Schindler's List Themes

This Study Guide consists of approximately 105 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Schindler's List.

Schindler's List Themes

This Study Guide consists of approximately 105 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Schindler's List.
This section contains 1,009 words
(approx. 3 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy the Schindler's List Study Guide

Virtue

In the opening pages of Schindler's List, Keneally says explicitly that it is the story "of the pragmatic triumph of good over evil" and of the story of a man who is not "virtuous" in the customary sense. Writing about evil, he goes on to say, is fairly straightforward, but it is more risky and complex to write about virtue. The hero of the novel, Oskar Schindler, is complicated because he seems to be at once virtuous and immoral. Schindler is married but keeps house with his German mistress and maintains a long affair with his Polish secretary. He is outgoing and generous but has even greater personal indulgences, including good cigars and cognac. He excels in profiting from shady dealings, procuring goods from the black market and bribing officials, through which he saves his workers' lives. From the beginning of the novel, Schindler seems to treat the...

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This section contains 1,009 words
(approx. 3 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy the Schindler's List Study Guide
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Schindler's List from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.