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Written by fredward on February 8th, 2005

Has anyone read The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum?

Listen to this essay I have to write.. heres the question

“In great literature, no scene of violence exists for its own sake. Choose a work of literary merit that confronts the reader or audience with a scene or scenes of violence. In a well-organized essay, analyze the nature of the character’s villainy and show how it enhances meaning in the work.”

I’m deciding to respond to this essay in an unorthodox manner.. here’s what I have so far

In The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum by Heinrich Boll, the protagonist commits several acts of violence but does so with no passion. The emotional composition of the protagonist is subject to interpretation by each character. With the exception of The News, every character describes the protagonist, Katharina, as being very meticulous, levelheaded, intelligent, and resourceful. The fact that she maintains self-control even while committing these violent acts increases the intensity of that moment.
Violence is the one constant in this work that changes in delivery and meaning for each character that it meets. No character will commit a violent act of passion and receive a violent act of passion. Also, no character will commit a passionless violent act and receive the same. The only entity that will commit a violent act of passion and receive the same is The News. The reporters were not murdered because of who they were but who they represented. They were not responsible for tarnishing the name of Katharina Blum, the editors who demanded such high profits were. Having established that violence is a constant that unifies the characters in the book; the meaning of the violence can be found by analyzing each characters reaction to the violence subjected upon them.

so uhh. having gone in this direction it means I have to site every major characters reaction to violence? Ah I’m too tired to think straight.. *sigh*

I’ll finish it tomorrow morning

Oh. Beisel. If this is complete BS. Please tell me :)(

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