36 pages • 1 hour read
Władysław SzpilmanThe Pianist
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1946A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Musical Transcendence
Music is a transcendent object throughout this memoir. It represents salvation, both figuratively and literally. On a figurative level, music allows Władysław and other characters in the memoir to ascend above their day-to-day existence and maintain a sense of identity. During the siege of Warsaw, an elderly woman insists on playing her piano every day: “No air raids or shelling could induce her to go down to the shelter instead of doing her daily two hours of piano practice before lunch” (37). Here, music allows her to retain her sense of self. So, too, does Władysław use music as an activity that allows him to connect to his artistic identity. Even when he and his family are relegated to the ghetto, Władysław still practices his passion and profession by playing in the cafes. This daily routine allows him to feel like a musician and artist. When Władysław no longer has access to the piano, he still maintains his bond to music by going over his compositions in his head. Here, he connects to all the music he has played throughout his lifetime. It is this type of psychic bond to his passion that allows him to endure the months of isolation before the end of the war. As the Germans attempt to rob the Jews of their identity and humanity, Władysław and other characters resist by connecting to music that transcends all these acts of degradation.
Not only does music keep Władysław mentally stable, but it also physically aids him throughout the war. Even though Władysław is not wealthy, his role as a pianist allows him entry into the intelligentsia, thus buying him some social clout within the ghetto.When Władysław is about to go to his death on the train to Treblinka, a policeman shouts, “’Here! Here, Szpilman!’ A hand grabbed me by the collar, and I was flung back out of the police cordon” (105). Because he is a recognizable musician, he is spared his family’s fate. Finally, when Władysław is in hiding in the abandoned city of Warsaw, the German soldier Wilm Hosenfeld catches Władysław raiding an abandoned kitchen, and instructs him to play the piano. Władysław notes,“I had to buy my life by playing the piano!” (178). Instead of turning Władysław in, Hosenfeld aids him and helps him survive through the duration of the war.
Nazism
The Germans inflict a host of injustices against the Jews in Poland, all of which are aimed at enforcing a very clear master-slave dynamic. Some of these injustices are aimed at subtly chipping away at the Jews’ sense of humanity and dignity.An early German decree states that, “men of Jewish descent must bow to every German soldier” (49). In this way, the Germans emphasize the reigning power dynamic—Jews are lesser and must show respect to their overlords. They also decree that Jews must wear an arm band with a Star of David sewn in. In this way, they mark the otherness of the Jews, separating them from the rest of the population. One of the more overtly humiliating unofficial practices is forcing the Jews to dance in Chłodna Street. At this busy traffic intersection, “German guards were bored at their posts here, and tried to amuse themselves as best they could” (66). They forced the Jews to appear ridiculous in an attempt to humiliate them for their own amusement.
The enforcement of injustice and this power dynamic has, of course, many overt and physical iterations. At the outset, the German’s ultimate agenda is not clear to the Jews. It starts by making the Jews move from their homes to the ghetto and forcing the Jews to divest themselves of their wealth, wherein “A Jewish family could keep no more than two thousand złoty at home” (45). Here, the Germans remove the Jews’ home base and security. As time goes on, Jews are forced to labor for the Germans and are subjected to many harsh working conditions.The Germans make the Jews their physical slaves, reinforcing this powerdynamic. The German end goal is total extermination of the Jews—a totalizing expression of their initial dynamic.
Injustice Within the Jewish Community
While the Germans perpetuate injustices upon the Jews, another dynamic of injustice occurs within the Jewish community itself. The author frequently criticizes the power dynamic that exists between wealthy and poor Jews. The large ghetto is very crowded and populated by poor Jews, while the small ghetto is less crowded and filled mostly with affluent Jews. As Władysław plays piano for the wealthy clientele of the cafes in the ghetto, he notes, “A sea of Jewish misery washed around the small islands of relative prosperity represented by the Jewish intelligentsia and the luxurious life of the spectators” (16). While some Jews enjoy themselves in the cafes, right outside are those who suffer greatly. When a typhus epidemic breaks out in the ghetto, “The poor simply wondered when they would die of it, while the rich wondered how to get hold of Dr. Weigel’s vaccine and protect themselves” (17).There is little interplay between these two groups, with the wealthy only caring about their own comfort.
The wealthy class of Jews also has more political sway with the Germans, thus associating themselves with the dominant player in the larger community.Young men from wealthy families are encouraged to join the Jewish Police force, and “You could have said, perhaps, that they had caught the Gestapo spirit” (77). They act like Germans and seek to ingratiate themselves with the Germans, a tendency the author strongly criticizes, seeing it as a betrayal of the Jewish community. So, too, when the Germans begin sending Jews away to the camps, “the families of prominent personalities in the Jewish community bought their freedom from the supposedly incorruptible Gestapo officers on the spot” (117). Thus, with money, Jews can be more like Germans. The author depicts this as an extreme injustice made the worse by betraying one’s own community.
