Boekverslag : Leon Uris - Exodus
De taal ervan is Nederlands en het aantal woorden bedraagt 2191 woorden.

Samenvatting
About the author
When the United States were hit by the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Leon Uris was a school-boy in Philadelphia. Immediatly he joined the Marine forces. The bloody fights at Guadalcanal and Tarawa made him to write his novels. He wrote several books. Here is a list of books he has written:

Battle cry 1953
The angry hills 1955
Exodus 1958
Mila 18 1961
Aemageddon 1964
Topaz 1967
Qb VII 1970
Trinity 1976
The Haj 1984
Mitla pass 1988
Redemption 1995

Summary
The book is divided in 5 parts:
- Book 1 Beyond Jordan
- Book 2 The Land Is Mine
- Book 3 An Eye for an Eye
- Book 4 Awake in Glory
- Book 5 With Wings as Eagles
The book counts 599 pages.

Book 1 Beyond Jordan
Mark Parker, a journalist comes to Cyprus to meet a woman, named Kitty Fremont. They are old friends but lost connection between eachother for a while. Now that they met eachother again they have a vague relationship. This is all playing in 1946. On cyprus there are several camps for jewish people who want to go to the promised land, Israel. Several Mossad Alyah beth agents are on Cyprus at that time. They are trying to make the refugees come to Israel, although that’s illegal. The British forces, under supervision of general Sutherland, are trying to withhold the jews from getting to Israel. Ari Ben Kanaan, a Mossad agent, makes a plan to get a lot of people to Israel. He wants Kitty to help him getting papers out of the children’s camp, and he wants Mark Parker to help him with a plan to demolish the British reputation. While this is happening the book switches to Karen Clement and her family in 1938. They want to get out of germany before the war starts. Karen’s father asks Ari Ben Kanaan to help him, but Ari can only help the father, who is a famous scientist, and one child of him. The father wants Karen to get out of the country. That happens. She is taken to Denmark, and lives there with a family. When the war is over she goes out to seek her family, who stayed in Germany during the war. She gets the prove that her father is still alive but that the rest of her family is dead. Now we are back in 1946 where she leads a child-group. She gets the message that she can part to Israel. She gets caught when her ship lands on the coast of Palestina, so she is transported to the prisoners camps on Cyprus. A special relationship between Kitty and Karen builds up.


English Portfolio 1998-1999


In the camp is a boy named Dov Landau, Karen is the only one who can reach him in his misery, and when a ship is ready to part to Israel, he wants Karen and him on the list.
In chapter 22 the book switches to Warschau in 1939. The ghettos are a fact and the life in the ghetto’s is described until the end of the war. Dov Landau is the only one alive from his family and he travels to the camp Caraolos. From there he can board the ship Exodus with karen. The jews made a good plan to let the Exodus be discovered by the British forces. The childs on the Exodus don’t eat until they are let free to travel to Israel. The British forces have no choice but let them go. This is a major step to the freedom of the jews.

- Book 2 The Land Is Mine
The happenings in 1884 are described. There are two brothers, named Jossi and Yakov Rabinsky. They are jews in Russia. After they have committed a “crime” against an anti-semitist they have to flee. They decide to walk to Eret’s Israel. After they have travelled a very long time they come there, and discover that their promised land isn’t as beatiful as they thought. The first Alyah is described, as well as the second and third. Yakov changes his name to Akiva and Jossi changes his name to Barak Ben Kanaan. Yakov and Barak play a great part in the rise of Israel and the invention of the Kibbutz. Yakov is a very aggressive person and the two brothers get into a fight between eachother, after yakov has set up a group to fight their enemies. Barak Ben Kanaan gets a son, Ari, who grows up prosperous, and becomes a great leader. The British betray the jews and break all their promises. Kitty decides to go with the Exodus because she can be with Karen then. Book 2 ends with the coming of the Exodus in the harbor of Haifa.

- Book 3 An Eye for an Eye
Kitty is in Israel now, and she gets Ari to know more and more. Karen is very enthusiastic about their land, but Dov isn’t so glad he is there. Book 3 is especially about the relationships between Karen and Kitty, Karen and Dov and Kitty and Ari and his family. Yakov and his group are very busy, they destroy many English fabrics and installations. Karen’s father is found, but he is very sick. Karen wants to see him, but that becomes a big dissapointment for her. Her father became crazy and doesn’t recognize her. Dov doesn’t want Karen to stay in Israel for him, so he joins the illegal forces of Yakov. Dov becomes one of the bravest heroes of the Maccabees, under the name Little Giora. Now Dov is gone Kitty wants to go to America with Karen. They book their passage. One a day, Akiva and little Giora are caught in their headquarters. They are being locked up in the best guarded jail of Israel in Acre. The Maccabees make a plan to free them, Ari Ben Kanaan wants to help them with fighting. The freeing of Akiva and Little Giora is a succes, but Akiva dies in the truck, and there are more then 30 boys and girls dead in the fight to cover the escape of the two man. Ari is wounded badly, and Kitty and Karen come to give him medical care. Due to that they miss their flight. After a very emotional moment, Kitty decides to stay in Israel, she has falled in love with the country.

- Book 4 Awake in Glory
The United Nations have to decide about the problem of the unofficial state Israel. Every delegate of the countries that are with the United Nations must give their vote. The majority of votes are pro-jews, that means that the deviding as is proposed by the UN-commission is approved. The Arabian countries are very mad about this and they decide to start a war against the jewish population. The Arabian Nations fight side by side, and the Jewish people are in a great minority. Because of the good discipline and believe of the jews, they win the war, but the war has caused many deads and has demanded many sacrifices. When the war is over, there are many Arabian refugees, and the Arabian Nations try to incite the world because of the “poor” refugees.


English Portfolio 1998-1999


- Book 5 With Wings as Eagles
This is the part of the book in which Israel gets flooded by jews, this is the last Alyah. Barak Ben Kanaan dies in cause of cancer, and Ari tries to deny his feelings for Kitty. Dov is a very nice and pretty boy , and he is in love with karen. They wait for Karen to come for the pascha, which is a great feast. While it becomes clear that Kitty and Ari will come together, the message comes that Karen is killed. Dov and Kitty are very sad and they crie together. After a while Kitty searches Ari and she sees him sitting, also crying. Because he is very emotional now, he can explain that he really loves Kitty and that he can’t live further without her. Kitty knows her own feelings and they will become wife and man. Exodus ends with the reading of the Haggadah.

“Why is this night different from all other nights of the year?
“This night is different because we celebrate the most important moment in history of out people. On this night we celebrate their going forth in triumph from slavery into freedom”


English Portfolio 2000-2001
Extra Assignment
In this assignment I would like to let two persons in the book communicate with eachother by mail. The first person is Dov, the second one is Karen. These letters are written at the time that Dov has gone from the Kibbutz to join the Maccabees, and when karen has found her father who doesn’t recognize her. Dov wants Karen to believe that he doesn’t care for her anymore, so that she can go to America with kitty, where she has a better future than in Israel. I want to do this assignment because I think it’s very brave of Dov to let Karen go to America while he loves her very much.

Dear Karen,
I want you to know that I left the kibbutz because I got sick of all people there. Everybody in your village is peaceful and nice. It’s time that we fight for our rights, that’s why I’m going to look for someone to join the Maccabees. I don’t regret that I left, because in Gan Dafna I had no friends. I think it’s btter that you go to America, because this country is nothing for you. I think I’ll never see you again, and that’s good, because we don’t fit together. I hope that you will be happy in your further life.
Dov

Dear Dov,
Do you really mean al these things? This is frightening. We belong to the same country and the same race. We are jews. I don’t understand why you left Gan Dafna, but I’m sure you have your reasons. I really want to see you and I hope you will get your sense back. Please Dov don’t do this to me. I’m sure we’ll see eachother. I didn’t say this before, but I think I love you.
I’ll give this letter to Ari, I hope it will reach you.
Karen

Karen,
I think you do not understand my words. I already got a girl here, and she is very sweet. I don’t need you and you have to stay out of my life. The best thing you could do is to go to America, with Kitty. I joined the Maccabees now and I don’t have time for a silly girl like you.
Dov

Dear Dov,
I don’t understand you, we always had good times together. Why is this? I am feeling very miserable about it. But if you really mean what you wrote I will not write you anymore, maybe I will go to America with Kitty, she has proposed it to me. I don’t have anything to stay here for now, so I think that I will leave. Dov please write me back so I am sure about you. I love you
Karen

Dear Karen,
I’m sorry to say this, but you made the right decision. I wish you good luck in America, and I’m glad that you are safe when yo will arrive there.
Dov

At that time, Dov is taken prisoner, and is locked in jail. General Sutherland makes a visit of Karen to Dov possible. When Karen has contact with him, she sees that Dov still loves her, and she has to cry. Now she knows that everything he has said and written was a lie to make sure she was safe in America.


English Portfolio 2000-2001
Extra Assignment
In this assignment I will try to discover or explain what the motivation of the writer was to write this book. I will analyse the realisticness of the book too.
The writer, Leon Uris, has fought in the second world war for America. The bloody fights at Guadalcanal en Tarawa made him to write his first book. In his emotional development, he began writing more and more of what I would call “heavy stuff”. With the novel “Exodus” he accepted his jewishness. Because he was a jew, he was very interested in the becoming of the state Israel. In his book Exodus I noticed that the horrors that happened during the becoming of Eret’s Israel were not mentioned in detail, but they are shortly mentioned, because all these horrors will be forgotten soon or later. I think Uris wanted to mention the horrors, such as the Hitler-camps, but I don’t think he wanted to make the book full off self-compassion. I can understand that he began thinking about the jewishness and crimes that are done against the jews, and I admire Uris in making the book readable for people that have nothing to do with it.
The events in the book are realistic, they are true, but the adventures of the main characters are not really realistic. For example, Ari Ben Kanaan does the most wonderful stunts and it is obvious that these happenings did not happen the way it is described. As I reached the end of the book, I got aware of the fact that I learned a lot from this book. I now have an general idea about the Israeli’s and the terrorism that is still there.
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