Comparative paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Comparative paper - Essay Example This paper aims to particularly focus on how the vivid depictions of the Nazi and Soviet crisis in both books have been instrumental in providing global readers a wide-eyed awakening to a path to peace and to a future hope of minimizing global and political violence. To achieve this would mean understanding the rationale and causal effects of the perpetrations of the inhumanity in the genocidal murders and the grueling experiences in the Soviet prison camps, and eventually rethinking whether the same would have been possible were it not for the modern methods that were adopted to further brutalize the population. Arendt and Solzhenitsyn not only witnessed the tragic events of the mid-twentieth century, both of them had first hand experiences of the horrendous fates of the era. These particular events in both their lives have led them to write on Eichmann and The Holocaust and One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich, respectively. Several researches have probed on the questions of how and why the holocaust happened and why of all places did it occur in Germany. The book on the Holocaust provided several excerpts from Arendt's previous commentaries on the trial of this Nazi named Adolf Eichmann, a Gestapo chief, who later history would place as the man responsible for the mass extermination of all the Jews who were held in concentration camps. While many writings have ascribed the root cause of the holocaust to that of the anti-Semitic views of Adolph Hitler, Arendt in her book pinned the guilt to Eichmann, after the arrogant Eichmann himself openly boasted that he would die laughing with the feeling of great satisfaction in having brought millions of Jews to their death. There were a number of cultural and historical issues that evolved from the trial of Eichmann and most were considered either as pernicious to or are erosions of the justice system. Amongst the European countries, it is easily noticeable that in the twentieth century, Germany had the most radical form of capitalism that would in effect, exclude all other socialist labor movements. This fascism has been characterized by anti-Semitism and extreme racism. Due to this inherently murderous ideology for an elect race, the Jews eventually were scorned upon to be an inferior race. Arendt concludes in her book that the hanging of Eichmann was justified for the reason that he had supported and executed the policy of the Reich to be a superior race, ultimately having the effect of being the only ones who can inhabit the earth. The book of Solzhenitsyn sets the story on the Soviet labor camp and describes an entire one day in the life of the prisoner Ivan Denisovich Shukhov. This literary masterpiece was the first ever to openly give an account of Stalin's repressive governance. This book made known that the prisoners in the Gulag system were never allowed to leave the camps despite the end of their prison terms. The theme created in this book focused on authoritarian oppression and the many difficult ways of surviving labor camps, especially from the cruelty of the prison officials. Through Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, Solzhenitsyn has provided the world with the many tragic and traumatic experiences that a prisoner suffered in the