Skip to main content

Who is Fury, and why do you think this is an effective name for this person in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne?

In Chapter Eleven, "Fury" is the mispronunciation by Bruno for the Führer, Adolf Hitler. This misnomer is effective because Hitler certainly put Germany into a fury, and he acted as a god of war and vengeance much like the Furies of Mythology.


Hitler emerged out of the anger of the German people for the crushing punishment it received after World War I as Germany was held responsible for this war. After the stringent demands of the Treaty of Versailles, the German economy was in a shambles because of the reparations demanded of it. The only thing to do as the economic situation of the country worsened was to print money; so, printing presses ran around the clock. But, by 1923 the situation became absolutely desperate and there was run-away inflation.


According to British historian Sir Arthur Bryant, who wrote in his Unfinished Victory:



It was the Jews with their international affiliations and their flair for finance who were best able to seize...opportunities. They did so with such effect that, even in November 1938, after five years of anti-Semitic legislation and persecution, they still owned...something like a third of the real property in the Reich....To those who had lost their all, this bewildering transfer seemed a monstrous injustice....they saw [everything] pass into the hands of strangers....



Furthermore, the Jews had reached prominent positions in politics, business and the professions such as medicine and law. The banks, including the Reichsbank and large private ones, were controlled by them.


Hitler tapped into the anger and resentment of the German people over their economic woes and found the scapegoat on whom to blame them, generating from the burning embers of the Germans' resentment for the Jews a fury of hatred. And, much like the mythological Furies, Hitler ignited the hearts of the German people and unified them furiously in a chauvinistic cause to bring their country back to power and to the ownership of the Germans. 


That Hitler was considered a god is evinced in some of the mottoes of Nazism: Mein Führer ist mein Gott! (My Fuhrer is my God). 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

etymology - Origin of the greeting "Sweet dreams".

Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

What are the similarities between the relationships of the characters in The Outsiders and Romeo and Juliet?

At first glance, it might appear as if the characters in  The Outsiders  by S. E. Hinton and  Romeo and Juliet  by William Shakespeare do not have much in common; however, when one isolates the core of the conflicts, it becomes clear that the relationships in both stories are rooted in rivalry and secrecy.  In both  The Outsiders  and  Romeo and Juliet , an overarching theme is rivalry. While   socioeconomic status separates the greasers from the Socs in The Outsiders , last names separates the Montagues from the Capulets, who appear to be relatively equal in terms of socioeconomic status. Due to these rivalries, there are instances of deadly interactions in both stories. In  The Outsiders , Johnny kills Bob (whether his actions were justified or not is debatable). In  Romeo and Juliet , Romeo kills Tybalt and Paris, and Tybalt kills Mercutio. These deaths have profound effects on the main characters. In Ponyboy's case, the Johnny's death and other events in the novel inspire h...
Post a Comment
Read more