David's Glossary

Since I understood all of the terms and expressions used  in the novel, I decided to create a glossary of five words that would have been important to David.

Beauty: A quality in/of a living creature, place, or object that is pleasant of meaningful to a person. It can be a smell, a texture, a sound, an action, or a taste. "...a sea bluer than any sky he had ever seen...villages whose bright colours gleamed dazzlingly...trees with many changing tints of green, and over it all shone the warming sun..."-this is what David sees when he gets off the boat and onto the Italian coast.

Freedom: A state in which you are allowed to speak and do what you choose to do; not under the forced influence of someone else. " David tried to explain that he had to be on his way, but when he held out his hand for his clothes, the two little ones started jumping around him, laughing and shouting, "You can't have them! You can't have them! Not before you come home with us!"... David began to grow angry. They might be glad he had rescued the little girl from the fire, but that gave them no right to tell him what to do. Nobody had that right."-David deserved to do what he pleased, however the boys, even though they really didn't mean to, were taking away David's freedom to do so. "The farmer used threats to force David to work, and said he would hand him over to the police if he did not obey."-The farmer took away David's freedom to do what he pleased by threatening him.

Kindness: A considerate,  caring, or helpful action to a living creature, place or object. "With all of the speed he could muster he undid his bundle and took out his knife, picked up his wet clothes again...with one hand held his trousers up in front of his nose and mouth. Then he sprang into the fire. {to save Maria}"- David saved Maria from the fire out of the kindness of his heart, not expecting anything in return from her family.

Suffering: Misery, pain, or torture experienced by a living creature when they are hurt by someone or something, including death. "Yet the boy could not keep his hands off of them: his greatest pleasure was causing pain to a living creature."-The farmer's son was cruel to the animals.

Greed: The excessive desire to have more of something than is needed to live or to succeed-including money, food, power, etc. "What the boy doesn't know, he won't miss."- In other words, if you don't know about something, then you will never have an excessive want for it.

Reflection on Journal Entries

Here is my reflection on my journal entries. I wanted to write about some of the characters that we do not know much about in the story. I didn’t really want to write about David because we know enough about him by reading the novel. I decided to write about Maria and Johannes because their stories are wide open; I can create whatever story I want for them. This allows me to be a bit more creative and provide a look into their personalities and lives. Maria and Johannes are important characters in the novel: Johannes is David's mentor, and Maria is the one person other than the late Johannes who David feels comfortable with.

It took me a while to get the ideas for my journal entries. I wrote up whatever came to mind about Maria. I wanted to write about what she thought about David, because I didn’t know much about that while reading the novel. After I wrote it, I realized that I liked what I had written. I edited it and injected a bit more feeling into the journal, and ta-da! It was done.  Johannes’ journal was a bit more difficult. I considered writing about David and his interaction with Johannes in the camp.  Then I thought that writing about Johannes and his thoughts would be a bit more interesting, so I decided to write about that instead.

These journal entries relate to the story because they provide a more of a background for the characters. After reading them, you can understand Maria and Johannes better.

Quotations

Quotation One: All Suffering Has An End

“All suffering has an end, David, if only you wait long enough. Try to remember that. Sorrow has its life just like people. Sorrow is born and lives and dies. And when it’s dead and gone, someone’s left behind to remember it. Exactly like people.”- Sophie Bang, pp. 155.

I chose this quote because I think that it represents the events in David’s long journey to freedom. All of his suffering in the camp-watching people being killed, living in harsh conditions, etc., comes to an end when he finally finds his mother in Copenhagen. Throughout the novel, David’s sorrow is born, has its life, and dies, but he always remembers all of his old friends and things that happened long ago. At the beginning, he is in the camp, and is quite upset, always thinking about his dead friend Johannes. Some of his sorrow dies when the man tells him to escape, however he is still cautious about his actions. He always is careful while on the ferry and while travelling along the coast. When he finds a temporary home in Maria’s house, he is happy, joyful, and yet still cautious. At times, when he is with Maria, he forgets about his sorrow. Then he hears her parents talking about him, and realizes that he has to leave his comforts and Maria behind. His sorrow returns.  David then travels north, and meets Sophie Bang, who makes him a bit happier and tells him about his mother. David is filled with hope now that he has a goal to meet: finding his mother.

This quote is can be easily related to our daily lives. Sometimes we make mistakes and leave the wrong impression on someone or something. Sometimes we say things we don’t mean to say. Sometimes we mess up. Then we fix our problems, and maybe a week later, everything is normal again.  We have our ups and downs, but usually everything turns out alright. It also relates to feelings and memories. One week we may feel sad, because we didn’t do well on a test or had a fight with a sibling. The next day, we may suddenly feel good again, because the winds have blown in our favour, and there is something new to think about.

Quotation Two: David's Eyes

“Yes…And his eyes frighten me too. They’re the eyes of an old man, an old man who’s seen so much in life that he no longer cares to go on living. They’re not even desperate…just quiet and expectant, and very, very lonely, as if he were quite alone of his own free choice. Giovanni, a child’s eyes don’t look like that! There’s something wrong there. And his smile- if it weren’t so incredible, I’d be tempted to say he look as if he’d never smiled before he set eyes on Maria. He never smiles at the rest of us: he just looks at us politely and with dead earnestness, and when he smiles at Maria, it’s…”- Maria’s mother, Elsa, pp. 121 

I love this quotation: if you read between the lines, it describes David amazingly well, his thoughts, his likes, and feelings. David has seen so much in his life, and suffered and seen losses greater than any normal child should have to. He has seen what happens to people if they are greedy, selfish, or unkind. David is alone in life, and does not trust anyone, because he has been taught by Johannes that nothing good comes from trusting strangers. He is a quiet boy, caring and serious. He is no longer desperate; he understands that one should not be greedy, so he has trained himself to live on next to nothing. As for David's smile, it is truly what David would define as beautiful. He did not know how to smile when he was in the camp; this was not exactly a valued skill there. But I love the way he smiles at Maria: to me this represents friendship and hope. Maria was the only person other than the late Johannes that David actually started to trust-everyone else in her family he was extremely careful with what he said to them. As I have said time and time again, David has the mind of a man and the body of a boy. 

Maria's Journal, late 1949

I am writing this as tears drip from my eyes onto the paper. It is late at night, around one o'clock, and David has just left. All because of my parents and what they think about David. They knew I was completely happy, yet they had to make him go away. I was finally pleased to have someone other than my brothers to talk to. They just play around and scream and do stupid things. Yes, I love them, but I don’t think that they wouldn’t have saved me from the fire.  They were the ones who tied me up there in the first place! They are always playing games I don’t understand. I am always lonely, being the only girl. No one ever wants to do what I want to do. They don’t understand me.

I prefer David because he is quiet, yet joyful, and seems to know about everything. He is well-mannered and tells me about things my parents refuse to tell me. My parents don’t want me to know about the real world-how people die, suffering, fear, cruelty. I walk around the property and the park with him and show him fountains and flowers and different insects. I show him things inside the house too, like the fridge and our clean water taps, or our schoolbooks and our story books. David is usually amazed by the things I show him. He asks me lots of questions about what it's like to live in a rich family.

David also tells me about his adventures with the circus. I think there is more to him than just a circus boy; because I don’t think a circus boy would know this much about suffering and pain. He doesn’t seem to know any skills a circus boy would know, like juggling, or tightrope walking. He isn’t really sure-footed. Any time I try to talk about his past, David switches the subject and glances down to the ground a little. But I still enjoy spending time with him. He has made me develop a love for books and music by asking me to turn on the gramophone or read part of a page in a book.  I have finally found someone that is much more like me than my brothers.

The other day we were exchanging stories: he would tell me about things about different parts of Europe, and I would tell him what it was like to be a normal kid, or rather, a normal girl from a rich family. I told him about my last birthday party, where all of my friends came and I got tons of presents. He kind of frowned at that and told me about greed in a disappointed sort of fashion and how it works. I couldn’t really understand why he talked about greed in such a way. Then I told him about the museums my parents sometimes took my brothers and I too. David seemed very interested in that. He seemed to like art and how it was created, the messages of some paintings. He responded by talking about how they destroyed art and took it away and burned it. I couldn’t understand why any evil person would do that. When I asked David who they was, all he did was shake his head and ask to go listen to the gramophone. 

Then, last night, I heard my parents talking about David. They were saying things I definitely didn't agree with: his overall unnaturalness, and about his odd looking eyes, about the how David talks about suffering and pain. David over heard them just as well as I did, and decided to leave our house. I met him upstairs and tried to convince him not to go, but he was firm. I gave him my cross on a chain and made him promise to see me again. He gave me his beautiful   smile one more time then softly tiptoed out of the room. I do hope I see David again.

Johannes' Journal, late 1939

I am writing my life story in hope that someone finds this and understands what I and other children have been through.

I have only been here about a year, but yet I feel I know more about terror, fear, and death than the prisoners much older than I. This camp is torturous. They transport people off to who knows where, and the people never come back. Sometimes they kill people right at the camp. Innocent people, children even, my age! The guards and officers do not much give food to us, and the food they do give is terrible. What crime did I ever commit? Why did they have to kill my younger sister, while I watched on, unable to act? Why? I have looked for a way to escape, but I see none. I do not understand the language that they guards and officers speak. I do not even know where this camp is. All I know is that I don’t have too much longer to live, that I grow weaker by the day. Somehow, I am still clinging on to my life.

I was part of a upper-class family; my parents both had high positions in the government. When the war began, they made a bargain with some head officer guy they knew: keep my sister and I safe and healthy, and put them into different concentration camps. They didn’t want us to die or know the horrors of the real world. You can see how well that turned out. The man they made a bargain with was intercepted by his so-called friend who turned the three of us into some German man who had a higher position then them.  The man’s friend was greatly rewarded, but the man our parents had made a bargain with was killed, and we were dumped worthlessly in this camp.

Everyone in this camp says I’m smart and full of wisdom. I created a story for myself that I was from a poor family, so that I wouldn’t be asked questions about being rich and why I was in this camp. Somehow I understand that one day, I will die. Everyone does. I just wish that these cruel people wouldn’t speed up the process. Some people in the camp want to kill the guards—but then where would we be? I have convinced them not to, as if they did kill, how would we, the prisoners, be any better than the killers? I have also convinced every prisoner in the camp, that each morning, when they wake up, they should praise God and thank Him for another day. I taught them that each day could be their last, and that they should make the most out of every minute.

My spirit has not broken yet. There was a load of new prisoners transported in the day before last. I found a young boy in the mud, only about a year old, who seems strong and healthy. I plan to teach him everything I know-to read, to write, to speak several languages, and about God. I will teach him to be positive and have faith in the world. When I die, I want someone will be there to remember me. 

Images versus Text

Text can describe many things, how someone looks, their surroundings, their thoughts.  A visual can portray all of these things in a clearer and more exact way. A picture is worth a thousand words.  An author cannot write about all of the exact objects around someone at a given time; the book would become very dull if the author wrote very long descriptions.  For example, if Anne Holm described every piece of furniture in Maria’s house, yes, I would have had a very clear picture in my mind, but I probably would have given up reading the book.  In a colour picture, you can see every item clearly without having to read pages upon pages of descriptions. Pictures also show more feeling than text does. You can write, “The girl was very upset and she was crying very hard.” This is better shown by an image because the image will show the girl, her body language, and the overall feeling in the room. Also, through colours and tints in an image, you can sometimes see the general mood in the room.

Sometimes, descriptions are not very accurate. You may picture a character differently than the author or your teacher or your best friend. That’s fine, but a picture looks basically the same to everybody—everyone sees the same boy with the same expression and the same clothes.  All in all, text and pictures can display many of the same things, however, pictures are better for conveying emotion, surroundings and the general feel of a place or a person.

Character Pictures Two: Maria

Please see the picture of Maria below.

I think this image is a good representation of Maria because in the novel, I imagined her as a ten year old girl who loved to play games, read books, and have fun. In the image, she is standing in her living room, and smiling. Maria seemed like a playful and joyful child in the novel, always joining in her brothers' games. I also drew Maria looking right at you. To me this says that she is confident in her abilities. She was a good scholar in the novel; she knew her geography and history. In I Am David, she always wanted to listen to David. I think this is because David was willing to tell her what she wanted to know more: about the real world outside of her household. I also think Maria was lonely sometimes, being the only girl with four other brothers. She probably wanted to just interact with someone her age that didn’t just run around and play “Davy Crockett and the Indians”. 

If you look closely, Maria is wearing a cross around her neck. This is the cross that she gives to David as he is leaving. I drew a blouse and plain black skirt on Maria because these are the kind of clothes that daughters of rich parents would wear around this time.

Also, the background of the picture is from a magazine. It is a picture of a fancy Italian house, and when I sawit, I thought that it would help add more feeling and emotion to the picture of Maria.  To me, the picture provides a happy atmosphere, as it is well lit, and has lighter tones.

Character Pictures One: David

Here is my reflection about the picture below of David.

When I was reading the novel I Am David, I imagined David as a 12 year old boy with dirty blond hair, a largish nose, big ears, and grey, questioning, misty eyes. (Please pretend the boy in the top picture has blond hair.) I also thought that David, no matter how ragged his clothes and hair were, would always have a look of perseverance and determination on his face. I think that even the times in the novel when David was happy, like when he played games with the Italian children, his face still portrayed a solemn expression.

Mentally, David was much older than twelve, even though his body may have been that of a young boy. He didn’t understand how to be a kid (sometimes I can relate to this!) and just have some fun and relax. Also, he couldn’t grasp the concept that not everyone in the world is bad, creepy, etc. (though I don’t blame the kid for being paranoid), and that some people just want to help. What David did understand was the “meaning of life”. He understood that everybody had to die; no one lives forever.  He prayed to his God of the green pastures and rivers. He could read people, and in some cases know what they needed most. He understood suffering and pain, both physical and mental. Finally, he truly cared about the world and other living souls.

Note: I also found while searching on the Internet that I Am David was made into a movie.

Map of Central Europe and David’s Routes

The large map showing Central Europe should be below.The map of Bulgaria should be in the column.

The following is a map of central Europe in the modern day. By searching on the Internet, I found out that “Salonica” is just another name for Thessalonica, Greece (A).  With this information, I believe that the camp that David escaped from was most likely a smaller one in Bulgaria, since it says in the novel that it took David about five days to get there. The camps that were in Bulgaria were transit camps called Dupnitza and Gorna-Dzhumaya, (see map of Bulgaria) and either one could have been the camp that David was in.

From Thessalonica, David would have taken a long ship ride to Italy and most likely have landed somewhere near Taranto or Lecce (see map). I drew these lines showing David’s route because there are parts in the novel where David describes a peninsula and the coastline on his left side.  He also stops in Naples and Milan on his way northwest (he follows the coastline and position of the sun). Eventually he goes north into Switzerland, gets a ride to Frankfurt, and finally goes north to Copenhagen (København on the map), Denmark. 

As I am a visual learner, this helps me better understand how far David had to travel and the route he took to find his mother. The reason I included this map is because before seeing it, I didn’t really understand the route David took, I just knew the names of a bunch of cities and towns mentioned in the novel.  Using the scale, I think that David traveled about 2400 km on land and 1500 km by water (this is an approximation because I do not know exactly what routes he took).

Source: Google Maps. I searched “Salonica” and got “Thessalonica, Greece”.  Using descriptions from the novel, I thought about where the ship from Salonica may have landed, and then looked back through the novel to see towns that David passed through on his way to Copenhagen. I used Google Directions and the included scale for an approximation of David’s journey. The source I used to find the Bulgarian concentration camps was the Jewish Virtual Library. The images of the camp locations are from Google Maps and GeographicGuide.net. (please see my Works Cited lists below)