one who destroyed the beautiful abbey his grandfather had built and this greatly upsets him. Marianne tells him the story of her own family: her father was a Nazi who committed suicide at the end of the war. Before taking his own life, he had ordered Marianne's mother to murder the children. She hanged Marianne's little brother but the arrival of some strangers prevented her from doing the same to Marianne. Johanna, in control of her wits, leaves the sanatorium with a pistol which she intends to use on Old Wobbly for his past sins. The entire family gathers in the Prince Heinrich Hotel for the birthday party and Johanna shoots at a Secretary of State who was watching a military parade from a hotel balcony. This act was intended to signal Johanna's inadaptation in a society ruled by "The Buffalo", whose members already forgot the horrors of the world. At the conclusion, Robert adopts the bellhop Hugo. A birthday cake shaped like the abbey is carried in. Heinrich slices it and hands the first piece to his son. Analysis Themes The major theme of the book is the conflict between those who received "The Host of the Beast" and their opponents, the receivers of "The Host of the Lamb". Although this separation can be seen as Nazi versus pacifists, it has a deeper meaning: the "Lamb" followers are the free-thinking, kind-hearted ones, not willing to oppress other people while the "Beast" worshippers include the aggressors, the indifferent mass, the ones who subjugate, the accomplices of Totalitarianism. The main culprit is Paul von Hindenburg, referred as "The Big Beast". Form and structure The majority of the story does not take place in the present, but rather we learn most of the plot through the use of flashbacks, characters remembering something from their past or relating a story from their life to another person. This complex plot structure allows the characters to be more fully explored as things do not simply happen to them, but are built upon and remembered in a certain way. Each character's story is coloured by the emotions they experience as they remember events from years past. They, as well as the reader, are well aware of the significance of these events for their present-day lives. The effect of their actions is readily seen by the reader because almost everything that happens in the novel has already