Yevtushenko's Babi Yar
Yevtushenko's Babi YarBabi Yar, a poem written by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, tells the story of the Nazi invasion into a small part of Russia, in which, throughout
the duration of World War II, over one-hundred thousand Jews, Gypsies
and Russian POW's were brutally murdered. However, what is unique
about this particular perspective is that the narrator is not a Jew,
but a mere observer who is aghast at the atrocities that took place
during the Holocaust. It is through allusions, as well as other
literary devices, that Yevtushenko elucidates caustically the
absurdities of the hatred that caused the Holocaust, in addition to
the narrator's identification with the Jews and their history of
oppression.
Perhaps, the most effective literary device used in "Babi Yar" is
the allusion. The first clear allusion seen in the poem is the one
concerning Egypt(line 6). This reference harks back to the Jews'
enslavement in Egypt before they become a nation. In line 7, the
narrator makes reference to how so many Jews perished on the cross.
The reason for these initial allusions in the first section is clear.
Yevtushenko is establishing the history of the Jewish people, being
one of oppression, prejudice, and innocent victims. The next illusion
in the poem is a reference to the Dreyfus Affair, a more modern
display of irrational and avid anti-Semitism. It is in the Dreyfus
affair that an innocent man is accused of espionage and is sent to
jail for more than ten years, notwithstanding an overwhelming amount
of evidence pointing to his innocence, simply because he is a Jew.
Yevtushenko uses these allusions to lead up to his referral to a
boy in Bielostok who is murdered by the Russian common-folk. Clearly,
The narrator is teaching a lesson with a dual message. Firstly, he is
informing the reader of the horrors that took place in Russia during
the Holocaust. Perhaps even more of a travesty, however, is the fact
that humankind has not learned from the past in light of the fact that
this "episode" is merely one link in a long chain of terrors.
Yevtushenko goes on to allude to Anne Frank, a young Jewish
teenager who left behind a diary of her thoughts and dreams,
and how the Nazis strip her of any potential future she has when she
is murdered in the death camps. Clearly, the allusion creates images
in the mind of the reader that mere descriptions via the use of words
could not.
Another effective literary device used in the poem is the first
person narrative in which the narrator identifies with those victims
which he describes. This is seen in the case where the narrator says
"I am Dreyfus", or "Anne Frank, I am she." The narrator does...
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