Monday, December 18, 2006

REACTION JOURNAL



PAGES 1-10

December 18, 2006/Page 9: "We drank, we ate, we sang. The Bible bade us rejoice during the seven days of the feast, to be happy. But our hearts were not in it. Our hearts had been beating more rapidly for some days. We wished the feast were over, so that we should not have to play this comedy any longer."

- This quote struck me as very odd. As a member of a religion which practices great religious faith, it seemed very odd that they would wish the feast to be over. Normally, one would rejoice in this feast, and this vacation from the world of brutal reality. However, these people were wishing for their sacred feast to be over. Wishing their sacred feast to be over. This is very abnormal, and gives clues to what may become of their religion later on.


PAGES 11-20

December 18, 2006/Page 14: "There was joy-yes, joy. Perhaps they thought that God could have devised no torment in hell worse than that of sitting there among the bundles, in the middle of the road, beneath a blazing sun; that anything would be preferable to that. They began their journey without a backward glance at the abandoned streets, the dead, empty houses, the gardens, the tombstones....On everyone's back was a pack. In everyone's eyes was suffering drowned in tears. Slowly, heavily, the procession made its way to the gate of the ghetto."

- This quote literally jumped out at me. Included are extremely powerful emotions. It is extremely emotional and depressing knowing that these people believed they were headed to a better place. Instead, what they got was a place of torture and inprisonment. They were glad to be leaving their homes and lives. Just to "pick up where they left off" is what they thought. Oh, were they very mistaken.


PAGES 21-30

December 18, 2006/Page 25: "We looked at the flames in the darkness. There was an adominable odor floating in the air. Suddenly, our doors opened. Some odd-looking characters, dressed in striped shirts and black trousers leapt into the wagon. They held electric torches and truncheons. They began to strike out to right and left, shouting: 'Everybody get out! Everyone out of the wagon! Quickly!' We jumped out. I threw a last glance towards Madame Schachter. Her little boy was holding her hand. In front of us flames. In the air that smell of burning flesh. It must have been about midnight. We had arrived-at Birkenau, reception center for Auschwitz.

- This is probably the first quote in the book that describes their first realization that they were not headed to Hungary. They realize quickly that where they are headed, by the distict descriptions, that it is not any place worth rejoicing for. It must have seemed to them that they were headed for complete and total torture, and to put it bluntly, hell. They would later find out that there was much worse to come. Which is both extremely sad, and utterly diminishing of any hope at all for these poor souls.


PAGES 31-40

December 19, 2006/Page 31: "'Yitgadal veyitkadach shme raba... May His Name be blessed and magnified...' whispered my father. For the first time, I felt revolt rise up in me. Why should I bless His name? The Eternal, Lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank Him for?"

-This quote here signifies one of the first doubts that Elie has of his God. His father, still very religious, prays to Him. However, Elie, acting very immaturely, naively states "What had I to thank Him for?". This shows that the first job of the Germans was in the process of being accomplished. They wished to wipe out the Jewish race. The first step in doing that was to make them doubt their own God. This evil act is already in the process, as is expertly, yet subconciously demonstrated by Elie himself.


PAGES 41-50

December 19, 2006/Page 42:"Some talked of God, of his mysterious ways, of the sins of the Jewish people, and of their future deliverance. But I had ceased to pray. How I sympathized with Job! I did not deny God's existence, but I doubted His absolute justice. Akiba Drumer said: "God is testing us. He wants us to find out whether we can dominate our base instincts and kill the Satan within us. We have no right to despair. And if he punishes us relentlessly, it's a sign that He loves us all the more."
-Oh how Elie would have loved to agree with Akiba. Akiba, knowing in his heart, that God truly did love them, and was just testing them, spoke what he believed. Elie however, having lost his faith in the Lord, spoke of nothing. Kept his faith and his feelings, and his opinions to himself. This passage really does portray how Elie has decayed in his faith for the Lord.
PAGES 51-60
December 19, 2006/Page 52:"I had watched the whole scene without moving. I kept quiet. In fact I was thinking of how to get farther away so that I would not be hit myself. What is more, any anger I felt at that moment was directed, not against the Kapo, but against my father. I was angry with him, for not knowing how to avoid Idek's outbreak. That is what concentration camp life had made of me."
-This passage from the novel is most likely the most powerful and moving throughout the whole book. It took me aback how calm and nonchalantly Elie had acted while his father was beaten. Not showing any remorse, nor any attachment or relation to him. Almost as though to pretend he had nothing to do with him. Probably one of the most moving lines in the novel is also included in this passage. It being the latter one. "That is what concentration camp life had made of me."
PAGES 61-70
December 19, 2006/Page 62:"For more than half an hour he stayed there, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes. And we had to look him full in the face. He was still alive when I passed in front him him. His tongue was still red, his eyes were not yet glazed. Behind me, I heard the same man asking: "Where is God now?" And I heard a voice within me answer him: "Where is He? Here He is-He is hanging here on this gallows..." That night the soup tasted of corpses."
-This passage jumped out at me simply for its great detail. The description of the boy hanging from the gallows, the taste of the soup, all coming from the experiences of a 15 year old. The line in which Elie states that God is hanging from the gallows is the final indicator that God, in their eyes, was "dead." This was a very sad and emotional realization for them all. Where is God? Not with them anymore.
PAGES 71-80
December 19, 2006/Page 73:"In three days I shall no longer be here.... Say the Kaddish for me. We promised him. In three days' time, when we saw the smoke rising from the chimney, we would think of him. Ten of us would gather together and hold a special service. All his friends would say the Kaddish. Then he went off toward the hospital, his step steadier, not looking back. An ambulance was waiting to take him to Birkenau. These were terrible days. We received more blows than food; we were crushed with work. And three days after he had gone we forgot to say the Kaddish."
-This excerpt is a perfect example of how independent everyone was. It was one man for himself. If you wanted to get out of Auschwitz alive, you were to act in your own best interest. The forgetting to say the Kaddish proves the point that their hope was diminished, and that those who were gone, were gone and very soon forgotten. This fact is very sad and depressing, however, makes you realize just how terrible and horrible it was.
PAGES 81-90
December 19, 2006/Page 83:"We were masters of nature, masters of the world. We had forgotten everything-death, fatigue, our natural needs. Stronger than cold or hunger, stronger than the shots and the desire to die, condemned and wandering, mere numbers, we were the only men on earth."
-This passage shows what courage and hope they had left. These final surviving men, these skeletons of humans, running mechanically, not a thought in the world other than to finish what they started; to survive. They ignored the pain. They ignored their hunger. They ignored how tired and fatigued they were. All they
wished to do was to make it out alive.
PAGES 91-100
December 19, 2006/Page 95:" Some years later, I watched the same kind of scene at Aden. The passengers on our boat were amuzing themselves by throwing ocins to the "natives," who were diving in to get them. An attractive, aristocratic Parisienne was deriving special pleasure from the game. I suddenly noticed that two children were engaged in a death struggle, trying to strangle each other. I turned to the lady. "Please," I begged, "dont' throw any more money in!" "Why not?" she said. "I like to give charity..."
-This passage shows how cruel humanity can be. In everyone, there is an evil we must overcome. This evil is more prevalent in some than others. The actions the Parisienne woman took reminded Elie of his experiences during the Halocaust. What is particularly sad is the fact that Elie ws permanently scarred for life because of what his young eyes saw during those terrible times in the concentration camps.
PAGES 101-109
December 19, 2006/Page 109:"One day I was able to get up, after gathering all my strength. I wanted to see myself in the mirror hanging on the opposite wall. I had not seen myself since the ghetto. From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me. The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me."
-This is absolutely the most heart-wrenching and emotional line in the whole novel. The thought of after months, years even, of never seeing your reflection. And then one day to see a corpse looking back at you? It is as if it was not his own body that he was trapped in. Stuck in another body, another form, trying desperately to come back through, to be the way he used to be. Very moving, very powerful, very emotional.

Posted by ChelseaTaylor_Delgado @ 5:18 PM