Imagine that you have a Jewish friend who is persecuted and hated because of his or her race. And he or she is looking for a place to hide, but no one is willing to provide shelter. Then he comes up to you and tells you that you are the last hope. Would you help the Jew despite knowing that you may end up in prison or at a Nazi concentration camp? Well, Corrie ten Boom, a non-Jewish Dutch woman, risked her life and suffered to save the lives of many Jews by taking them into her home to protect them from the Nazi police. In her book, The Hiding Place, she recounts the personal experiences of her involvement with helping Jews, the atrocities she had to undergo in the concentration camps, and the process of forgiving and maturing in her faith
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Like any other narrative, she uses the elements of a rising action, climax, and a falling action to provide the readers with a more realistic depiction of the struggles and hardships she was facing. In the rising action, she sets up the story by providing the background of her life in Beje and her involvement with aiding the Jews. At this point, she responds with faith to the difficult moral dilemmas that she is faced, such as being loyal to the state and being honest. She then presents the conflict in the rising action where she is faced with instances where she has to risk her life to protect the Jews. By adding such instances, she is able to show the readers the first-hand experience of how she showed love to the Jews who desperately needed help and trusted God’s faithfulness. Then the story builds up towards the climax where the Nazi police caught her and the rest of her family members and sent them to a concentration camp. In the climax of her story, she starts out with her experiences in the Nazi concentration camp until the death of her sister to emphasize Betsie’s wish for her to build a house for former prisoners, teach the Germans to love again, and to share their testimony of faith to the whole world. In the falling action, she tells the readers about her miraculous release from Ravensbruck, the encounter with the former …show more content…
As she gives a detailed description of her feelings when she is faced with the struggle to forgive the former Nazi prison guard, she mentions the Christian perspective of forgiveness that prompted her to forgive. This ties into the scripture in Romans 5:5, which mentions that the Holy Spirit has been “given to us that the love of God will be shed abroad in our hearts”(The Holy Bible). When she says, “Jesus, I prayed, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness...my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me”(Corrie ten Boom 220). This creates an emphasis on how we can forgive and allows the readers to see that Corrie was not moved by her emotions but the power of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, she argues that “we can trust God not only above our emotions but also above our thoughts”(Corrie ten Boom 221). Therefore, Corrie wants the readers to become aware that the power to forgive our enemies comes from God.
In conclusion, Corrie’s autobiography contained a variety of features that made her message clear throughout the book. The narrative structure was organized in a way in which it gave a detailed description of the events of her personal experience. Additionally, Corrie’s use of several themes such as faith and forgiveness leaves readers with a clear message that
Like any other narrative, she uses the elements of a rising action, climax, and a falling action to provide the readers with a more realistic depiction of the struggles and hardships she was facing. In the rising action, she sets up the story by providing the background of her life in Beje and her involvement with aiding the Jews. At this point, she responds with faith to the difficult moral dilemmas that she is faced, such as being loyal to the state and being honest. She then presents the conflict in the rising action where she is faced with instances where she has to risk her life to protect the Jews. By adding such instances, she is able to show the readers the first-hand experience of how she showed love to the Jews who desperately needed help and trusted God’s faithfulness. Then the story builds up towards the climax where the Nazi police caught her and the rest of her family members and sent them to a concentration camp. In the climax of her story, she starts out with her experiences in the Nazi concentration camp until the death of her sister to emphasize Betsie’s wish for her to build a house for former prisoners, teach the Germans to love again, and to share their testimony of faith to the whole world. In the falling action, she tells the readers about her miraculous release from Ravensbruck, the encounter with the former …show more content…
As she gives a detailed description of her feelings when she is faced with the struggle to forgive the former Nazi prison guard, she mentions the Christian perspective of forgiveness that prompted her to forgive. This ties into the scripture in Romans 5:5, which mentions that the Holy Spirit has been “given to us that the love of God will be shed abroad in our hearts”(The Holy Bible). When she says, “Jesus, I prayed, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness...my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me”(Corrie ten Boom 220). This creates an emphasis on how we can forgive and allows the readers to see that Corrie was not moved by her emotions but the power of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, she argues that “we can trust God not only above our emotions but also above our thoughts”(Corrie ten Boom 221). Therefore, Corrie wants the readers to become aware that the power to forgive our enemies comes from God.
In conclusion, Corrie’s autobiography contained a variety of features that made her message clear throughout the book. The narrative structure was organized in a way in which it gave a detailed description of the events of her personal experience. Additionally, Corrie’s use of several themes such as faith and forgiveness leaves readers with a clear message that