The Zoo Keeper's Wife

In this section, the bombing continues and Jan returns from the battle. Eventually Poland surrenders to Germany and the Nazis take over. The Poles believe that it is a better decision to surrender, they will so find out otherwise. Governor-General Frank issued a new law called, "Decree for the Combating of Violent Acts." This means acting or observing were equally punished. "Human nature being what it is, most people didn't wish to get involved, so few people were denounced, and fewer still denounced for not denouncing others . . .somewhere between doing and not doing, everyone's conscience finds its own level; most Poles didn't risk their lives for fugitives but didn't denounce them either." Similar to the play All My Sons this book categorizes people into whistle blowers and people who let it go. Many Polish people have the choice of ratting out on their friends, or risking their own lives by letting it slide. This is very similar to All My Sons because in that play, many characters have this decision too. The Nazis came in to Poland and changed all of their ways of life. They changed everything, Antonina walks through the city and says to Jan, "I can't breath, I feel like I'm drowning in a gray sea, like they're flooding the whole city, washing away our past and people, dashing everything from the face of the earth." Antonina feels as though the Nazis are destroying everything in sight. To the Poles, the Nazis just started a war in their territory and then invaded and basically ruined their lives. Took everything away, loved ones, houses, the city and much more.

Although it says most people just didn't risk their lives for fugitives, and I think this is true. The few people that did risk their lives for fugitives we hear about. These stories always amaze me. I think it takes a very brave person to hold fugitives, someone that cares for others more than the safety of themselves. I also believe that many of the Poles didn't get credit for holding fugitives because they either lost their own lives, or weren't discovered. It takes a true hero to do this. People were rewarded if they turned in people they knew so this gave a big incentive to turn them in. The happy medium in these two consequences is neither turning in your friends or holding them. It amazes me how violent the Nazis were, all for nothing. The Polish people never did anything to deserve all of this death and devastation the Nazis imposed on them . Many people were probably very scared for their lives during this time period.

Miller, Arthur, and Christopher Bigsby. All My Sons : A Drama in Three Acts. New York: Penguin Classics, 2000.

*All My Sons : A Drama in Three Acts
should be underlined but it won't let me underline!

In the play All My Sons the characters must decide between benefiting society, or benefiting their own family. This decision is what the play revolves around. Joe Keller was in a position where he could either benefit his family or benefit society. He chooses family. When Joe Keller admits to his son, that he was the one that made the mistake Chris gets very angry, "For me! Where do you life, where have you come from? For me! -- I was dying every day and you were killing my boys and you did it for me? What the hell do you think I was thinking of, the Goddamn business? Is that as far as your mind can see, the business? What is that, the world the business? What the hell do you mean, you did it for me? Don't you have a country? Don't you live in the world? What the hell are you?" Chris doesn't understand how his father could pick benefiting his family, and his business, over saving many pilots. When he was dying, his father was worried about the business and family. Joe Keller chose to save his business instead of Innocent pilots. Joe Keller says, "You're a boy, what could I do! I'm in business, a man is in business; a hundred and twenty cracked, you're out of business." This goes to show that Joe Keller cares about his business more than many other things. He knew that if he didn't send the cracked cylinders his business would be done for. But if he sends them out, the planes could be in danger.

In my opinion Joe Keller was morally wrong for sending out the dangerous cracked cylinders. By doing this he killed 21 people and that is not okay just because he wanted to save the business so he could give it to Chris. I think that Chris had the right to get mad at his dad. I think that the right decision mostly depends on the consequences. Which consequence makes a bigger difference. In this case killing 21 people is a bigger consequence than losing the business, so choosing society over family is the right thing to do. On the other hand of your family is in extreme danger and society's consequence is small then helping the need of your family is more important. I think that most of the time, society has the bigger consequence and is more important to risk ones family for society.

The Zoo Keeper's Wife

In the section that I read this week of The Zoo Keeper's Wife the Polish people start to worry about German forces lead by Hitler invading. The Zabinskis try to avoid reality of the thought of bombing Poland. One morning Antonina wakes to the sound of hundreds of bomber planes. Antonina is on her way to Rejentowka to retrieve her son and on her way is amazed by what she saw. "German aircraft looming near in seconds, chewing up the skies, flying low overhead, panicking people and horses alike. Pelted by bullets, everyone hurried through clouds of flying dirt, the unlucky fell, and the relatively lucky fled beneath splattering machine-gun fire. Catching a bullet was sheer chance and for seven hours Antonina beat the odds, but not without scenes of the dead and dying etched into memory." This is a very powerful quote, it shows that the bombing and death affected Antonina and that war never leaves ones memory. It also shows how violent this war is. Although it's only the beginning it is already killing many people. Antonina is also worried about her son, she thinks that if he grows up watching the war he will grow to think that that is what life will always be like. "At least her son, in Rejentowka, was spared these images, so hard to erase, especially for a small child whose brain, busily sampling the world, was learning what to expect and stitching those truths in place at a trillion connections. stay prepared for this world the rest of your life, a child's brain tells itself, a world of mayhem and uncertainty." If Rys, Antonina's son grows up seeing all of the killing of the war, Antonina thinks that his brain will be messed up forever. That he will expect the rest of his life to be like this.

The war gets worse so Jan and Antonina start to worry about the zoo and the animals. With the bombs, and animals went crazy. "The elephants trumpeted wildly, they hyenas sobbed in a frightened sort of giggle interrupted by hiccups, the African hunting dogs howled, and the rhesus monkeys, agitated beyond sanity, battled one another, their hysterical shrieks clawing the air." The animals start to go insane, this is foreshadowing for what might come. The animals are in a worse situation than the humans because humans can adapt to new situations, animals in the zoo are dependent on people. Jan and Antonina are very worried about how to keep the zoo running and how to save the animals. They are very attached to the zoo and the animals within. "In this Luftwaffe attack, a half-ton bomb destroyed the polar bears' mountain smashing the walls, moats, and barriers and freeing the terrified animals. When a platoon of Polish soldiers found the panicky bears, ribboned with blood and circling round their old haunt, they quickly shot them." This shows that the animals in the zoo are actually in danger because of this war. Something has to be done to save them. If the Germans aren't afraid to kill humans they won't be afraid to kill animals in the zoo.

The Zoo Keeper's Wife

The book The Zoo Keepers Wife starts out talking about a zoo in Poland. Jan and Antonina are the owners of the zoo. The first chapter shows that Antonina is really close with the animals. I think this is very interesting. Anatonina shows such a close relationship with the animals it almost seems as though she is a part of them. Her husband describes her by saying, "She's so sensitive, she's almost able to read their minds. . . . She becomes them. . . . She has a precise and very special gift, a way of observing and understanding animals that's rare, a sixth sense. . . It's been this way since she was little"(26). The fact that Antonina in a sense becomes the animals makes me think that there are probably people in the world today that have this rare gift. I also have a feeling that this special gift will come in handy later in the book. She uses her skills when they open the box of kittens and they start hissing she says, "Human hands with so many moving fingers scare them, and our loud voices and the sharp light from the lamp"(27). Right away when they start hissing Antonina explains to Jan, her husband, what is wrong and exactly how the kittens are feeling. Anatonina can use her gift to interpret exactly how the animals feel, and by changing it, she helps the animals.

Jan and Antonina seem like really good zookeepers. They are definatly fit for the job. "Antonina and Jan had learned to live on seasonal time, not mere chronicity. Like most humas, they did abide by clocks, but their routine was never quite routine, made up as it was of compatible realities, one attuned to animals, the other to humans"(20). This shows that Antonina and Jan change their schedules to help the animals. Antonina and Jan basically devote their lives to these animals living in the zoo. "The Zabinskis shared their home with orphaned newborn or sick animals, as well as pets, and the feeding adn schooling of lodgers fell to Antonina, whose animal wards clamored to be fed"(23). The Zabinskis so as far as keeping animals in their house, this demonstrates their love and care for animals. Not many people would be willing to keep part of a zoo within their own house and have the animals walk freely. The Zabinskis treat the animals at their zoo like children. The Zabinskis are very good zookeepers and I am excited to see what happens in the rest of the book.



Ackerman, Diane. The Zookeeper's Wife. New York, NY: Norton paperback, 2008.