that can be followed by using Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth model. The main character in the story experiences both the ordinary and special worlds, and crosses over the threshold of adventure. After crossing this threshold, the boy who is the main character comes across his first trial, and soon the reader learns that there are many trials that will follow.
It could be argued that the boy’s road of trials is almost literally a road that he travels upon. Although it is not paved, or stone, it is still a path through the woods and along the river that he makes from one small village to the next. The physical path that the boy takes isn’t necessarily the most important part of the journey, but rather what the boy learns at each stop along the path.
In chapter one, the boy is at his first stop along the path, living with a woman named Marta. It is here that the boy first realizes that he is different from all of the fair hair and fair skinned people he sees everywhere. The boy also gets his first taste of witchcraft, and back woods magic. Although she was not very caring and was very different from the boy, Marta did take care of him and made sure that he was fed and had water. It is at this first stop that the boy gets his first taste of self survival when Marta dies and he accidently sets her house on fire, leaving him homeless.
Chapter two brings the boy on his journey to the next village where and old woman named “Olga The Wise One” takes him in and teaches him valuable skills such as hunting and the importance of heat and fire, through the use of a “comet”. She also informs him that he is possessed by an evil spirit, and that his dark hair and eyes are the reason that the townspeople are frightened of him. During his time at Olga’s the boy learns how to take care of himself, and finds that it will be a very important skill. The boy likes Olga but is forced to leave when the townspeople throw him in the river.
After floating downstream for a few miles, the boy comes to the next village in his journey. It is here that he is taken in by a miller in the village who is nicknamed “jealous” because he always his wife of being unfaithful and beats her without proof. One of the affairs he suspects her of is with the plowboy on the farm. During dinner one evening, the miller asks the plowboy if he “lusts after” his wife. When the plowboy does not answer, the miller pokes out his eyeballs with a spoon, and crushes them under his boots on the kitchen floor. The young boy sees this happen and immediately runs away, frightened and stunned. His overcoming this episode was his first real experience with the violence that the boy would soon become accustomed to. Kosinski also uses this opportunity to show the reader how important memories are to the boy.
In chapter five, the boy is setting snares for his next host, Lekh. Lekh sells birds in the villages and is in love with the village harlot Stupid Lumidia. In this chapter the reader is shown why the book is named “The Painted Bird”. The boy likes Lekh, and does not mind setting traps for him. However, when a group of village women kill Stupid Lumidia, Lekh is overcome with grief and can no longer help the boy. The boy realizes that he will once again have to move on, and overcomes the loss of his friend. During this sequence of events, the boy first experiences “intimacy” and what it will mean to him in the future.
Upon leaving Lekh, the boy ends up with a carpenter and his wife who believes that he is evil and that his dark hair will attract lightening to their hut, and takes the boy to the middle of the field every time a storm approaches. This prediction seems to come true when the boy hides in the barn one night and lightening sets the building on fire. The boy knows that once the farmer catches him, he will be killed, so he tricks him into going to a military bunker the boy has found. The carpenter falls in and is killed by rats. In this chapter, the boy has gotten his first experience with either having to kill or be killed. He has also come to the realization that he indeed could be evil.
After fleeing from the carpenters, the boy ends up with a blacksmith’s family in chapter seven, where he is treated rather well. However, the townspeople do not agree with the blacksmith, and beat the family for hiding the boy. The townspeople then turn the boy over to German soldiers who order one soldier to take the boy out and kill him. However, the German soldier allows the boy to escape injury free. This chapter could be the first time that the boy is recognized for only being a child. There is no doubt that if he had been older, the soldier would have killed him. The fact that he was a child saved his life. This event is confusing to the boy because everyone wants to kill him in the name of the Germans, but it is the Germans who let him live.
In chapter eight, the boy finds himself in a new village and taken in by a well respected farmer. The boy becomes sort of a “side show” to the people, and they often got him drunk and made him perform. One day a group of boys attacks the young boy and he seriously injures one of them. Knowing that the wrath of the townspeople will soon be upon him, the young boy again flees homeless once again.
After walking for several days, the young boy finds shelter with a single, poor farmer. It is here that he first sees the trains of Jews being taken through the town and to concentration camps. The boy wonders what these people have done so terrible, and how long they must be punished for. One day the farmer orders the boy to flee because the Germans found out there was a “gypsy” in the town and they were coming to capture him. The boy fled, but was caught in a field when the German forces entered the town. Along with an older man, the boy is transported to a police station and along the way they are beat and have things thrown at them. At the station the young boy meets a German officer and is in awe of his presence. He is ashamed to be standing next to the man. A priest then steps in and offers to take the boy. In this sequence, the boy wishes that he were a German, and is ashamed to be a gypsy or Jew.
The priest gives the boy to a horrible man named Garbos who barely feeds the boy, kicks, beats, and tortures him and sets his dog loose on him. However, the boy gets to go to church, and thinks that prayers are the answers to his problems. He survives Garbo’s torture by constantly praying throughout the abuse. After tripping while being an altar server, the peasants throw the boy into a manure pit. Upon his emergence, the boy finds that he has become mute. He then escaped into the forest. The conflict between the witchcraft that he was taught and the new teachings of the church are evident in this chapter. He feels that the witchcraft has failed him and that perhaps the church could save him. This idea is shaken though after he is ostracized.
In chapter 12, the boy is given to a man named Makar, who has a son and a daughter. The daughters name was Ekwa, and at 19, taught the young boy how to have sex with her. The young boy seems to be in love with her and is happy with this home until he doesn’t properly follow an order from Makar, and is violently kicked in the stomach which makes him unable to work. Ekwa does not even want to be bothered with him, which breaks the boy’s heart. However, when the boy witnesses Ekwa copulating with a goat, and then her brother while the father watched, the boy leaves disgusted. He does not understand how Ekwa could prefer a beast to his gentle touch, and determines that the family must truly be evil. He then begins to think that the church has let him down, so he should align himself with evil instead of good.
Chapter 14 brings the next hut that the boy would live in. It belonged to a woman named Labina, who was an “escort” to the men of the village. Although the boy thought that Labina’s sexual exploitations were disgusting, he was treated well by her. One day the Kalamuks invade the village and the boy is witness to horrid acts of brutality including rape and murder. The boy then comes to the conclusion that he must be on his own because he has dark hair and is evil like the Kalamuks. God has deserted him. The Soviets eventually come in and save the village and take the boy into their care.
Although the boy will face more trials during his time with the red army, the orphanage and even when he is reunited with his parents, these events take place more during the exit of the special world. He is taken care of in all of these places, and his world has become a little more normal. Not necessarily better, but more normal.

“The Painted Bird”, by Jerzy Kosinski
Call to Adventure-

In the story “The Painted Bird”, by Jerzy Kosinski, I was asked to identify the Call to Adventure in correlation with the “Monomyth”. My partner and I found that the call to adventure started when basically the story started. It was during World War II, and if you were a Gypsy, a Jew, or any other segregated group at that time, you went into hiding in hopes that the Nazi Regime would not find you.
The story opens up with the little boy being sent away from his parents literally, because they thought that it would be more-safe for him anywhere else then where they were stationed at the time. This was a very common thing that parents did during this time period because of the fear of the Nazi’s. However, the call to adventure in the “Painted Bird” shows symbolism in a sense that the act that his parents are trying to execute, symbolizes their love for their son and there want for him to be alive and safe after the way is over and done with.

Thomas A.

Our group topic is "the call of adventure" Call of adventure means the turning point of the people's life. Everything in his life has been changed. In "The Painted Bird" when the child first leave his parents to avoid the Nazi's shambles is the call of adventure I think.
After that his life has been totally changed, he had to face a lot of painful, a world that he never see before, and after that he becomes the "painted bird" which can never come back.

Natasha Hill
The Painted Bird
Supernatural Aid

Part of the monomyth is the hero receiving supernatural aid. In Jerzy Kosinski’s novel, The Painted Bird, the boy receives many types of aid. He is aided by his parents, the people who housed him, by his lessons from Marta, Olga and the Soviets, he is helped by God (when he believes), by unexpected kindnesses and his own “street smarts”. However, I believe that the most useful aid the boy had was the “comet” and his knowledge of it’s powers. On page 28, the boy states that the “possession of fire, or a ‘comet’ of one’s own” was essential to survival. Literally because it could keep him warm, ward off potentially dangerous animals, cook food, and provide light for safer traveling. Metaphorically, the fire is a symbol for light and passion. Light symbolizes truth and knowledge. The boy states that “the first [fire] was harder to obtain-it required a great deal of experience. This also holds true for knowledge and truth. It takes years of experience to gain even a little of each of these. I also noticed that when the boy felt he had something to believe in (prayer/no prayer, God/no God, a safe home, magic, etc.) he did not use the comet. However, when he found that each of his beliefs were possibly wrong or danger would come, he would run and take his “comet” with him. It was as if he were holding onto the only thing that he knew to be faithful and unchanging. Also, because he typically used the comet when running away, it would seem that the comet represented his quest for “right”, acceptance, truth, love, and a supreme understanding of the world he was living in.

The Painted Bird & Joseph Cambell Theory

Freedom to live

After everything this young boy had suffered and his unfortunate accident in the blizzard he still has the will to talk and live. He recited Mitka’s songs, which is extremely significant because these songs were one of the only uplifting events he had throughout the war and moving from village to village. His freedom to live is also shown when he reacquainted himself with his parents, which was what he believed he wanted, but in reality it wasn’t what he wanted. However he continued to learn and to grow as a person which is a sign of the want to live.
This young boy had a very challenging childhood and he searched through the entire book for the next step or looking for the brighter side of life. “I had an overpowering desire to speak,” (p 213). I believe that this quote sums up this part of Cambell’s theory freedom to live because, having an overpowering desire to speak, in my opinion, was a foreshadow to have an overpowering desire to be heard and live on.

Heather Stull
Mr. Lee Hobbs
EL267.01
Reader Response
4-16-08

In Jerzy Kosinski’s novel, The Painted Bird, the protagonist does not experience a literal
“Atonement with the father”. When the young boy is found by his parents, he begins to worry about the ramifications of belonging to someone; about having to listen to someone not because they are bigger than you but because they have certain undeniable rights to you (226). He begins to feel “like Lekh’s painted bird, which some unknown force was pulling toward his kind” (227). He is caught between feeling pity for his parents but also wanting to be on his own again and wanting to continue to wait for Gavrila to find him (226). His feelings only deepen after discovering that his parents have adopted another son, an orphan of the war (228-9). Although he is living with his parents, he does not completely abandon the lifestyle that he had before. He continues to meet with the Silent One, and begins wandering at night, befriending those who live drastically different than how his parents have chosen to (229-32). His parents are puzzled by his behavior and eventually he is put under the care of a ski instructor, seeing his parents only once a week (233).
The characters of Gavrila and Mitka serve as symbolic representations of a father figure to the young boy. The protagonist has a devotion to them, particularly Gavrila, which extends even beyond the time when he is reunited with his parents. Gavrila had lost his entire family shortly after the start of the war and treats the young boy like a son. He teaches the boy how to read, shares with him his views on religion and human history and teaches him about Stalin (186-95). Mitka watches over the boy when he is released from the hospital, assisting him with the rest of his medical care and ensuring that he gains weight by procuring the best of the food for him. He also taught the boy about poetry, music, machinery, and took him to the movies (197-8). These two soldiers had divided the responsibilities of a father between themselves. They took it upon themselves to provide care for him and to teach him things about the world and about humanity. The boy opened himself up to this opportunity with excitement and became devoted to the two men, forming a bond that never dissolves through the end of the story, at least as it exists in his own mind. Symbolically the boy gains atonement with a “father figure” through the two soldiers, obtaining that which he missed out on from his own father during the years of the war.

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*NOTE* The deadline for this assignment has now passed. Any comments listed below are *ONLY* for the reposting of comments that I asked to be revised. Anything posted below that missed the deadline will not get credit for the assignment.

Hallie Geary
Dr. Lee Hobbs, PhD.
El267.01
30 April 2008
Revealing Equal Ethnicities in
Jerzy Kosinski’s The Painted Bird and Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path”
The history of mankind often shows a powerful ethnicity subjugating a weaker ethnicity. Most of the time, the more powerful ethnicity is portrayed as more civilized and technologically advanced, while the weaker ethnicity is uncivilized and backwards. Often the more powerful ethnicity will assume or try to prove a natural superiority to the subjugated ethnicity. This is the case in both Jerzy Kosinski’s The Painted Bird and Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path.” Both of these stories reveal a definite difference in the power of two ethnicities; however, both also reveal equality between the two by contrasting their views on civility and religion, and by the different outcomes of the main character’s journey.
The most contrasting ethnicities in Kosinski’s story are the rural peasants that the narrator lives with to the Kalmuks and the Red/Soviet army that he meets up with. The first similarity between the two classes is their levels of civility. The author, in a prologue to the book, describes the peasants as, “ignorant and brutal, though not by choice,” (Kosinski 4). This is a fundamental characterization of the class, because the peasants have no choice but to be ignorant and brutal because of the world they live in. It is more difficult to blame them for acting like animals when they have no opportunity for betterment and no idea that their actions are wrong. The Kalmuks, on the other hand, appear as “proud horsemen” with uniforms and guns at their disposal (Kosinski 176). They seem to have had the opportunity to choose a different path, but instead chose to “loot and rape in the manner of their war customs and manly traditions,” (175). The Kalmuks have the means change and civilize themselves, but lack the will to do so. Despite their technology, the more powerful and advanced Kalmuks certainly are not more civilized than the peasants, shown by the fact that the Kalmuks burst into town to rape, pillage, and murder the peasants in the most gruesome, humiliating, and painful manner they can think of (Kosinski 175-181). As a final contrast, the also technologically advanced Red Army appears and drives off the Kalmuks. The Red Army takes the narrator in and cares for him, even teaching him to read (Kosinski 181-186). The Red Army appears to be far more civilized than the peasants or the Kalmuks, but that sense of civilization proves to be shallow. When local villagers kill friends of Mitka, a legendary sharpshooter in the Red army, he shows that the same instincts that drive the villagers are present in the civilized armies by shooting and killing several random members of the village (Kosinski 200-205). Despite the rules and manners of the army, Mitka’s human nature takes control and calls for blood to revenge his fallen comrades. So, despite the different levels of technology and power, the three groups show equality in their true nature. The more powerful and advanced ethnicities are better able to conceal their savage nature, but they are also capable of far more damage when it is revealed.
The ethnical conflict in “A Worn Path” is between the Negro main character, Phoenix, and the white characters. Phoenix seems to be less civilized even at her first appearance, where she is wearing a “long apron of bleached sugar sacks,” and has “unlaced shoes,” (Welty 1). It is obvious from the description that Phoenix is fairly poor, which is confirmed later when she receives charity from the hospital (Welty 7). During her journey, Phoenix is attacked by a dog then saved by a white hunter. The white man helps her and the two exchange civil conversation (Welty 4), but this interaction soon proves to be as shallow as Kosinski’s portrayal of civility. Phoenix repays the white hunter by stealing a nickel that fell out of his pocket and the hunter lies and tells her that he would give her a dime if he had any money (Welty 4-5). Again both sides prove to be equally immoral and abandon the code of civility when it benefits them. Although these circumstances are far less drastic than in The Painted Bird and so the infraction seems to be less, the return to immorality is actually much more significant here because it is not a matter of survival but a matter of personal gain. Neither person is in circumstances that mandate any means for survival, so the deviation from civility is actually more drastic because it is unnecessary. Their infraction is worse because it is less needed, whereas Kosinski creates a story that requires brutality for survival.
Another difference between the two ethnicities in The Painted Bird is their views on religion. The peasants are extremely superstitious, even going as far as to rely on witch doctor like Olga for medicinal treatment (Kosinski 17-19). Their view of the Roman Catholic Church is not much better and, instead of learning and practicing the morals of the church, they attempt to gain exemption for sin by uttering prayers and only avoid sin for fear of God’s vengeance. The importance of the church and its ceremonies are just as obsessively strict and paranoid as the rest of the superstition, and even the smallest mistakes in the ritual of the church warrant a swift and severe punishment (Kosinski 130-142). The Red Army, on the other hand, places no faith in any God or superstition. As atheists, they place all their confidence in “The Party” which gains superhuman and almost God-like powers and control. Instead of God judging lives and deciding morality, The Party took the place of religion (Kosinski 187-195). Both rely on an obsessive order to attempt to gain control over their chaotic lives. The Reds, because there is some order to their lives, attempt to take all the control of their lives into their own hands. The peasants, whose lives are short and filled with violence, know they have no control over what happens to them and place all the power into a God or superstition. They try to find a reason for the misfortune that is a constant part of their lives and to control it by appeasing the deity that makes it happen. Both ethnicities are seeking the same thing, but because of a difference in power they seek it in different ways.
In “The Worn Path,” Phoenix shows the same kind of superstition in her journey as she speaks to herself, possibly asking a higher power to “Keep the big wild hogs out of my path. Don’t let none of those come running my direction,” (Welty 1). Throughout her journey, Phoenix talks to herself, animals, and any object she comes up against (Welty 1-3). Phoenix’s life is similar to that of the peasants from Kosinski’s story in that she spends much of her time in the forest, so she is aware of how often things happen by chance. Because she knows how chaotic and brutal the world and be and how little power humans truly have over it, Pheonix knows she cannot control her own fate, so she places control of her life into the hands of God or fate. The white nurses at the hospital, on the other hand, put faith only in their ritual and order. They are the most concerned with being able to fit Phoenix into a category, repeatedly asking her if she wants charity. One nurse recognizes Phoenix and asks about the grandson, then emotionlessly asks if he has died (Welty 6-7). Although they do not use superstition, the nurses rely on order to keep control over their lives and become agitated when Phoenix will not immediately fit into that order. In this story, like Kosinski’s, both ethnicities use ritual to maintain the illusion of control over their lives, with the weaker ethnicity praying to a higher power for protection and the stronger ethnicity using order to maintain control over life.
A final similarity between the two stories is in the journey of the narrator. Both stories show the narrator making a journey out of his/her and ethnicity to journey the territory of another ethnicity. The main difference between the two stories in this area is that in The Painted Bird the narrator is unable to return home. At the end, the boy returns to his family, but has been too affected by the his travels and growing up in savage lands to accept what his parents offer him, and he constantly slips out at night to return to the type of savage existence he has become accustomed to. Only returning him partially to the savage wilderness he grew up in allows him to find a kind of peace (Kosinski 231-234). Now that the narrator knows the true nature of man, he cannot accept the farce of civilization even in his own family.
In “The Worn Path,” on the other hand, Phoenix is able to successfully make her trip through the land of the white ethnicity, overcome her own lapse in memory, and return to her grandson with a resolve never to forget him again (Welty 6-8). Unlike in The Painted Bird, Phoenix is able to overcome her flawed human nature because of the love she has for her grandson. While the other narrator has great difficulty accepting the return to his family and his own ethnicity, Phoenix is happy to return to her grandson and leave the world of the white man behind. Both narrators have seen the true nature of humans, but only Pheonix is able to return to society and the love of her grandson. Kosinksi’s narrator is too altered by his experiences to find any bond with his family. Both narrators are changed by their journey, but Kosinki’s narrator is altered to reject his former home, while Pheonix resolves never to forget hers again. Both characters see the flaws of the other society along with the flaws of their own, but only Pheonix is able to accept the flaws of her own society and live there despite them.
Both of these stories show great conflict between ethnicities, and they also show great contrast between the habits of the ethnicities. However, in both stories the faults of one ethnicity are balanced by the same kind of faults in the other. Both authors show that the ethnicities are seeking the same ideas of comfort and safety, but their different levels of technology and power force them to seek it in different places. On the whole, both authors represent the ethnicities as superficially different, but equally savage at the core. The Painted Bird shows a humanity that is controlled completely by self-interest, and the narrator of that story is unable to accept the lie that civilization tries to give to him. “The Worn Path” shows humanity as being driven by self-interest but tempered by love, and so Phoenix is able to return home. Both stories, however, show humans as flawed creatures that easily fall into sin. Ethnicity may change what people use to fulfill their needs, but it cannot change the savage self-interest that resides in human beings.

Works Cited
Kosinski, Jerzy. The Painted Bird. New York: Grove Press, 1976.
Welty, Eudora. “A Worn Path.” 1940. An excerpt from An Introduction to Literature: Fiction, Poetry, Drama. Eds. Morton Berman, et al. Addison, 1996. 105-112.

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I felt that this paper belonged in this section because I spent a lot of time making points about the ethnical struggles in The Painted Bird. I felt that anyone who has read The Painted Bird might get something more about the story from this essay. I also think that some of the topics below relate to this paper, so putting them together might spark even more ideas about the book. I think this is one of the best places for this paper.

C. Bell
Lee Hobbs
EL267.01
American Literature: 1915-Present
30 April 2008---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Direct and Indirect Effects of War:
Johnny Got His Gun and The Painted Bird-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Throughout reading the The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski, I have noticed a commonality between it and Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo. Both of these novels involve war and dramatically develop the consequences that come with war. More specifically, each of these novels describes a person’s fight with war. Johnny Got His Gun involves an adult male who has fought in the war and suffered extreme consequences. The Painted Bird is about a young boy who is not fighting in the war, but does face cruel consequences because of the war. In each of these novels, war is represented as a violent and destructive monster that affects all people, whether they fight in the war or not. The outcomes of war are represented in each of the novels, whether it is a direct consequence from fighting in the war or an indirect consequence that is felt outside of the battle itself.
Johnny Got His Gun is a story about a character named Joe. Joe has definitely faced severe consequences from war. The story begins with a ringing sound. Joe wants the phone to stop ringing. Soon enough, he realizes that he no longer has sight and hearing and the phone ringing was all a dream. This is very disturbing to Joe. Joe then realizes that he no longer has arms, legs, ears, a nose, eyes, or a mouth. He is a stump. He figures this out because he still has feeling where his arm used to be. The doctor comes in to give him a shot in his left arm, and he realizes that it was too close to his head. From this, he concludes that he no longer has a left arm. Joe gets very upset because he does not think that the doctors should have the ability to just cut off a man’s arm. He also wonders what they did with his arm. He thinks that they should have buried it in the ground as though they were burying a person because his arm was once part of him.
Throughout most of the first half of the book, the reader listens to the conscious of Joe. Joe is wondering what his life will be like now that he no longer has any of his limbs or facial features. He gets upset because he realizes that he will never be able to do daily tasks anymore that he used to do without even thinking. He will never be able to run again or even walk down the street. He wonders if he will ever even leave the hospital again. Joe also gets worried because he does not even know his location. He is not sure if he is back in the United States or over seas still. He also does not know if his family knows he is injured and in the hospital. So not only did the war take his limbs and face away, but it also took away his family to his knowledge.
During the second half of the book, Joe discovers ways to tell time and then realizes that he can communicate to the outside world. He tries to perform Morse code to talk to the nurses and doctors. He realizes he can tell time based on when he can feel the warmth of the sun on his body in the room. He realizes that the temperature in the room rises during the day, so when the room cools down again he knows it is night time. He calculates how long the night lasts based on how many times the nurses come in and out of the room. Since Joe no longer can communicate the way he used to, he figures out a way that he can so that people will understand him.
In Johnny Got His Gun, Joe was directly affected by the war. Joe had fought in WWI. He was injured during the war and did not remember anything when he woke up in the hospital. Joe suffered a major consequence by fighting in the war. He lost most of his life. He still had his mind but he had no way to communicate to the rest of the world. He lost his sight and would never see his family again. He lost his hearing and would never hear his family again or hear himself talk. He lost smell and taste and would no longer taste or smell his mothers cooking. He would no longer walk or use his arms. Joe basically had no real life, although he could still use his mind.
While Joe lays there in the hospital, he remembers moments throughout his life. At certain points throughout the story, Joe wants to kill himself, but he cannot even do that. He explains that he can not even tell when he falls asleep or even when he is going to, it just happens. Joe is tortured throughout the whole story. He is tortured by his thoughts of being trapped inside his body for the rest of his life. He doesn’t understand why they are letting him live like this. He hates that he had to go to war. He wishes that he could speak to the rest of the world and explain his story to them. He wants to warn them about the war. He does not want anyone else to end up like him. Even in the end of the story when Joe finally communicates with the outside world, he is put to sleep by the doctors. They do not want him to be able to talk to the outside world. His story would cause too much trouble and indifference about the war. In his last chance to communicate and live an actual life, it is taken away and he is put to sleep. Knowing that you cannot live a normal life with communication, sight, hearing, taste, legs, and arms has to be the most unbearable thing to deal with.
The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski is a story about a young boy who is about six years old, who is sent away by his parents in the first few weeks of World War II. This story explains an indirect affect of the war on the young boy. During his journey from village to village, the young boy meets and lives with many people. In the villages, the boy is known as a gypsy or a Jew and many of the people are afraid of him. The people who take him in usually use him for work. The boy lives with people who teach him techniques that ultimately help him travel on his way after escaping from village to village. One of the main effects of the war on the young boy is his life on the run. He is constantly trying to stay alive and escape the people who want to kill him. Besides just avoiding the Germans, the young boy has to beware of the peasants or inbreeds that live in the villages through which he passes. Many of the peasants cannot even look the boy straight in the eye because they truly believe that the boy is a gypsy.
One drastic event that the young boy had to witness was a murder. The boy was living at the miller’s and the miller suspected his wife of having an affair with the plow boy. The miller invited the plow boy to dinner one night and the miller and the plow boy got into a fight. The young boy had to witness the miller plunge a spoon into the plow boy’s eyes and then twist the spoon till his eye popped out. (Kosinski, 38) The young boy could not believe what he had seen. After this event, the young boy decided to leave the house.
The next house that the boy ends up at is Lekh’s house. Lekh is a bird catcher. He caught and sold his birds for food. Lehk is in love with Stupid Ludmila who is a peasant girl that is a prostitute and is hated by the villagers. The young boy has to witness her getting raped and killed by the peasant people. First Stupid Ludmila is raped by the men from the village and then, when the men notice the women coming, they run and hide. Then the women came and held Stupid Ludmila down and began to hit her with rakes, scratch her skin with their finger nails, and ripped out her hair (Kosinski, 54). After all of this abuse, a woman came and shoved a glass bottle of manure into her. The glass shattered inside of Stupid Ludmila and the women kicked her to death. Lekh and the young boy witnessed the women do this to Stupid Ludmila. Lekh did not get there in time to save Stupid Ludmila and the young boy was hiding from the peasants. Once again, the young boy had to witness extreme violence even though he was not involved in the war. After this event, the young boy moved on again.
Another terrible event that happened to the boy was when he was thrown in the manure by the peasants. The peasants grabbed the boy and the crowd shouted “Gypsy Vampire” (Kosinski, 138). Then the peasants swung the young boy in the air and tossed him in the manure. The young boy could not breathe and was suffocating under the manure. He tried many times to kick himself out of the muck but he could not. Finally, he grabbed onto some weeds and pulled himself out of the manure. As the boy came out of the manure, he realized that he could not speak, he was mute.
All of these events and many more were because of the war. If the war had never begun, the boy would have never had to go through all of the events that he did. He would have never been sent away by his parents. As a young boy, around the age of six, he witnessed many events that could drastically affect him later on in life. He did not have the normal life of a six year old boy. Witnessing violence, murder, rape, incest, and taking physical abuse could have psychological effects on the young boy. He could develop a phobia in the future, or maybe an anxiety disorder. He could develop dissociative identity disorder or maybe even a borderline personality disorder. The possibilities are endless. For example, the boy went mute when he was tossed into the manure. That proves that the young boy had been through much more than he could handle.
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo and The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski both had representations of war in them. Johnny Got His Gun showed the consequences one may face going into war, whether they volunteered or were drafted, like Joe. Government officials may find war to be necessary for a country because they make the decision to enter the war. However, soldiers, like Joe, find it to be detrimental because they can end up severely wounded or even dead. The Painted Bird represented the effects one can undergo from war even if they did not fight in the war. The boy experienced several different events throughout his journey that severely affected him in many ways. All of this happened because of the war and his parents having to send him away. If it was not for war, neither Joe nor the boy would have lived their lives the way they were forced to by the wars.

Works Cited

Kosinski, Jerzy. The Painted Bird. New York: New York, 1965.

Trumbo, Dalton. Johnny Got His Gun. New York, 1939.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This analysis has been submitted to this blog because it analyzes the effects of war on the main character in The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski.

Michelle Eaglehouse
American Literature 1915 to present
Professor Hobbs
30 April 2008
War: Physical and Mental Effects portrayed in Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo and The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski
Although the decision to enter or begin a war is in the hands of people in power of nations, those that actually fight in the war or live in the countries involved with the war are greatly affected by the war both directly and indirectly, while those that decide to enter a war are not affected in the same ways. War affects so many people in a variety of different ways. Those that fight in the war are affected physically, mentally, and emotionally. The people that live in the countries that are involved with war are affected in several ways as well. Their lives can be completely changed whether the war is fought in their country or their soldiers are away fighting the war. The government officials or people in power that originally decided to go to war in the first place seem to have the least affects when the war is done. They do not have to go and fight in the war; they just stay in their countries and make sure the war goes the way they want it to go. They send commands to the Generals of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and other branches of military and then are not the ones that have to carry out those demands. Those that fight in the war and those that live in countries that are involved with the war are greatly affected by the war, which is portrayed in both Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo and The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski.
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo has the best representation of the affects war has on those that actually go into battle and fight. Joe, the protagonist of Johnny Got His Gun, did not make the decision to go to war, but was drafted when the President decided to enter the war. He did not think it was fair for him to have to fight in a war that he did not think should be happening in the first place. War is fought so that people can gain “liberty,” “honor,” and “decency.” Joe does not understand how men can risk their lives for such abstract words. Men go into war and are not even fighting for something concrete. He thinks that the only people that can actually define those three words are the men who lost their lives in the war and even they cannot define them because they are dead. Joe did not think that is was right that he was expected to fight for something that no one could define (Trumbo 110-119).
Among all of the mental affects Joe had from the war, he also suffered innumerable physical affects. In Chapter 3, Joe realized for the first time that he has been wounded in battle. When he finally regains consciousness, he quickly recognized that he could not hear or see (Trumbo 26). Also, he felt the doctors pinching him in his left arm, or what he thought was his left arm. He then realized that he actually did not have a left arm at all; it had been amputated (Trumbo 26-27). Joe was upset because he said that the doctors did not consider how this was going to affect his life. He had no right arm, so he was not going to able to work anymore. He said they were not concerned though because they still had both of their arms, which they used to cut off his (Trumbo 27). As the chapter progressed, Joe realized that the loss of his left arm was not the only injury that he has from war. Not only did he not have a left arm, but he also lost his right arm (Trumbo 38). Joe quickly realized that he did not have either of his arms, so he would never again be able to hold his girlfriend again. (Trumbo 38-39). As if losing his arms was not enough to deal with, Joe also wandered what they did with his arms that they cut off. He did not think that it was right for them to be able to decide to just throw them away. Joe thinks that they should have buried them in the ground because his arms were once a part of his body and now they are dead (Trumbo 28).
As Joe lay in his hospital bed, he would have flashbacks from war. He could hear explosions and see rockets and bombs flash in front of his eyes even though he could not actually hear or see at all (Trumbo 58). This showed that war had a great effect on Joe mentally. In Chapter 5, Joe also discovered that both of his legs had been amputated (Trumbo 60). This was devastating for Joe because he knew that he would never be able to walk or run again and it was all because of the war (Trumbo 60). As if losing both of his arms and both of his legs was not bad enough, Joe found that this was not the end of the injuries that he had. In Chapter 7, Joe felt a cloth over his face. He was unsure why they put a cloth over his face, but then he knew it was because he actually did not have a face. He had no eyes, nose, or mouth. Joe knew that his life would never be the same. He would not be able to tell the difference when he was sleeping or awake, he would never smell anything again, and he could never communicate with anyone ever again. (Trumbo 80-93). Once Joe realized he was nothing more than a stump in a bed, he tried to figure out a way that he could commit suicide. He thought that if he moved enough to move the tube that fed him, then maybe it would kill him (Trumbo).
In Chapter 13, Joe receives a pin from the military. Although this is a privilege and is something that Joe should be proud of, it upsets him. He is angry because he does not think that these men should be able to walk into his hospital room and pin a medal on his chest for fighting in a war that he did not want to fight in to begin with. He is upset because they are still able to walk, even though they are the ones that initially decided to enter the war. He does not think that it is fair that these men did not have to go to war and fight at all, but they are still able to walk in the room and pin a medal on his chest. He knows that he will never be able to walk again, but these men took part in making the decision to go to war and were able to walk into his hospital room and pin a medal on his chest. (Trumbo 158-159).
In The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski, the main character, referred to as the boy, was removed from his family at the young age of six years old. His parents sent him away during World War II. They did this because they were Jewish and Jewish people were being killed during this time. His parents thought that the only way to keep him safe was to remove him from the situation. They sent him to Poland where they thought he would be safe. The boy lived with a woman by the name of Marta (Kosinski 3). After two months, Marta died and the boy was left to fend for himself (Kosinski 13). The boy was taken in by a farmer who treated him very poorly. The farmer beat the boy and the boy was not happy there. The farmer did not want the boy anymore, so he put him up for sale (Kosinski 14-16). The boy was bought by Olga the Wise. She took him to her house and taught him many things. Olga taught the boy many life survival skills. The boy was comfortable with Olga even though the other people of the village would often set their dogs on him because they were threatened by him. Because the boy had dark hair and dark eyes, they were afraid of him (Kosinski 17-27).
The boy was finally comfortable after several moves since his parents sent him away. All of this changed one day when the villagers threw him in the river and he floated far away from Olga. The boy survives because of the skills that he was taught by Olga (Kosinski 27). After this event, the boy goes to another family. He is exposed to some traumatic events while he is with this family. He watches the miller gouge out his plowboy’s eyes during dinner because he thinks that the plowboy is interested in his wife. After this event, the boy decided to run away from this family too because he was traumatized (Kosinski 34-38). His life was changed several times throughout the book. All he wanted to do was find a place that he fit in. He was always fighting for his life and was never accepted by any of the people that he lived with. All he wanted to do was be reunited with his parents.
The boy eventually moved to a village that is mostly occupied by German soldiers. The boy lived with a blacksmith who is accused of helping “enemies of the Fatherland.” The boy was turned over to soldiers at a German outpost and was taken away to be killed by one of the soldier. The solider let the boy go (Kosinski 66-76). He then moved to another village where he saw trains of Jews headed toward concentration camps. He was eventually captured by Germans. He was then taken in by a priest and studied to become an altar boy. He made a huge mistake during one of the ceremonies and was thrown into a pit of manure. Once he emerged from the pit, the boy was mute. Being mute greatly affected his life.
Eventually, the boy is taken in by the Red Army. They taught him many skills that he lacked. One of the soldiers, Gavrilla, taught him to read and introduced him to the ways of the Communist Party. From the teaching of the soldiers, the boy decided that he wanted to live by the communist ways. Also, he realized from the actions of the soldiers that revenge is a responsibility that you have to take on sometimes.
At the end of the novel, the boy’s dream of being reunited with his parents finally came true. The soldiers took him to an orphanage when the war was over. His parents eventually found him at the orphanage and took him home. His reunion with his parents did not go the way he expected at all. He did not like being back at home. He did not like the rules and guidelines that he had to follow now that he lived back at home now. Also, he did not like the other child that his parents took in after the war. He was so irritated by him on night that he squeezed his hand until it broke. He got mixed in with people who roamed the streets at night, gambled, drank, and had sex. Doctors then advised his parents that he needed help. He was sent to the mountains in order to help straighten his life out. He was sent to the hospital one day after he fell skiing. He got a phone call while in the hospital, and decided to talk again (Kosinski 223-234).
Johnny Got His Gun and The Painted Bird are both very different books, but at the same time have a common theme. Both books show how war can greatly affect peoples’ lives in several different ways. Joe fought in the war and was severely wounded. His life was forever changed when he discovered that he no longer had arms, legs, or a face. The Jewish boy did not fight in the war, but was affected in several ways. He was sent away from his family at the age of six. He lived his life on his own for a very long time. He was reunited with his parents eventually, but his life was never the same. War played a large role in the lives of Joe and the Jewish boy, and they were not the ones that made the decision to go to war. Could it be possible that some people need to sacrifice their lives and happiness in order to make the rest of the world to be happy? If this is the case, how fair is this? War is something that greatly affects the lives of everyone, whether they fought in the war or lived in a country that was involved with the war.

References
Kosinski, Jerzy. The Painted Bird. New York: New York, 1965.
Trumbo, Dalton. Johnny Got His Gun. New York: 1939.
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I posted my paper on this blog because my paper was based on the novel The Painted Bird. My paper talked about the effects war had on the main character, the boy.

Heather Stull
Dr. Hobbs
EL267.01
30 April, 2008
The Pulls of Racism
In
Jerzy Kosinski’s The Painted Bird and Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated
In both The Painted Bird and Everything is Illuminated, the characters are sometimes pulled together by the violent acts of racism, but far more often their lives are disrupted and pulled apart. The protagonist’s of Everything is Illuminated, Alex and Jonathan, form a friendship that develops out of their journey to Trachimbrod. Initially, the two are at odds with one another. Jonathan, a Jewish American, is ridiculed by Alex and his grandfather, his Ukrainian guides. Although they are living after World War II, Alex and his family exhibit many prejudices against Jewish people.
Alex is ignorant of his people’s history. He does not understand how the Poles and Ukrainian’s had treated the Jews during the War (Foer 62). He is filled with disbelief at the things Jonathan says to him and continues the historical trend of his ancestors by remaining skeptical of another culture’s practices and point-of-view. Near the end of their journey, new truths are exposed and Alex discovers the true history of his family, one that unites him indefinitely with Jonathan’s past. Through this they embark on a journey of self-discovery which shapes their friendship. Each documents the story of how they uncovered their past and in the history the line between them becomes blurred: “We are talking now, Jonathan, together, and not apart. We are with each other, working on the same story, and I am certain that you can also feel it. . . . I am you and you are me” (Foer 214). Although these two characters are brought together in the end, they are still greatly affected by the cultural divide that has persisted since the war. It pervades their initial relationship and also causes tension between all male members of Alex’s family. Most tragically, it separates the family from grandfather when he commits suicide to make atonement for the sins of his past.
The young boy of The Painted Bird is brought together with two officers of the Soviet Army, Gavrila and Mitka. Although these friendships are a result of the boy’s alienation, they aid him in becoming further alienated from his past self. Taking over the boy’s education, Gavrila provides texts which expose him to Soviet leaders and ideals. Gavrila tells him that: “people themselves [determine] the course of their lives and [are] the only masters of their destinies” (Kosinski 187). These teachings, along with Mitka’s radical demonstrations of justice, cause the boy to learn to depend only on himself, on no other human being, or even God. As a result, he begins to cherish the solitude of his earlier experiences as an orphan and tries to make the sensation endure. Thus, he is disturbed over the reunion with his parents; he “could not readily accept the idea of suddenly becoming someone’s real son. . . . A boy of my age. . . . should be able to choose for himself the people whom he wished to follow and learn from” (Kosinski 226-227). He feels smothered by the structure of everyday life and would rather be wandering alone, living a life of unpredictability (Kosinski 229). The boy has been forever changed, despite being reunited with his parents, he is never able to return to the son they once knew.
A result of the cultural discord within both novels is the separation from that which is familiar. The boy of The Painted Bird is forced away from his family and his home because of his ethnicity and the repercussions he may endure because of it. In what was initially an attempt to shelter him from severe circumstances and change, he is deposited into a world in which everyone looks and acts quite differently from him. He is persecuted for his uniqueness. The act that was supposed to deliver him from harm provided, in his solitude, an even larger arena for cruelty and prejudice.
In Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan journey’s to a country where he will face criticism for his heritage to discover the roots of his past and the stories of his ancestors who were pushed away for these same criticisms. On his journey, he faces opposition from his guides on many issues ranging from his appearance to his views about his culture’s history. The Ukrainian’s are prejudiced against him before ever meeting him. In Alex’s family, assumptions about the Jewish have been passed down and accepted from generation to generation. Alex idolizes Jonathan because he is American but does not embrace the Jewish side of him as if it somehow taints him.
Although he eagerly solicits knowledge of Americanisms from Jonathan, he ridicules the things that Jonathan tries to teach him about Jewish language and culture. This reaction is present not only with Alex and his grandfather but with several other Ukrainians such as the hotel keeper and the two waitresses. On his journey, Jonathan not only experiences the history of his ancestors physically- by being in the country of his grandfather’s birth, but mentally, as he is subjected to the criticisms and alienations that initially separated the Poles and Ukrainians from the Jews. In order to discover his ancestors Jonathan is forced to experience the modern existence of the prejudices that forced his people to flee.
Alienation is another result of racial prejudice. Ethnic conflict keeps the boy of The Painted Bird alienated from the peasants. Brod, from Everything is Illuminated is alienated from the other members of her shtetl. Both suffer acts of violence because of their ethnicity. After being torn from his home and family, the young boy is put in the care of a foster mother. She dies after only two months of caring for him and the boy is forced into wandering, seeking shelter in a remote village (Kosinski 3). He finds himself the object of scorn in a community filled with superstitions, many of which revolve around beings such as him self. The rich, educated boy from the city must now beg for food and shelter. Devoid of proper attention and love, the boy becomes like a roaming animal, being abused in the hands of all that take him in because of his ethnicity.
In addition to learning the social structures of the villages and the craft of homeopathic medicine, the superstitions of the villagers begin to etch themselves on the boys mind. As a younger child, he readily accepts the notions that his dark eyes can be the cause of great tragedy and hold the power to curse others. He becomes a victim of the prejudices and immediately begins to lose touch with all that was familiar. Even his parents, who share his appearance, seem to join the hierarchy of the villagers in his mind: “Did they [my parents] know that they should never drink or smile in the presence of evil-eyed people who might count their teeth? I would remember my father’s broad, relaxed smile and begin to worry; he showed so many teeth that if an evil eye were to count them, he would most certainly die very soon” (Kosinski 10).
Through each person that takes him in, the boy is exposed to deplorable, inhumane conditions. He is acquired, not out of love or kindness, but to fill a need that exists for his master. He is subjected to inhumane treatment, suffering from beatings, poor care, witnessing murders, and often forced to fight for his own life. While living this nightmare, the boy is growing up, defining himself and the world around him. Through his treatment as an outsider, exposed to brutal treatment and harsh living conditions in an ignorant society, the boy of The Painted Bird is forever changed. The experiences of his childhood have changed him into a person, that when reunited with his parents, is barely recognizable to them. Like the painted bird, the boy has been driven back to his kind (Kosinski 227). His only chance of living is to escape again. The attempt to save him from racial prejudice has caused him to be humiliated, abused, and transformed. His alienation from the peasants grows as he does, and soon encompasses not only his past but also his future with his parents.
Brod, of Everything is Illuminated, is immediately alienated by her cultural differences. Despite being lusted over for her beauty and mystery by some of the male shtetl members, she is ignored. Even the men who adore her do so in secret, joining in with the rest of the community in ridiculing her. From the start, she is an object to them, purely fulfilling sexual fantasy but not worthy of human love or kindness. She grows up alone as each generation discourages the next from associating with her. The villagers mock her, calling her “dirty river girl” and “water baby” (Kosinski 75). Because of the questionable details of her arrival into the shtetl, she is forever viewed with suspicion as if she were a curse set upon the town. In fulfillment to her own prophecy, she is raped one evening on her way home. Like the boy of The Painted Bird, her adolescence has been marked by abuse. The idea of the curse sets in upon her mind and she realizes that in order to escape this abusive alienation she must alienate herself even further by fleeing the shtetl.
As subjects of modern novels, the characters of The Painted Bird and Everything Is Illuminated, serve to illustrate two points. One, that far more often, cultural and ethnic discord ultimately cause destruction, alienation, and chaos. And two, that although the focus of the novels’ ethnic conflict, World War II, is in the past, the members of the Jewish community have been the subject of intense cruelty and ridicule in the past (Brod), the present (the boy of The Painted Bird), and the future (Jonathan).

Works Cited
Foer, Jonathan Safran. Everything Is Illuminated. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002.
Kosinski, Jerzy. The Painted Bird. New York: Grove Press, 1976.
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I chose to submit my final paper to this blog because the protagonist of Kosinski's novel was of significant value in proving my thesis. I studied the journey of the boy to see how is experiences during the war affected him.

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