The Wall: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Wall: Analysis of Major Characters" delves into the complex lives and struggles of individuals in the Warsaw ghetto during a time of intense persecution. Central to the narrative is Noach Levinson, a ghetto archivist whose intellectual fervor and commitment to preserving Jewish memories transform him into a vital chronicler of his community. Dolek Berson emerges as a jovial yet responsible leader of the resistance, using his skills to unite and inspire fellow ghetto inhabitants against their oppressors. Rachel Apt, despite her physical unattractiveness, rises to a leadership role through her selflessness and motherly instincts, becoming a crucial figure in the Jewish Fighter Organization. Other notable characters, such as Halinka Apt Mazur and Mauritzi Apt, illustrate varying responses to the ghetto's harsh realities, from flirtation with power to desperate attempts at survival. The narrative also highlights the resilience and resourcefulness of individuals like Pavel Menkes and Rutka Mazur Apt, who contribute significantly to the resistance despite facing immense personal loss. Overall, the character analyses provide a poignant reflection on themes of survival, identity, and solidarity in the face of adversity.
The Wall: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: John Hersey
First published: 1950
Genre: Novel
Locale: Warsaw, primarily the ghetto sector
Plot: Historical
Time: November, 1939, to May, 1943
Noach Levinson, a ghetto archivist and historian, the “re-corder” of the events of the novel. A small man in his early forties, Levinson is a messy-haired, intense intellectual whose face is dominated by eyes made large by the magnification of steel-rimmed glasses. At times, the self-educated former shoemaker is cynical, even bitter, about his poor family background, unattractive appearance, and lack of ties to his fellow humans. He eventually finds human warmth and happiness, however, in the extended family of the ghetto. Levinson comes to serve as both the eyes and ears of the Warsaw Jewry, for he not only writes about what he sees but also listens unselfishly to those who need a sympathetic ear. With his fervor for Jewish literature and sense of conviction, he comes to be regarded as the ghetto orator as well. As the Nazi atrocities intensify and Levinson becomes monomaniacal about preserving the archives, he finally becomes the very creator of Jewish memories and thoughts. The ultimate turnaround in the character of the scholarly Levinson comes when, inspired by dedicated young Jews, he fights as a soldier of Israel. Then, almost a year after escaping through the sewers to safety, Levinson dies of pneumonia.
Dolek Berson, a thirty-two-year-old, jovial, talkative drifter who becomes a highly responsible leader in the Jewish resistance. A big and gentle but impatient man and a gifted pianist, he has reacted against his parents' demands for his high personal achievement as a way of meeting the German threat. Instead, he has restlessly followed a number of occupations, moved for a time with a company of tramps, and finally settled down to a life of ease and prosperity with his beautiful wife, Symka, on his patrimony. As Nazi pressures increase, he works first as a bricklayer on the construction of the wall and then as a ghetto policeman. Gradually aligning himself with the radical resistance movement, he becomes firm, purposeful, and self-motivated. He proves to be a genius at finding safe routes and hiding places and at maintaining lines of communication within the ghetto. As coordinator of such networks, Berson is equally esteemed by all factions of ghetto Jews as a humane genius who meticulously serves humanity. His bold defiance of his captors with guerrilla concerts on the concertina inspires his compatriots with a will to survive even as he is inadvertently left, after their rescue, to die in the sewers.
Rachel Apt, a serene, intelligent, and well-proportioned young woman who, in spite of her ugly, parrotlike face, with its large nose and eyes set close together, rises to a position of leadership in the Jewish community because of her competence and boldness. Before the Warsaw ghetto years, she is totally overshadowed by her beautiful sister, Halinka Apt Mazur, whom their father obviously favors. After being painfully separated from her young brother, David, Rachel experiences a brief period of vacillation and moodiness before finding a housemother position, in which she can fulfill her instinct for mothering. Once she goes into underground work, she is dubbed “Little Mother” of the Jewish Fighter Organization (Z.O.B.). Admired for her modest, fearless, kind, and selfless spirit, she sets the emotional tone for the whole group. As a group commander, she plays a profound role in the resistance. Near the end of the ghetto period, she has an affair with the widower Dolek Berson that gives her a sense of freedom and happiness that, because of her ugly face, she might never have known under more pleasant circumstances.
Halinka Apt Mazur, the beautiful, fragile, and flirtatious daughter of a wealthy Jewish defector. She is attracted to men of power but marries a strong, handsome youth, Stefan Mazur, who is a Jewish ghetto policeman. After becoming a courier for the resistance and the mistress of the Hashomer leader, Zilberzweig, she suddenly ages and hardens in her will. Once dependent and submissive, she becomes obdurate in dangerous work outside the ghetto.
Mauritzi Apt, a prominent Jewish jeweler and art collector who attempts to buy favor for his children and finally escapes from the ghetto himself after undergoing plastic surgery to reverse his circumcision.
Pavel Menkes, a forty-year-old, tall, somewhat rotund, and jovial Jewish baker who devotes his services to the underground late in the resistance movement and dies fighting with the Z.O.B.
Rutka Mazur Apt, a Jewish courier on the Aryan side who gives birth to a son, Israel, in an underground bunker. A resourceful, lively, and optimistic woman, she retains hope for the survival of Jewry even after her baby is smothered in the bunker by a Z.O.B. leader because he cannot be quieted at a crucial moment.
Symka Berson, the attractive, delicate wife of Dolek Berson. She barely hangs onto life for a long period after suffering a serious case of typhus, only to be betrayed to the police by the quota-seeking Stefan Mazur, a member of her own extended ghetto family.