The world we live in is made up of many different societies and different people. The diverse nature of our world is what makes it so incredible. In fact, people improve themselves by becoming more accepting of others different races and different cultures. However, no one is perfect. Our opinions and perspectives can become tainted; people can become persuaded that certain people have lesser value than others. It is surprising how negative ideas spread from person to person even through whole societies. It is through literature that we can understand what social issues exist and what consequences can occur. One such problem that exists is stereotyping. Hana and Princess Elizabeth are excellent examples of girls whose novels are based around stereotyping. Stereotyping can be found in both these books. In the novel Hana's Suitcase, Hana is identified and cruelly discriminated because of her religion. Jewish people who were killed during the Holocaust were stereotyped based on their religion. Despite doing nothing wrong, their religion identified them as a problem. In The Paper Bag Princess, Robert Munsch reverses the prince and princess roles defying gender stereotypes where the prince normally rescues princesses. This feminist perspective empowers girls to be the hero in their own story. This essay will present how stereotyping is apparent in both The Paper Bag Princess and Hana's Suitcase the similarities and differences.
Hana was born into a Jewish family in Czechoslovakia her mother, her brother and her father lived a happy life in the town of Nove Mesto (Levine, 5). Hana's story is based on true events the real life story of what she experienced during the Holocaust. The political ideals that surrounded the Holocaust were cruel and saddening. Hitler believed the Jewish population were to blame for Germany's economic problems. As a result, he convinced an unbelievable amount of people that they were to be removed, annihilated completely. From then on, the Jewish people were seen as second-rate a lesser version of human, unworthy of pleasure or existence. A quotation by Hitler himself explains this ideology: "For us, it is a problem of whether our nation can ever recover its health, whether the Jewish spirit can ever really be eradicated" (Irving, 1978). These pre-conceived notions are how stereotypes start. It is easy to assume that if you know one you know them all; stereotypes are created when we assume everyone is alike. This type of judgment the Nazi's believed became known as the "Final Solution" a way to completely eliminate the Jews. It is apparent to the reader, the horrors of the holocaust through the telling of Hana's life. The story overall teaches us what happens when people judge and jump to conclusions; the Holocaust ruined Hana's life entirely.
Hana's Suitcase presents to the reader the damage stereotyping can do. The damage started off small and slow; Hana was no longer allowed at school, she couldn't go to parks...
