Entry Two- My First Read

Whats up again, this is Dylan D and I just read my first section of I Was There by Hans Peter Richter.  So far I have met the main characters and what their life is like on a daily basis.  Two boys named Heinz and the narrator who has not introduced his name so far are the lead roles of this epic story.  The narrator is a young boy who starts at age 9 and progresses to age 10 just in the first section.  I think the author does this to show how fast this Hitler Regime took power and how fast the citizens adjusted to it.  Heinz on the other hand it a couple years older which is implied throughout this section when the narrator says he is more mature and more of a leader among the local boys his age.  Heinz throughout the first section has taken the narrator "under his wing" meaning every time the narrator has a problem Heinz is there to help him.  So far you learn the two boys are raised as young people who are suppose to help Hitler and spread his teachings.  They both have a commander that is the main teacher of Hitler's views and the boys have to fulfill certain tasks to please their commander.  Everything in the book has been going fine but throughout this story there are problems with pleasing the commander and fulfilling the tasks they are presented with like selling stuff or marching throughout the town.

Well this book so far has pleased me with what I thought is was going to be which would be about the Hitler regime and the view point of the citizens who actually experienced this first hand.  This gives me a really good picture of the life they had and what they had to go through.  You can't get this with any other text book or a secondary source because it doesn't feel like your there.  With this book, the words and imagery of what the characters go through, show and not just tell what this area and time period looked like.  Also what really interested me was that the main character Heinz, was one of the sons of Hitler himself.  Apparently he doesn't live with him for a reason that wasn't explained yet but either way that is still really cool.  Hopefully I can find the answer but anyway, another thing that was cool was a summery of the months leading up to the elections in Germany in 1934.  The author describes the scene as awkward  especially when a protestor comes in and is removed by the authorities.  There is no explanation of what happened to him but we can only guess that he was "removed for good".

So for the first 45 pages it is pretty simple of how the book will progress.  The next chapter is The Jew and this can only mean that this is going to be the first time the author describes of what the new Germany does with the outlawed Jews.  I am guessing there is going to be violence here since this is the year the violence was at one of its highest.  But besides the next chapter, what I can tell by the characters is the narrator is going to stumble because Heinz cannot always pick him up when he messes up.  This is probably going to cause an escalating issue and can be a real story changer.  But really we have to wait and see.  So this is Dylan signing off, I will keep everyone posted for the next few weeks on how this book is and how much I have learned just by going along with the experience of the story.