Chattahoochee River
Friday, January 23, 2015
Instinct vs. compassion Ch.4
In this chapter Elie Weisel describes what it was like to be living in the camp and working for the Kappo. The things that stood out for me was how close to animals people were being treated and were acting. Throughout the chapter Weisel compares something's worth in rations and soup. All everyone seems to focus on is food and nothing else becomes important. Even the Kappos behaved like animals. A good example of this is when Elie catches their Kappo with the Polish girl. The Kappo is following a very animalistic desire and by beating the prisoners and making them afraid he exerts an almost alpha male complex. By taking away the hummanity of others the Kappo also lost his. This stood out to me in contrast with the French girl saying kind words to Elie after he was beaten. The stark difference in instinct versus compassion really stood out to me.
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"By taking away the humanity of others the Kappo also lost his." I love your point!
ReplyDeleteThis makes me think of the old Cherokee tale about how we all have 2 wolves inside of us (good & evil) and whichever one we feed wins.
I really like the way you highlighted the differences between the Kappo and the girl from the factory. I think though that the compassion this girl showed towards Elie wasn't opposite of instincts, but just a different kind of instinct. I think sympathy and empathy are pretty instinctual, but being in the camp, surrounded by so much fear and cruelty, has repressed these instincts in a lot of people. These instincts and acts of kindness have been so repressed that we find it shocking for them to occur at this point, but I don't believe it isn't in our instincts to act the way this girl did.
ReplyDeleteKate, I don't think it was exactly the opposite of instinct, either, but I also like how you highlighted the contrast between the two.
ReplyDeleteAlso animalistic behavior (and metaphors) have come up quite a few times already, which kind of bothers me; I know they serve as action/behavior analogies but animals are more compassionate especially in such cases. I can't believe that Kappo was considered the "nicer" one.
The like your point how animalistic behavior additionally highlights the loss of humanity: by losing human traits you become an animal, or Human - humanity = animal. You mentioning the compassion of the French girl also leads me to question whether it is instinct or not to behave inhumanely when treated inhumanely- this girl certainly trumps that argument.
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