Weisel wrote this chapter in a detached way to emphasize his
loss of identity. And although he writes in a style that seems more like
stating facts and retelling events as they happened, there is no need for added
emotional words or any more description, because the reader gets the full
affect from just reading what unfolds, as well as “reading between the lines”.
An example of this is when Elie’s relative Stein is known to be dead by the
reader (whether by suicide or some other means is not clear) although it is not
explicitly stated that he is dead. It is inferred from the text because Stein
had said “the only thing that keeps me alive is to know that Reizel and the
little ones are still alive”. When he finds out the truth that they’re not
(which is also not explicitly stated but can be inferred by what happens to
Stein) he most likely gave up on life and killed himself or found some other
way to death.
Cami, I also noticed the detached style in which chapter 3 was written. Do you think that this was because of his own detachment from his humanity? Since at this point in the story all of his ideas of humanity were torn apart, I was thinking this detachment reflected his loss of self, faith, etc. I also thought the detachment showed the general breaking down of the Jews as a group.
ReplyDeleteGreat observation Cami. Now that I think about it, there was definitely much less emotional narration in this chapter. I agree that the events speak for themselves at this point and it isn't necessary for him to spell everything out for us. The writing style does show detachment and I think that also may be a way for him to cope with what is happening.
ReplyDeleteOh Cami this makes a lot more sense to me now. The detachment and lack of emotional words also could be from his lack of nutrition which can lead to brain malfunction and cause depression. The fact that his identity is lost with in everyone else possible he feels like he feels the same as everyone else around him and this is normal now to feel this way that he's not fighting it anymore and the actions around him probably hurt him more if he attached emotional meaning to things so it's better to be detached in his eyes.
ReplyDeleteI feel like this style also appears as at this point Wiesel had become more accepting of reality and the fate of the Jews as when he is beat he just takes and goes on with what he was doing before like nothing ever happened, signifying the deterioration of his will.
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