Jewish Burden

After reading through the first half of "The Painted Birds" I have came to the conclusion that this novel is definitely fiction. It is extremely difficult to believe that so much misfortune could happen to anyone. The author may have put together a story of recollections of multiple people's past during the Holocaust, but this story is still so horrific that you cannot believe that any of these events happen to anyone. However after thinking about it, this novel does seem to have a connection with the history of the Jewish people. It reminded of how many times the Jewish people have been oppressed throughout history. Even though this story is not real, it has some real meaning to it. I think that Kosinski is trying to relate this boy to Jewish ethnicity as a whole. Throughout history, Jews have been continually mistreated by other nations who have are committed to other religions. In this story after each bad situation, he finds himself out of he ends up another one. Jewish people throughout history have had this same sort of sequence. Even today the people of Jerusalem who are mainly Jewish are having conflict with the Muslims and are being threatened by annihilation. Maybe this is not what Kosinski is trying to do at all, but it is something to think about.

http://www.jewishhistory.org.il/history.php?startyear=1940&endyear=1949