The Storyteller
Connecting to Greek Mythology
Summary
This story is about three people whose lives cross paths when an elderly man named Josef asks a young woman in his grief group to kill him. Sage, the young woman, is a baker in a local bakery. Josef and Sage's grandmother, Minka, share a dark history during the Holocaust of World War Two.
Character Connections
Minka's personal underworld
Minka resembles Persephone when she was forced to go to an underworld of her own when she is brought the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.
Adam And Sage
Adam is like Zeus when he cheats on his wife and has an affair with Sage.
Josef
Josef is like Hades when he tortures and kills innocent people.
Nazis
The Nazis are much like hell hounds and demons. They bring hell upon whomever they cross.
Plot Connections
The Concentration Camps
The concentration camps and death walks Minka suffered through are similar to the underworld. there is fire and the air smells like death. There are people who suffer endlessly in both the underworld and the concentration camps.
Josef's death plea
Josef acts like Hercules does when he asks Sage to kill him. Both men regret the horrible things they have done, and see death as the only way out.
Reiner and Franz
Reiner is a SS soldeir who killed thousands of innocent people. His brother Franz watched as he choked to death on a cherry. Franz thought Reiner deserved it. Like the brothers, Hercules killed his family in a sudden rage.
Auschwitz
Minka's trip to the Underworld
Josef
What Josef's SS uniform would have looked like
Franz and Reiner
What the Nazi brothers would have been like.
Excerpt
Storyteller 2 by MaeganHanlon
Personal Review
The Storyteller is now my favorite book. It was very good and heartbreaking at the same time. The way the four stories weave together are brilliant. Minka and Josef's stories were graphic, but other than that it was great book to read. The horrors described made it easy to connect to Hades and other aspects of Greek Mythology. I don't recommend this book to someone younger than high school age.