Chattahoochee River
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Chapter 7
I found it disturbing how quickly it seemed that the prisoners lost their humanity. For only one piece of bread, a son was willing to kill his own father. I understand that the prisoners are starving and have been treated terribly, but for one to turn on his own family is beyond me. What was also disturbing is how amused the German workers who threw the bread in the car seemed to be. Elie compared it to another instance in which he was on a ship and a woman threw coins to watch children fight over it. It is unbelievable that someone would take pleasure in watching humans at their lowest. Elie on the other hand refused to see his father harmed. When the officers threatened to throw his father out of the car, Elie did all he could to wake his father. He and his father still show strength even when they seem to be at their lowest.
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Cielo, it was very sad to see the Jews' condition during this time. However I liked how the author tied in a "recent" memory with events that happened during this time. It shows that bad things have happened during the course of history, and it could be the same thing but with different people and/or different places.
ReplyDeleteI was also shocked and disturbed by how inhumanely the Jews acted in this chapter. I think it's somewhat understandable when they were fighting for food because that's instinctual -- to do whatever it takes to survive -- but what really hit me was when they did things to each other for no apparent reason like when those guys tried to strangle Elie.
ReplyDeleteIn my mind, Elie has helped me describe humanity as the thick layers - kindness, love, selflessness - that humans enwrap upon ourselves. At the core remain our biological instincts - to survive at all costs and under any circumstance. The Germans truly ripped away all of the Jews' humanity - their layers- to expose what remains in the end: the willingness to kill family for a chance of survival.
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