Chattahoochee River
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Chapter 8/9
The last two chapters were very difficult to read because of the death of Elie's father. I noticed that Elie stretched out the chapter in which he died, including lots of details about his last few days. He even goes deep within himself, revealing the struggles he faced as he realized his father was about to pass on. I also noticed that he made the last chapter, in which he is freed, very short. I think the reason behind this format was that he wanted to emphasize how little the time after his father passed meant to him. He highlights the fact that nothing mattered to him after his father died. This shows us exactly how much Elie's father really meant to him. The chapters also showed us how hard it was for Elie to accept that his father was dying and to try and make the right choices in order to survive himself, without being disrespectful to his dying father.
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I like how you made the connection between the chapters length and the death of Elie's father. I agree that Elie emphasized the importance of his fathers last days with chapter 8. While chapter 9 was much shorter due to the fact that his life had little significance at this point.
ReplyDeleteThat's a very interesting point in how Elie made chapter 9 shorter than most, I didn't notice that. I believe this has to do with Elie believing he has nothing to live for anymore. Elie even said “a corpse gazed back at me,” when he was finally free and looked in a mirror.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't even thought about the chapter's length at the end, but it does make sense since Wiesel even states at the beginning that nothing really mattered after his father died since he was just caught in this survival cycle of eating and sleeping.
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