A certain comment by Elie caught my attention when describing Mrs. Schachter's hallucination.
" 'Jews, listen to me, ' she cried. ' I see a fire! I see flames, huge flames!'
It was as though she were possessed by some evil spirit. "
This is just a thought, and I realize it may be a stretch to say this, but perhaps Elie meant that has a double-entendre. This was definitely a rhetorical tactic to add to the horrific imagery and vivid detail in the reader's mind, but perhaps he also meant the reason behind the flames, the Germans, were possessed by an evil spirit as to explain why they were rounding up and slaughtering Jews. Their actions were too gross and too inhumane that an evil spirit's possession had to be the reason behind their actions.
I may be looking too much into it, but as I was reading this thought did come into my mind.
I find your insight very interesting. I would have never thought about the "evil spirit" in that way or that the fire was hinting at tge Germans, but I like that you've brought up that idea. I don't think you read too much into it, but I do think you picked up on something that a majority of us missed. I'm sure many of the people who suffered believed the only way humans could do such a horrible thing was through evil possession.
ReplyDeleteThat is quite an interesting point, Loren. I know I didn't think of it that way, however it makes sense. I doubt anyone would believe that a "good spirited" person would do such a thing, so it would make sense to think of it as a possessive "evil spirit" causing all of this harm.
ReplyDelete