History 2

History–Historical Analysis Of Jerzy Kosinski’s The Painted Bird Essay, Research Paper

The Painted Bird

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An obscure village in Poland, sheltered from ideas and

industrialization, seemed a safe place to store one¹s most precious

valuable: a 6-year-old boy. Or so it seemed to the parents who

abandoned their only son to protect him from the Nazis in the

beginning of Jerzy Kosinski¹s provocative 1965 novel The Painted Bird.

After his guardian Marta dies and her decaying corpse and hut are

accidentally engulfed in flames, the innocent young dark-haired,

dark-eyed outcast is obliged to trek from village to village in search

of food, shelter, and companionship. Beaten and caressed, chastised

and ignored, the unnamed protagonist survives the abuse inflicted by

men, women, children and beasts to be reclaimed by his parents 7 years

later–a cold, indifferent, and callous individual.

The protagonist¹s experiences and observations demonstrate that the

Holocaust was far too encompassing to be contained within the capsule

of Germany with its sordid concentration camps and sociopolitical

upheaval. Even remote and ³backward² villages of Poland were exposed

and sucked into the maelstrom of conflict. The significance of this

point is that it leads to another logical progression: Reaching

further than the Polish villages of 1939, the novel¹s implications

extend to all of us. Not only did Hitler¹s stain seep into even the

smallest crannies of the world at that time, it also spread beyond

limits of time and culture. Modern readers, likewise, are implicated

because of our humanity. The conscientious reader feels a sense of

shame at what we, as humans, are capable of through our cultural

mentalities. That is one of the more profound aspects of Kosinski¹s

work.

It is this sense of connectedness between cultures, people, and ideas

that runs through the book continuously. While the ³backward²

nonindustrialized villages of Poland seem at first glance to contrast

sharply with ³civilized² Nazi Germany, Kosinski shows that the two

were actually linked by arteries of brutality and bigotry. Both

cultures used some form of religious ideology to enforce a doctrine of

hate upon selected groups whom they perceived to be inferior.

Totalitarian rhetoric and Nietzschian existentialism replace a hybrid

of Catholicism, which in turn replaces medieval superstition as the

protagonist is carried from the innards of village life to the heart

of totalitarian power.

In the first several chapters of the novel the little protagonist is

firmly convinced that demons and devils are part of the tangible,

physical world. He actually sees them. They are not mythological

imaginings confined to a fuzzy spiritual world. They are real, and he

believes the villagers¹ insistences that he is possessed by them. The

peasants use these superstitious beliefs to enforce a doctrine of hate

upon the boy. Even their dogs seem to believe in this credo, chasing,

biting, and barking at him as if a viciousness towards dark-haired

boys is programmed into their genetic makeup.

The text of the villagers¹ behavior reads like a gruesome car

accident on the side of the road at which one cannot help but crane

one¹s neck. It is both repulsive and compelling; one reads in a state

of disbelief and horror. The cruelty, moreover, isn¹t limited to Jews

and Gypsies. Anyone getting in the way is targeted. The rule of weak

over strong prevails and justifies any actions taken against those

unfortunate enough to incite anger.

A stirring example of this phenomenon is when the protagonist

witnesses a jealous miller gouging out the eyes of his wife¹s ³lust

interest,² an otherwise innocuous 14-year-old plowboy whose only sin

was in staring too fixedly at a woman¹s bosom:

³And with a rapid movement such as women used to gouge out the rotten

spots while peeling potatoes, he plunged the spoon into one of the

boy¹s eyes and twisted it.

³The eye sprang out of his face like a yolk from a broken egg and

rolled down the miller¹s hand onto the floor. The plowboy howled and

shrieked, but the miller¹s hold kept him pinned against the wall.

Then the blood-covered spoon plunged into the other eye, which sprang

out even faster. For a moment the eye rested on the boy¹s cheek as if

uncertain what to do next; then it finally tumbled down his shirt onto

the floor.²

The peasants¹ behavior demonstrates that Hitler simply harnessed

preexisting attitudes. Even Poland, seemingly neutral and exploited as

it was, absorbed distrustful attitudes toward Jews and Gypsies and

felt no qualms about taking aggressions out violently o

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