In the book Night, by Elie Wiesel, there are passages that affect me and my emotions in different ways. The first passage that made me feel the frustration of Moishe the Beadle when he kept trying to warn the people about how they would take Jews and kill them, but no one listens.
“He no longer mentioned either God or the Kabbalah. He spoke only of what he had seen. But people did not only refuse to believe his tales, they refused to listen.” (Page 7)
This passage made me think about other peoples' perspectives. The people that did listen to him had no reason to believe him. What proof was there? Plus Moishe lived on the streets so they also could've thought that he was making up something crazy because he was not right in the head.
Then on page 20, I was angry at what the father said to the family.
“Maria, our former maid, came to see us. Sobbing, she begged us to come with her to her village where she had prepared a safe shelter. My father wouldn't hear of it. He told me and my big sisters, “If you wish, go there. I shall stay here with your mother and the little one…”
When I first read this passage, I was dumbfounded that the father would rather be split up from his children and go somewhere that they are not sure if it is safe then go with his children to a safe place.
The passage horrified me.
On (page 32) “A truck drew close and unloaded its hold: small children. Babies! Yes, I did see this, with my own eyes… Children thrown into the flames.”
The picture, created by the author made it hard for me to read. The thought of these poor, scared, crying children, all alone knowing that their death awaited them, by being thrown into the fire is unbearable. I can just hear their screams.
Throughout the book, I noticed that the author paints a very clear picture of what he is describing. The author challenges us through the language he uses. In past books that I've read, when there is a different language involved in some parts of the book, the author defines what the word means. But in this book, when Wiesel is using Jewish terms, he does not describe what it means, which is fine. The author also uses words I have not heard before, but I can guess at their meaning.
Hello Lizzy, I agree with you when you said it was hard to read when you read the part where the kids were thrown into the fire. I had the same feeling like you did. It's very hard to believe that people were so cruel to the Jews back then, and they didn't care about people's lives.
ReplyDeleteHi Lizzy, you wrote that everyone ignored Moishe when he was telling them about what the Germans were doing to Jewish people, but in the same paragraph you wrote that people did listen to him. That was a bit confusing. Another point is the wording to me is kind of strange when you talk about the author using jewish terms, but overall you did a really nice job!!!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLizzy,
ReplyDeleteYou did a good job showing your emotion in this piece. You told how you felt very effectively, using a good quote as support. There were a few spacing oddities, but I do not know if that was you or Blogger. You also had an interesting description of the author’s writing style. Overall, you did very well.