still alive

I think that one of the most important themes in Still Alive is the double standard of being a Jewish immigrant in a society that is predominantly German as well as (in this case) a child who is trying to live the life of a normal girl. Both of these ideas collide, in that given this time period, being a Jewish girl was not considered normal. Consider the instance where the reader is introduced to Klugers’ life before the working camps, where she is given a basic elementary education, here the reader is able to see the satisfaction of the need to grow and be a child. As the novel progresses, the lessons that Kluger learned in the working camp were lessons necessary to survive for her life as a Jew. Here, the reader can see how when one world is evolving, sometimes personal beliefs that make an individual different become increasingly significant because of societies views upon the issue, that it creates another world that interferes with the primary world. Children in this era may forget that they’re children learning about the world and how it works because they are forced to grow up to early and defend for themselves, therefore this idea of double worlds may collide, or one world may overpower the other.