This woman, Mrs. Schachter, spent the entire train ride screaming about fire that she could see outside the train window and yet it was not there and no one else saw a thing. Knowing that the concentration camps had gas chambers and thousands of dead bodies were burned, I wonder if this event actually took place, or if the auther, Elie Wiesel, just wrote it to foreshadow the coming events. Fire can be used as a symbol and here, I do believe it represents the hell they are about to enter; the thing that will consume them figuratively and, for many, literally. It's hard for me to read this because I know exactly where they're are heading and the torment they are going to face there at Auschwitz, a name they had never heard but one they will soon never forget.
I agree that it's hard to read this knowing exactly what's going to happen to them. But i also find it intresting to read. However, I do wonder if this event actually happened or if the author just included this detail to allow for readers to form ideas as to what was going to happen. As seniors who have studied the halocuast, we know exactly what is going to happen and can interpret this symbol, but I wonder what younger readers think of when they read this.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny that you mention younger readers because I actually read this book my freshman year and reading it again has made me notice a lot of things that never crossed my mind as a freshman. This is a great example of something that I never thought of. As a freshman, I didn't think about this event being real or fictional because I wasn't looking for any deeper meaning.
DeleteI read this book as a freshman too, and now I think that I can better visualize what's happening to the characters just from the past few years of history, but I think the biggest change is our maturity level, and we can finally grasp the deeper meaning behind symbols and character developments.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely agree the foreshadowing is too perfect and that the event is likely fabricated. But there is definitely a purpose behind the fabrication that I think we were too young to notice the first time we all read the book 3 years ago. His creation of the character and the event were meant to heighten the emotion of the chapter and give clues as to what was coming next for the characters. When we read it the first time we took it at its face value which was just some crazy lady screaming about fire. But now we see the real point.
ReplyDelete