"The Terrible Things" by Eve Bunting and how it relates to the Holocaust

Essay by thejoounitHigh School, 10th gradeA, June 2007

download word file, 1 pages 3.0

Downloaded 12 times

I thought the story “Terrible Things” was a very good story. I thought the symbolism in the story was very apparent. It made me think about all of the connections to the holocaust. I really wonder if I would have picked up the connection to the holocaust if I wasn’t told that it was based on the holocaust beforehand.

I think that the story is a lot like the holocaust. At first the animals or Jews were being taken away, and all the other animals or people were saying I don’t need to help, it’s not me. Then another group of animals or people would be taken away and the rest would say, I don’t need to do anything it wasn’t me. And this repeated until the only thing left was the terrible things.

I think that the end of the story, when the rabbits are screaming for help is a lot like when Elie was lined up waiting to be transported out of the ghetto, there was no one left to help and get him water.

If at the beginning when the birds were being captured all of the animals tried to help the bird it could have been possible to overcome the terrible things and they could all get away. But because of their selfishness group by group they were all taken away. It is possible that the terrible things could have captured them also but there was always that possibility. This is much like the holocaust. In the ghettos there was a lot more Jews than soldiers. It would have been possible for the Jews to overcome the Nazis if they worked together. Then they could have escaped the ghetto and tried to flee.

I think that the rabbits were a little naïve, thinking that...