This paper discusses the role of the radio in Jurek Becker’s `Jakob the Liar`, a Holocaust novel.
This paper describes Becker’s novel Jakob the Liar: Jakob, a Polish Jew in the Ghetto, finds himself a neighborhood hero by fabricating reports from his imaginary radio. The paper illustrate that the radio may not be real, but the impact Jakob’s radio reports have on the community is real: The inhabitants of this ghetto community now have a sense of hope as they are told of `reports` that the armies are coming to save them. The paper author feels that Becker’s use of the imaginary radio brings the reader into the reality of living in Jakob’s ghetto.
`In the case of Jakob and Lina, the radio brings these two people closer together. When Jakob `plays` the radio for Lina, it is a moment that draws them closer and one of sincere comedy. These were bleak times, and the radio essentially brings hope and happiness to a neighborhood that faces the inevitable. These moments happen often within the first half of the novel, as the radio reports are a ray of light. `