“Those who want to live, let them fight, and those who do not want to fight in this world of eternal struggle do not deserve to live”, Adolf Hitler. In Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, Mirjam Pressler uses new historicism to achieve her objective in the book. Mirjam Pressler uses the historic events to influence the themes, characters, viewpoints, literary tools, and conflicts.
The most important themes presented in the novel are as follows: the things that one has done will haunt them later on in life and money does not fix everything. History influenced the theme ‘things that one has done will haunt them later on in life’, by stating how because of Johanna’s grandfather’s actions prior to her birth, it came back to patronize her eighteen years later. For example, before Johanna went to a school trip to Jerusalem, …show more content…
When Johanna was there, she met Meta Levin, previously Meta Heimann, and Levin herself introduced Johanna to the truth, her truth, about the department store. Johanna finds out her once respected grandfather was a Nazi whom seized Mrs. Levin’s family’s store. Once Johanna finds this out, she feels an immense amount of guilt and remorse for her grandfather’s actions during the 1930s: “Now it’s happened, now I can’t act like nothing’s wrong anymore” (Pressler 12). Johanna feels as if it is her responsibility to make things right with Mrs. Levin, Johanna believes she needs to fix the damage her grandpa made. Furthermore, the way history influenced the theme, ‘money does not fix everything’ is by Johanna feeling the need to pay back Mrs. Levin because she did not receive no money from when her grandfather paid for the store: “I’ve
The most important themes presented in the novel are as follows: the things that one has done will haunt them later on in life and money does not fix everything. History influenced the theme ‘things that one has done will haunt them later on in life’, by stating how because of Johanna’s grandfather’s actions prior to her birth, it came back to patronize her eighteen years later. For example, before Johanna went to a school trip to Jerusalem, …show more content…
When Johanna was there, she met Meta Levin, previously Meta Heimann, and Levin herself introduced Johanna to the truth, her truth, about the department store. Johanna finds out her once respected grandfather was a Nazi whom seized Mrs. Levin’s family’s store. Once Johanna finds this out, she feels an immense amount of guilt and remorse for her grandfather’s actions during the 1930s: “Now it’s happened, now I can’t act like nothing’s wrong anymore” (Pressler 12). Johanna feels as if it is her responsibility to make things right with Mrs. Levin, Johanna believes she needs to fix the damage her grandpa made. Furthermore, the way history influenced the theme, ‘money does not fix everything’ is by Johanna feeling the need to pay back Mrs. Levin because she did not receive no money from when her grandfather paid for the store: “I’ve