Tow #12 - Ten Green Bottles Analysis

Ten Green Bottles is the story of Nini Karpel's struggles as she told it to her daughter Vivian so many years ago.  To Nini Karpel, growing up and getting raised in Vienna during the 1920s was a romantic confection. Whether schussing down ski slopes or speaking of politics in coffee houses, she cherished the city of her birth. But in the 1930s an undercurrent of conflict and hate began to seize the former imperial capital. This struggle came to a start when Adolf Hitler took possession of neighboring Germany. Anti-Semitism, which Nini and her friends believed was impossible in the socially advanced world of Vienna, became widespread and virulent. The Karpel's Jewish identity suddenly made them foreigners in their own homeland. Tormented, disenfranchised, and with a broken heart, Nini and her family sought refuge in a land seven thousand miles across the world. Shanghai, China, one of the few countries accepting Jewish immigrants, became their new home and refuge. Stepping off the boat, the Karpel family found themselves in a land they could never have imagined. Shanghai presented an incongruent world of immense wealth and privilege for some and poverty for the masses, with opium dens and decadent clubs as well as rampant disease and a raging war between nations Ten Green Bottles is the story of Nini Karpel's struggles as she told it to her daughter Vivian so many years ago. This true story depicts the fierce perseverance of one family, victims of the forces of evil, who overcame suffering of biblical proportion to survive. It was a time when ordinary people became heroes. The author of Ten Green Bottles uses the idea of family in the story to emotionally impact her readers, whom have all presumably have family they love. The story is about a close family sticking it out when times get tough. The author also argues an argument of value. the author’s argument (from reading the book) is that even when times get bad, and the world seems to fall apart around you, family is what is important and no matter what you are doing or where you are, if you have family everything will be ok.