Literary Analysis: Example Paper

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Professor Amano-Tompkins

English 100

15 October 2019

City of Thieves

    War brings about a lot of physical and emotional destruction upon a society and makes people act differently. There is something about war that brings people together and a sense of comfort that is found in complete strangers. In the novel City of Thieves, the author David Benioff tells the story of two young boys on the search for a dozen of eggs all while dealing with the war between the Soviet Union and Germany. Along the way, they meet various people and deal with tragic life changing events. In the beginning of the novel, Lev is this scared shy little boy, but throughout the novel begins to develop into a young man as a result of Kolya’s experience and knowledge, his father’s death, and Kolya’s death. 

Kolya helps Lev develop as a young man through the knowledge and experiences he has faced. When Lev tells Kolya that he likes Vera he responds with, “Fine, you think you like her because she doesn’t like you. It’s very understandable, but I’m telling you, you don't like her. Let’s forget about Vera” (Benioff 45). Lev is still very immature at this point of the novel. He is still insecure and unsure about the feelings he has for Vera and seems to like her merely because Vera is the only girl Lev has ever known. On the other hand, Kolya is aware of Lev’s true feelings and lets him know. Because Lev has never been with a girl before he is unable to grasp this concept of love and therefore, does not know how to love a woman. Kolya acts as an older brother to him and offers wise advice and allows him to forget about Vera instead of romantically fantasizing about her. Another example would be when Kolya allows Lev to see his cards which “each presented a different photographed woman, some naked, some wearing garter belts and lace corsets, their heavy breasts tumbling from their cupped hands, their lips slightly parted for the camera” (Benioff 137). Since Kolya has slept with many girls and has experience in the way it must be done, he advises Lev since he has never slept with a girl, let alone be with one. He allows for Lev to be more confident in who he is and converts him from being a shy boy. By allowing Lev to see his cards allows for Lev to become more familiarized with a woman’s body and learn more about sex, which is something very important for him since he is at that age where it is experimental. Moreover, Kolya advises Lev and tells him, “Listen, Lev, after this is over tonight, promise me you’ll talk to your little calf. Don’t run away like the shy boy you are. I’m very serious about this. She likes you. I saw her looking at you” (Benioff 137). Because Kolya has been with many women before, he is aware of the fact that the girl from the farmhouse likes Lev. With this acknowledgment, he pushes and encourages Lev to go talk to her, although he does not know how because he has never been with a girl. Kolya motivates Lev to step out of his shell and acts as a brother and role model to Lev. With Lev’s friends at the Kirov, he was so used to just running and playing around with them, but with Kolya he really has a deep connection with him and is able to have these conversations about sex and maturity and that really shows how he is growing up as he moves on from being unaware of the world around him to talking about more deeper stuff about the world.

Additionally, the death of Lev’s father has helped mold Lev into the young man that he is. In the beginning of the novel, when Sonya and Kolya bring up Lev’s father, Lev responds with “Don’t ever tell me to be proud of my father”(Benioff 92). Lev seems bothered by the fact that Sonya and Kolya bring up the name of his father and gives them an attitude for it. Because he still has not matured yet at this point of the novel, Lev is still afraid to talk about his father although he was a very good and talented man. However later on in the novel, when Vika brings up Lev’s father, he is able to talk about him. For example, “Because of my father. I realized she didn’t know what happened to my father, so I added quietly, They took him” (Benioff 236). Lev was not really expressive when it came to talking about his father, but it is something that Kolya has helped him learn. Prior to meeting Kolya, he would bottle up everything that was inside him and became very secretive about his father, however when Kolya mentioned Lev’s father’s name, Abraham Beniov, he was finally able to accept his father’s death. This acceptance and understanding that everyone is going to die truly depicts Lev growing up and developing into a young man because he is able to fathom the inevitability of death.

The death of Kolya has played a part in the development of Lev as a young man. Lev says, “If I had been alone, I would have stared at those ruins for hours without comprehension. The Kirov was my life” (Benioff 68). Lev is still not able to fully comprehend the fact that his home was ruined. He does not know how to handle the fact that his friends whom he has grown up with are probably dead. This demonstrates the fact that Lev still has not grown up in the beginning of the novel because he does not know how to handle death and seems to not be accustomed to the normalities of war, death. However, at the end of the novel when Kolya is breathing his final breaths, Lev stares at Kolya and saw him “open his eyes, those pale blue Cossack eyes, and smiled at me. We both knew he was going to die” (Benioff 251). After everything he had just experienced in the war, Lev is finally accustomed to the idea of death so when Kolya dies he is able to cope with it and understand that it’s a normal part of life. The difference in how he reacted to Vera and the Antokolsky twins’ death and Kolya’s death demonstrates how Lev has matured and developed into a young man because he is able to grasp this understanding of death. 

To conclude, Lev was a cowardly young boy at the beginning of the novel, however that all changes throughout the novel. Kolya’s experiences and knowledge he gave to Lev, his acceptance of his father’s death and Kolya’s death have all played an important role in shaping Lev into a mature young man.