The Novel Analysis: Figurative Pieces by Anne Michaels (Essay Sample)

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23rd March 2016
Memory in Fugitive Pieces
The novel figurative pieces resemble a memoir courtesy of Jacob Beer. The novel is more of a narration of his life in the holocaust survival ordeal. Ben feels indebted having assisted him through the holocaust and understand his scarred parents. To be precise, the narration is about memories of the past and how both characters struggled to go through it. The novel seems to be divided into two main parts where the first part is about Jacob Beer going down memory lane how he escaped death narrowly by the Nazis. This part of the story ends when Jacob wrote his poetry. Time in this case was also split between the time he spent in Toronto, Canada and Ontario. The other part of his life is based on his life and how he coped with life after the World War II in Greece, the events that led to the deaths of his family and his education back at Greece (Michaels, 2009).
The memories of Jacob’s life and mysteries he experienced around the globe are represented in the story. According to this novel, Jacob was forced by circumstances of the World War II to travel to Canada from Greece where he settled down to have his education and finally became a translator. The memories of Jacob’s marriage life are presented in the story. Jacob’s first marriage failed, this happens after the tragic death of her sister. The death o his sister was difficult to handle. Jacob begins to write his poetry again after finding love from his second wife. The memory of the first part of the novel ends when Jacob and his wife moved back to Greece (Michaels, 2009).
The second part of the book is a narration by Ben a friend that met Jacob and his wife Michaela while in a party. Ben’s wife Naomi seems to have fallen in love with Jacob. Finally, Jacob dies in Athens and all that he left to Ben were memories of his poetry. Ben admits that Jacobs’s poetry assisted him in dealing with his own parents pains. Ben also has some memories as well about his growing up in a foreign home. Eventually, Ben decides to edit some of Jacobs’s poetry and published them. The aim of publishing his poetry was an attempt to link them with literature and history. Just like Jacob, Ben’s second marriage fails when he decided to travel to Idhra to salvage some of Jacob’s journals (Michaels, 2009).
The memory of Jacobs’s poetry gives Ben an understanding of how he could write horrors. The experiences that Jacob went through and the pains he had to endure from the Holocaust and the tragic death of his parents was a living proof. Ben hoped he would find love again from his abandoned wife. From these pieces, the novel is full of historical memories and imaginations captured in literary form. The memory of events that are not accounted for forms the basis of absorbing culture, home and family. The author attempts to exemplify a relationship between the realities and hardships experienced in 20th Century. The memory of these events attempts to understand how someone would survive through such devastating events (Michaels, 2009).
Jacobs’s life and the power of his memory are termed as the figurative pieces. The memories explain his cultural and moral grounds. The novel serves as a legacy for the life of Jacob and his accomplishments despite what he went through. It is for this reason that, Jacobs life and legacy his remembered in the 19th century through the memory of his compositions. Jacob is well known as the Holocaust survivor that captured his life and history in poetry. The story can also be termed as a fictional account of Jacobs’s life history and journeys. He is viewed as a hero and the only survivor in the family (Michaels, 2009).
The life of Jacob and his legacy is an account of hope and faith. This means that what he went through turned him into a poet. An account of Jacobs’s faith is presented when he is rescued by Athos Roussos. The accounts of this rescue made him believe that he could no longer fear darkness. Athos helped him go through his pains hence a source of encouragement to him. Jacob’s awful experiences were memorized through both realities and dreams. Jacob vividly remembered what he went through and he would ream of it daily. The memories of his rescue are based on Jacobs’s two prayers that accounts for his faith and love for humanity. Jacob prayed that his wife Michaela to conceive and have a child. Jacob’s second prayer was that the child born shall understand the miracle that his parents went through (Michaels, 2009).
The novel presents the memory of people celebrated by Jacob in his life as well. Jacob’s narration accumulates the memories of the people he interacted with in Greece, Canada and Toronto. The memory of losing his family is overcome by the memory of finding love again. The past memories are entangled in grief, trauma and guilt. This is a tragic memory where he witnessed the murder of his own family by German soldiers. Jacob seems to be guilty of having escaped the ordeal which made it difficult to understand what happened to his sister Bella. Jacobs used the words, “I couldn’t Keep out the Sound.” these words was a memory of what transpired that day (Michaels, 2009).
Jacob remembered vividly what happened to his parents when he was only 15 years. Jacob also remembered the days that followed after his escape, he says “the door breaking open (as the Germans burst into the house),” Although Jacob heard the sounds made during the murder of his parents, he did not recall that of her sister’s. Jacob was left to imagine his face as he painfully predicted what could have happened to her. The loss of his sister left him traumatic and emotional throughout his life. The death of his family left him guilty and shameful as well and to some extent, blaming himself for their deaths (Michaels, 2009).
The tragic deaths of his family members were a constant memory in his life. This is probably the reason why he would hesitate to enter doorways. In the back of his mind, Jacob was ushering in her sister first. The flashbacks related to the memory of her sister stack in his head everywhere he went. Jacob’s “black hair” was a symbol of his memories. Michaela’s love made it easier for Jacob ...