Chattahoochee River
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Chapter 2: Family?
I've already read this book many times in the past, but I've just noticed that during their trip in the cattle cars Elie did not mention his family. I did not read anything about what they did, how they were doing, what they did to cope with the changes. The chapter was mainly focused around Mrs. Schachter. I'm pretty sure they stayed together, he would have mentioned their separation if that was the case. However maybe he did this intentionally to focus on the aspects of their first survival trip before arriving at Auschwitz. Sort of to emphasize that this was like a first test of strength and endurance, and unfortunately Mrs. Schachter did not make the cut. Regardless I was disappointed and would have liked to have known what it was like to have spent their final moments together in that cramped cattle car.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I also found it intresting how the author did not include details of the family. However, as Mrs. Schulz mentioned earlier, the authors ideas are choppy because of how he is writing from memory. So I wonder if this one event stuck out in his memories because of how ironic it was for her to have visions of fire and then to later find out the Jews were being extinguished by fire.
ReplyDeleteAs I was thinking about his family I also did wonder if maybe this situation stuck out most to him. I also hadn't really put in much thought that he is writing this from memory, so I'll keep that in mind for the rest of the chapters. However I also agree regarding the irony because as soon as they arrived at their destination they saw the flames. This time they couldn't ignore it like they did with Mrs. Schachter.
DeleteYoaly, you are pretty much right. I din't think about this but this is very interesting. I don't recall hi mentioning him family much. I guess he was more astounded that Mrs. Schachter had such accurately perception of what was going to happen. But I also realize that this community of people are hard to convince of anything. I mean first they ignore Moishe's warnings and then they ignored Schachter's warnings. I guess they are more of the type who have to see something before they can believe in anything, ironic if you think about it. I also wonder if the reason why he didn't mention his family much was because it was heartbreaking for him to talk or write about them.
ReplyDeleteYoaly, I believe the author didn't put much details of family in this chapter because he wanted to focus on the transition of the trip in he cattle car to the camps. I believe the event with Mrs. Schachter impacted him most because of how her screams were a foreshadow of the things happening in he camps.
ReplyDelete