A Moment to Remember

It feels absolutely AMAZING to have finished all three of my novels, as well as three projects. You know what this means? Only one more project to go! And only one blog post, too! It really is exciting news that this marking period is coming to a close and we can happily enjoy our senioritis of the fourth marking period...hopefully.

Anyway, I decided to write my last post about the symbolism of sunflowers in the novel. Yes, the book is called The Sunflower, but there is more meaning behind the title than one can simply hear. Sunflowers represent a rememberance for all the dead Germans. These flowers act as markers on the graves and display to the world the massive amounts of deaths that occured from the Holocaust.

Simon Wiesenthal seems to be intrigued by the idea of marking their graves with sunflowers. He himself envies the dead soldiers who have the ability to be remembered, even after their death. The only reason he is jealous of the Germans is because he fears that his grave will go unnoticed and bare. It is his worst fear, besides of course living in the Nazi concentration camps, that he will be forgotten. He does not want his grave to bare no flower. I find this idea to be rather interesting. I get that Wiesenthal longs to be remembered, even long after his death, but if he has a flower on his grave, will that make him any more of a memorable person? I understand it is more the idea than the actual flower, yet Simon should think logically. The sunflowers will not cause people to remember the soldiers any more than their grave will.


This idea of sunflowers got me thinking, so I looked up the actual meaning behind a sunflower. This website says that, "No flower can lift spirits like sunflowers can." Another wesbite states, "The sunflower flower promises power, warmth, nourishment..." Was this the reasoning behind marking the graves with sunflowers? Were the flowers supposed to lift anyones feelings or contribute power to anyone? Honestly, I think their appearance had more to do with it. But, yes, the idea that each dead soldier gets a sunflower upon his or her grave is a nice thought. But will it change anything in the long run? I highly doubt it.