Chattahoochee River
Friday, January 23, 2015
Ch. 4- Death and Soup
I made a connection between Elie's description of the soup after the first execution by hanging he witnessed and his description of the soup after he witnessed the hanging of a young boy. He had said the soup tasted better than it ever had before after the first execution, but a couple pages later, after the angel-like boy was hung, he said the soup tasted like corpses. I think maybe he described the soup as tasting better to him the first time because after witnessing a strong boy who had survived three years in concentration camps get executed, Elie realized how lucky he was to still be alive, and was so thankful for the soup ration that kept him alive that it tasted better to him. In contrast, when the young boy was executed, he had the opposite reaction because the boy was so innocent and adored by everyone. Elie was not thankful to be alive after witnessing the boy's death, and he voiced his doubt in God. This is why I think the soup tasted to him like corpses-because of all the death that surrounded him and the likeliness that he wouldn't be able to escape it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree Cami, in fact I would go as far as to say that the death of the innocent little boy opened Elie's eyes again to the death around him and that is why is soup tasted of corpse's.
ReplyDeleteCami. that's a really interesting perspective about the hangings. I hadn't really thought about the contrasting reactions in that way. Instead, I saw the different reactions as symbolism for Elie's conflicting emotions. Throughout the novel, especially in this chapter, Elie's struggled with balancing compassion with apathy. In some instances, such as the first hanging, he displayed apathy because he didn't seem to care that the man was being hung. The second hanging, the one with the "angelic-boy" was different because it demonstrated that even though Elie was beginning to display increasing apathy, he still did have the ability to feel compassion towards others.
ReplyDeleteI really like your perspective, however, because it really connects to how Elie's faith is beginning to change as he spends more time in the camp. I also think your idea connects to Friday's class discussion about choice and chance because as you said, Elie was simply lucky to escape the first hanging. Perhaps, the second hanging brought him down to earth a little by showing that regardless of how lucky or unlucky he felt, ultimately his fate was left up to chance... just like the the men who were hung.
P.S. I like the title of your post
Cami I really like how you interpreted Elie's reactions as response to being grateful for life. It is a much more positive perspective. :)
ReplyDeletePersonally I took it as his response to the people killed as apathetic versus distraught. Throughout the chapter I noticed how the savage treatment in the camp had lessened his empathy towards others.
Cami, I love that you pointed out this shift that took place, I think it was something that would've been pretty easy to overlook.
ReplyDeleteI felt that the difference in how the soup figuratively tasted was also giving some insight into Elie's attitude towards life/faith from one point to the next. When he said the soup was the best he had ever tasted, he was perhaps feeling a slightly renewed sense of hope/faith, seeing as he made it over one more hurdle of Hell in Auschwitz. However, then when the boy was executed, nothing was good in the world. Even more so than before, it seemed Elie was hopeless, noting that God died on the gallows with the boy. This makes me feel like the soup's new taste, the taste of corpses, serves some purpose of showing that he was in an environment void of life, void of humanity, void of divinity.
I agree with Priscilla as well. I think the death of the innocent boy really hit him and that the fact that so many innocent and good people died he could taste it in his soup. Obviously his soup does not literally taste like corpse but the soup after the innocent boy is just a reminder of all the dead people.
ReplyDeleteI feel like Wiesel stating that the soup tasted like corpses might have also signified him questioning why he got to live but that little boy had to die, especially since his death was more prolonged and terrible while everyone was forced to walk past him.
ReplyDeleteElie's style of writing when he contrasts the two soups' tastes after the two deaths certainly brings to light his transitional perspectives as he experiences more and more of the camp, and I have to say using this method impressed me.
ReplyDelete