In my Brother’s Shadow was written by Uwe Timm. To me, this book did not have the air of a memoir but that of a personal essay. It was very unorganized and not in chronological order. In my response paper I drew comparisons between this book and “Night” by Elie Wiesel because they both do not use chapter numbers. I believe this is intentional so the readers feel the same way Timm did when he lived his experiences; it makes time absent so no one knows when certain events occurred. One aspect of the text that I did not include in my paper was the constant shift between first and third person point of view as well as verb changes. For example, he was start writing with first person – “I…” – then he goes to third, “The boy…..” “He….” At first, I was confused because I wasn’t sure if he was talking about himself or his brother. Obviously, this was intentional or else he would not have included it. However, I think he does this to tell the reader that in his parents’ eyes, they no longer see him anymore they only mourn the death of his brother. Another aspect that stood out was his acceptance of the war and of his brother. He finally comes to terms with what his country has done and the atrocities that his brother may have committed. In his brother’s diary, it does not mention the killing of Jews or taking prisoners, but is it safe to assume he did not commit such acts or did he forget to write it down?
