Writing is a form of self expression, and it allows us as humans to find an outlet for our emotions when it seems like no one is listening. It seems like Christa Wolf wanted to be heard by anyone who was willing to listen, which is why she wrote her book because anyone who read it was someone who wanted to listen to what she had to say. Christa Wolf's life was the opposite of the ideal, but that is what made her who she was. She was brought up in a pro-Nazi during World War II, and had to flee Germany at the end of the war. All of her work reflected her past and her thoughts and feelings about her past. Cassandra is an anti-war novel based upon Wolf's experience with war. Now let's look into who Cassandra is and her story. Cassandra is the daughter of Priam and Hecuba, who were the last rulers of Troy. She was loved by Apollo, who gave her the power of prophecy. However, once she was given her powers, she refused Apollo's request and he cursed her by allowing her to keep her power of prophecy but no one would believe her. During the time that Cassandra would have lived women were to be silent and allow the men to handle everything in society. This is one of the ways Wolf connects with Cassandra, because she (Wolf) felt that her own voice was not being heard and the way she chose to get her voice out there was to give another woman from the past her own voice. In the book, Cassandra says she could never love a hero, which shows her underlying hatred for war. In this sense being a hero means someone has to lose, because you can not have a war hero if one of the sides does not get conquered by the other. Being a hero leads to fame, power, and greed which leads to further conflict that can spark another war. It is almost like war heroes stand in their glory above on the people on a pedestal , but the pedestal is made up of those who were killed to put the hero where they are. Cassandra couldn't love a hero, because she couldn't stand for the concept of war. She didn't want more people to suffer, because she had already suffered due to war. Cassandra never wanted others to suffer the way she did as a civilian to war. It is clear that Christa Wolf felt the way after her experience with war. She never wanted other people to be exploited by their own government during war for "what is best for the country". Wolf pushed out her ideology of war through Cassandra's story and her mistreatment during the Trojan War reflects Wolf's mistreatment during World War II. Truthfully, Cassandra was about Christa Wolf herself rather than Cassandra, and her story. Cassandra was just the way Wolf got her voice into the world, and it worked because the parallels are clear when you take a deep look into it.
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November 2021
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