Literary+Elements+Lizzy+Schauer

Literary Elements

﻿Setting: This story takes place during World War ll. (1930's - 1940's). This book takes you throughout Europe. This includes Veince, Italy towards the beginning of the book, the Ukrain and other parts of Germany for most of the book, and towards the end of the book- Romania.

Main Characters: The main characters in __Stones in Water__ are Roberto and Samuele (Enzo). -Roberto is a 14 year old Catholic boy. He learns how to surive on his own after Samuele dies. Even though Samuele is not physically with him, Roberto feels Enzo's presence though what he has taught Roberto on how to survive and through the stories he has told Roberto every night, which he tells to himself and eventually to others. -Samuele is also 14 years old, but he is a Jewish boy. In order to protect his identity as a Jew, he is called Enzo by his friend Roberto at the work camp. Roberto also gives him a saint necklace to help Enzo seem like a Catholic boy.

Plot: Conflict is an important part in the plot. Conflict helped move the story forward and keep the reader interested in the book. There is 3 types of conflict in this book - Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, and Man vs. Society.

The Man vs. Man conflict is Roberto vs. Truck drivers. Towards the end of the book, Robeto jumps into the back of a truck. The truck drivers chase after him. The two are running after Roberto. Roberto sees a shrub and dives underneath it. The truck drives try to look for him, but they don't find him. When he dived down, he ended up bumping his head against a boat. He used this to paddle his way back to Italy, only to find out that a soldier tells him by force with a gun to paddle to Romania.

The Man vs. Nature conflict is Roberto vs. the cold weather. Roberto has to keep warm in 0 below weather with only what the soldiers supplied him with. Roberto only had 2 potato sacks, boots, a short sleeved shirt, and pants. He manages to do with only this until he loses one of the blankets becuase a wolf took it. About a day later, he found a town that had been raided by soldiers and a little boy about 7 or 8 years old. The two helped each other out including making meals (Roberto) and finding warmer clothes (little boy).

The Man vs. Society conflict is Roberto vs. World War ll and everything in it (including the soldiers). Roberto has to follow the soldiers orders - he is forced to build runways for planes, eat only a slice of bread a little meat to last an entire day. Later in the story, he decides to stand up against unfair treatment. He decides he will help stop the Germans from winning the war. He stands up against society to try to overrule the decisions of most of the rest of the country even though he knows he may get killed.

As you can see, these conflicts help to move the story foreward by creating smaller conflicts in themsevles. One conflict leads to another creating suspense in the story that wants the reader to keep reading.

Theme: ﻿One leitmotif in this book is courage. We all say, "That takes a lot of courage," but do we really know what that means? In this story we can tell what this means. Courage means persevering when many are being persecuted. Courage means standing up for what is wrong. Courage means giving a small gift to someone even though you know you could be killed doing it. In __Stones in Water__, all of these events are present. In almost all of this book, persevering is present. Roberto goes day after day, seeing people getting shot and killed. Towards the end of the book, Roberto decides to stand up against the Germans in World War ll. He decides to help prevent the Germans from winning the war. In the middle of the book, he gives a starving little girl eggs to eat. He sacrifices eating raw eggs instead of boiled ones so the little girl can eat. This is how courage is present in __Stones in Water.__