The City of Thieves: Characterization 2

    Lev, one of the main protagonists in The City of Thieves, is one of the more timid and by far one of the most changing characters. He learns about many things from Kolya such as relationships and fighting skills, and he also serves as a great helper for Kolya. When times are tough, it always seems like Lev doesn't know what to do, however he always manages to help Kolya out wherever it is needed. Lev has changed a lot from the beginning of the text, to the end. In the beginning, he seems to be a very helpless character and he doesn't know much about the world and how to survive. He is also very worryful and can't seem to be less careful. An example is in the beginning of the book when him and Kolya encounter the monster cannibal. Lev just stands there and doesn't doing anything when the cannibal was trying to kill Kolya because he was too scared that if something went wrong, Kolya would blame it on him In the end of the book however, Lev is a hero and even Kolya admits to it. Lev advances the theme and development of the plot because he shows how characters can drastically change throughout a text.

The City of Thieves: Book Recommendation

      If you have read The City of Thieves and you wanted to read another book similar to it, you should try Night, a novel by Elie Wissel. The authors used the same strategies in their books, which was to incorporate real life events from World War II. However, not everything about the books was similar. In Night, the author tells a true story about his life and the hardships he had to go through to keep his father alive. These books are similar because they are of the same genre - realistic fiction, and they also both share plenty of action and tragedies for the main, developed characters. Both of the books are great and they're a good choice for people who want to read about the ways people lived and survived throughout the harsh times of World War II.

The City of Thieves: Reading Skills

    City of Thieves is a great book that you could make a lot of connections with, especially with World War II. A text to world connection that I could make with this book was how David Benioff, the author, incorporated all the general names, weapons, different types of people, and city names into his book. I thought it was interesting how he put it history into a novel like this. A text to text connection that could be made from this book was to another novel called Night. These books are similar because they both are about the lives of Jewish people that are on a journey risking their lives. City of Thieves is set during the time of World War II and the two main protagonists, Lev and Kolya, had to find a dozen eggs for their command general, otherwise they would be killed. Similarly, Elie Wissel, the main protagonist of Night, has to find help his father through illnesses  otherwise his father wouldn't be able to protect Elie and they would both be dead. Both of their paths were deadly and both groups came face to face with death multiple times. A text to self connection that I could make to City of Thieves, was that in the book, you have to stay with your friends or family at all times in order to stay alive. You all rely on each other like it's life or death. For myself, this instance can occur when we're on vacation somewhere and I don't know where to go, however it's not as extreme to be alone on vacation as it would have been in City of Thieves. A prediction that could be made from this book is that Lev and Kolya grew a stronger and stronger bond throughout the book as they got to know each other better and better. I can predict this because in the beginning of the book, they didn't like each other much and their thoughts were the exact opposite of one anothers, but by the end of the book they started realizing how they made it through everything and they recognized each other as heroes.

The City of Thieves: Theme and Summary

    One of the main themes of City of Thieves is patriotism, or pride for your country. Patriotism was big in City of Thieves because the feeling of being loyal to your country was one of the only things you had. One of the main protagonists, Lev, started off not liking the fact that he was Russian. He thought that it was bad to be Russian and he didn't like his nose because it was a "Russian nose". Later on in the book, however, he starts to enjoy himself for who he is and you can even see from this quote that he feels a surge of pure love for Russia: "I have never been much of a patriot. My father would not have allowed such a thing while he lived, and his death insured that his wish was carried out. Piter commanded far more affection and loyalty from me than the nation as a whole. But that night, running across the unplowed fields of winter wheat, with the Fascist invaders behind us and the dark Russian woods before us, I felt a surge of pure love for my country." City of Thieves is set in 1941 at a city called Leningrad. The city is surrounded by the German army and all the residents are starving to the point of death. In the beginning of the novel, Lev and Kolya find it extremely difficult to find food. They had even come across a cannibal relying on humans for food. This is how desperate the residents of Leningrad had become.

The City of Thieves: Characterization

            Kolya, one of the main protagonists in City of Thieves, is one of the more courageous and by far one of the most reckless characters. He teaches Lev about many things such as relationships and fighting skills, and he also serves as a great leader for both of them. When times are tough, it always seems like Kolya knows what to do, and how to make sure that him and Lev survive through their obstacles occuring from starvation and hunger. Kolya has changed a lot from the beginning of the text, to the end. In the beginning, he cares more about himself than anybody else and he doesn't find himself in a position to worry about the dangers that could come to him and Lev. An example is in the beginning of the book when him and Lev encounter the monster cannibal. He starts to yell at Lev for just standing there and not doing anything when the cannibal was trying to kill Kolya. In the end of the book however, Kolya forgives Lev and says that he was a hero no matter what Lev had actually done. Here's a quote on how Kolya was described by Lev in the beginning of the book: “Kolya was a braggart, a know-it-all, a Jew-baiting Cossack, but his confidence was so pure and complete it no longer seemed like arrogance, just the mark of a man who had accepted his own heroic destiny” (Benioff, 98). As we could see, Kolya used to be very arrogant and cocky, but he has changed into a hero that could be very much depended on.

The Lightning Thief: Theme and Summary 2

    One of the themes of The Lightning Thief is that maintaining healthy relationships between family and friends, can be destructive, yet inventive. This theme occurs many times within The Lightning Thief in many scenarios, an example of when a family is destructive is when one of the campers, Luke, feels unclaimed by his father, Hermes. This causes Luke to attempt to cause chaos between the Gods. An example of families being inventive is when Percy fights off the minotaur when they are entering Camp-Half Blood. What had happened was that Percy's mom was being attacked by a minotaur and so Percy fought the minotaur to help save his mom. However, his mom didn't make it, so Percy decides to take matters into his own hands and travel all across the country with Grover and Annabeth to help bring his mother from the dead.

The Lightning Thief: Book Recommendations 2

      If you have read The Lightning Thief and you wanted to read another book similar to it, you should try The Red Pyramid, another book by Rick Riordan. Rick used the same strategy that he used on The Lightning Thief, which was to incorporate mythology involving Gods into the book. However, he didn't use Greek Gods in The Red Pyramid, instead, he talked about Egyptian Gods. These books are similar because they are of the same genre - fantasy fiction, and they also both share plenty of action for the main, developed characters. Both of the books are great and they're a good choice for people who want to learn about Egyptian mythology, or Greek mythology, and want to read an educational, yet entertaining book.