Blog post #2

Tolls that the labor had on the Jews.

“Another time we were loading diesel motors onto freight cars under the supervision of some German soldiers. Idek was on edge, he had trouble restraining himself. Suddenly he exploded”(54).

This quote from the novel shows me a first hand experience of some of the struggles Elie and the Jews encountered. Here Idek is getting mad at Elie’s father and loses his temper. This shows how hard and painful some of the tasks that the Jews had to endure in the concentration camps. I can now see that that these tasks were not just physically challenging, but also took a mental toll on the Jews. This relates to one of themes I have and that is hope. As the Jews are forced to do these tasks or projects they will most likely lose hope in themselves and/or others. That hope or faith is extremely important when you have to go through something like the Holocaust or even just daily life. Hope is like your motivation to continue or what is powering you forward in these hard times. I think that Elie will need to continue to have hope if he wants to continue to survive. Elie’s style here is similar to how he writes throughout the novel. He uses few challenging words and his point is very direct to the reader. Having this direct style can really work in some parts of the novel when trying to display emotion or show an action. Having this direct style works here because of the context of the writing. Elie is a Holocaust surviver who is writing about his experiences. The direct style is not giving the reader extra details and getting his point across very clearly which helps the reader better understand what he is trying to show and display.