They're "Cooked"

In the metaphor of "the frog in boiling water" used by Daniel Quinn, Kristallnacht represents when the frog is being boiled to death without knowing. After this turning point, the Jews (frog) can no longer escape the country (pot) and they essentially have no future. Although they were being killed, the Jews didn't notice, therefore they didn't do anything to stop the Nazis from doing so. They couldn't predict their death because to distract them, Hitler and the Nazis would take small steps, from a to b to c to d to e. The Jews would only compare b to a, and d to c, rather than comparing the drastic change from a to e. This led them to believe that all of these small changes weren't so bad, until the Kristallnacht happened. This was like a slap in the face, and they now realized there was no escaping this torture, and there was nothing they could do about it. The name Kristallnacht is euphemistic and indicates that this is a boiling point for Jewish people in Germany because the Germans have been outsmarting them for so long, without them even knowing. A culmination of all the times they have been outsmarted leads to the loss of hope for Jews. There is now almost no way to escape the country for them, which means they will either die, live alone in hiding for the rest of their lives, or go to a concentration camp and die there. This was a sad realization for the Jews in Germany, and they now were being boiled in a pot that they couldn't get out of.

Introducing Characters

Louise Murphy has introduced Hansel and Magda through their actions and their dialogue, and these introductions allow me to figure out which characters will be important, and which ones will be minor. Early on, I was able to tell that Hansel would be sneaky, and witty, because of his dialogue and actions. He was giving Gretel sass, while also being sarcastic and stubborn. Hansel's courage came through in the early pages of text when he used his only bread to create a trail, rather than eating it. This was courageous because first, Nazi dogs could smell the bread, and second, because he was so hungry. It was obvious that Hansel would be important because his wit, and courage combined create a powerful character. Magda was introduced and described more through her dialogue. As we just met Magda, she was very wise, and opinionated. She didn't care what anyone thought of her, and she wouldn't let Nazis stand in the way of her beliefs, or what she wanted to do. It became apparent that Magda would be very important because of how wise and independent she was introduced as. Other characters, such as Nelka and Gretel, were introduced as important also, because of their good qualities that make them powerful. However, Magda's brother was introduced as not important because of how he only thought of himself, and his safety- that makes for a boring and fairly inactive character. The author introduced Hansel and Magda, as well as several other characters through their actions and dialogue, which showed how powerful they were, and therefore allowed me to pick out the important characters.

What's SO Terrible

Everything about Hitler's whole plan was strategically maniacal and malicious, just like Iago's plan. Everyone underestimated Hitler, because he seemed humane: he didn't smoke, didn't drink alcohol, and eventually became a vegetarian. Therefore he was able to get away with his inhumane actions, while persuading people to follow him. Iago was two-faced also, and everyone believed he truly was "honest Iago" who wouldn't hurt a soul. Hitler beguiled everyone with his seemingly humane character, but his deceitfulness is what made him so inhumanely pernicious. To the Germans and the Nazis, humanity looked like Hitler, but it definitely wasn't. Any normal human wouldn't be so full of hatred that they felt they need to strip people of their identity and then kill them or work them to death. One glance at malnourished children or suffering elderly people would cause any human to put an end to the madness. However, just like Iago, Hitler was so empty and malevolent that he continued to kill innocent and harmless people. He was the reason why the human race turned on each other and acted like uncivilized beings, when their own kind was being slaughtered. It is astonishing how a man with only an 8th grade education, was able to pull this off. Why would he choose Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, disabled people, and Slavic people to torture? They were all innocent people, who had no intentions of ruining Germany, as Hitler thought they did. The only one ruining Germany was Hitler himself. At age 5, I knew who Hitler was and what he did, and that just goes to show you how egregious he was. The man held responsible for the deaths of over 6 million people was so inhumane because of how fraudulent he was, and because of his lack of feelings.