The thing that stood out to me in this chapter was how often food was mentioned. At the start of the chapter I thought that food was being used as a symbol to show the dehumanization of the Jews -- people "dreamed more of an extra portion of food than of liberty" and even Elie stated that all that began to matter to him was his daily soup and bread. Later in the chapter I realized that the food also stood for hope.
After the first hanging, the author said that the soup tasted better than ever. I think this was because of the shouting that occurred right before, "Long live liberty..."
I think that scene stirred up Elie and others and possibly gave them a sense that things were going to start changing. After the hanging with the pipel, it was said that the soup tasted of corpses. I think this may have meant something very dark considering the scene at the cauldron during the bombing, but I think it also shows a loss of hope. Things weren't getting any better and now children were being hung at the gallows, I think that Elie was starting to lose all hope and that's why the soup was suddenly so bad to him.
I like the idea of the food being a symbol for hope and I think you have an interesting perspective. But then I have to wonder how the two cauldrons of soup that a man died for, well he actually only died for a small taste of it, how does that fit into the symbol of hope? He was shot, and died, for a single sip of soup.
ReplyDelete"...shot, and killed..."*
DeleteIn the case of the man trying to sip from the cauldron, I don't think the soup symbolized hope. I think, if it symbolized anything, it was more along the lines of dehumanization. At the time, he didn't care about trying to stay alive to one day see liberation, all he cared about was getting soup. But I'm not totally sure that the soup symbolized anything at that time.
DeleteI think that you make a really interesting point with the idea of food as a symbol of hope, because it's is really the only thing that is continuing to give them strength to continue to fight on.
ReplyDeleteI felt that the strongest argument for hope being represented by food was the part where the soup tasted of death after the boy's hanging. Once he was hanged, the little hope they got out of the food, the thing that seemed to keep them going, no longer seemed as satisfying.
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