Chattahoochee River
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Ch. 5 Choice
Towards the end of this chapter, Elie and his father were left to make a difficult decision for themselves as rumors swept across the camp regarding the advancement of the Red Army. Would they stay in the infirmary or would they march with the rest of the prisoners? It was their choice to make, and they chose to march with the rest of the prisoners, despite Elie's wounded foot. To think that if they chose to stay in the infirmary, they would've been liberated days later. They would no longer have to fight to survive. They would no longer have to live in fear. They would no longer have to hope. They would have been saved and this book could have ended right here. But regardless of what course of action they would have chosen, their fates were still uncertain.
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This part in the book also stood out to me. When it was revealed that staying in the infirmary was the "right" choice, my heart broke for Elie and his father because they were so close to freedom but guessed incorrectly. The fact that one wrong choice can alter your entire future, as it did with Elie and his father, is startling, and I think it is a major theme in this book.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this part of the book showed the importance of choice throughout Elie's story, but could it also have been just chance? If they had stayed, they could have been freed by the red army. But perhaps it was just chance that the red army succeeded in freeing the Jews. Things could have gone different and the army could have been stopped.
ReplyDeleteI think that situations like this truly allow us to appreciate the fact that as much as we can control over our lives, ultimately, something things will always remain outside of our control. We discuss the missed opportunity that Elie and his father experienced, however, the fact is that it was just as likely that on route to the new camp, the Red Army could have found them and set them free. I mean afterall, Elie did say that he could hear their advancing armies as they traveled.
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