"I knew that he must not drink. Water was the worst poison for him, but what else could I do for him? With or without water, it would be over soon anyway..."
'You, at least have pity on me...'
"Have pity on him! I, his only son..."
The very last sentence to this struck me the most. It almost seems like Elie was giving into his father's demands for water to speed up the process, his death. I wouldn't say intentionally, I wouldn't like it to be true. Elie understood that giving in would mean a likely death for his father because water wasn't good for him in this state. I'd also like to mention the last sentence in chapter nine. "The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me." This whole time Elie hadn't been able to look at himself, or well actually he hadn't been able to focus on things that weren't vital to his survival. It was just a chilling statement to me. I've also noticed that many of the last sentences to paragraphs have a lot of meaning to them, like they end with a strong tone. Leaving the reader eager for more, or shocked, or perhaps both. Great book though.
I think Elie found it inevitable that his father was going to die within the camp. I don't think he wanted him to die, he just wanted his father's suffering to end. I find it interesting how you pointed out how powerful the last sentences in many of the paragraphs seem to be. I agree that the last sentence seemed the most powerful, in the way Elie described himself.
ReplyDeleteCielo, i agree with your notion that Elie recognized the inevitably of his father's death and truly he wanted his pain to end. Even as he admits to feeling relief of his burden, I don't think that necessarily means that Elie didn't love his father. He was just a kid who was being forced to play the role of an adult, and he was overwhelmed and tired from helping his father up until that point. I think the relief that Elie got from his father's absence was overshadowed by the grief of his loss.
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