Journals

Brenda Van Riper

Bosch

Honors English 10

10 January 2009

Pages1-10
Page 9
Quote:
“We drank we ate we sang. The bible bade us rejoice during the seven days of the feast, to be happy. But our hearts were not in it. Our hearts had been beating more rapidly for some days. We wished the feast were over, so that we should no longer have to play this comedy any longer.”

Reflection:
I think it is a bit weird how they want the religious feast to stop. If giving their religious a throw down like this does that predict that it will aslo happen in the future? Wishing it should be over is just abnormal because religious is not to be tossed around like that.


Pages 11-20
Page 14
Quote:
“Then at last at one o’clock in the afternoon came the signal to leave. There was joy yes joy. Perhaps they though that God could have devised no torment in hell worse that that road beneath a blazing sun that anything would be presentable to that…slowly heavily the possessing made it’s say to the gate of the ghetto.”

Reflection:
It is sad that they think they are leaving to somewhere nice that they really are leaving to a bad place. I would have tried to run away and get away from getting on the train thing. I predict that from now on it’s going to be hard for them to survive. But Elie does survive and it is good that he is strong enough to.


Pages 21-30
Page 22
Quote:
“It was Madame Schachter standing on the middle of the wagon in the pale light from the windows she looked like a withered tree in a cornfield she pointed her arm toward the window screaming “Look, look at it. Fire. A terrible fire. Mercy Oh that fire.”

Reflection:
Is this lady like physic or something because when they arrive there is smoke and fire from the crematorium. Too bad they don’t believe her. They beat her down while she has a little son next to her, just to make her shut up. I think that was totally uncalled for, they could of just tired her up and gagged her so she wouldn’t talk.


Pages 31-40
Page 32
Quote:
“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.”

Reflection:
This is where Elie introduces the theme of spiritual crisis and his loss of faith in God and mostly everything else. Everything he has once believed is not turned upside down. I don’t know this man got through all this; he is one tough little cookie. I don’t know if I would be able to get through this.


Pages 41-50
Page 42
Quote:
“Take care of your son. He’s very weak and dried up. Look after him well, to avoid the selection. Eat! It doesn’t matter what or when. Eat everything you can. The weak don’t hand about for long here..”

Reflection:
The only way to survive here is to eat and work and to get through the selection process. Elie must have eaten a good amount in order to survivor and to get through this camp is a tough task to get through.


Pages 51-60
Page 52
Quote:
“This was Franek’s chance to torment my father and to thrash him savagely every day. Left, right, punch! Left, right, clout!”

Reflection:
Oh this poor old man. I would hate to see my father get beaten like that or anyone get beaten like that is so uncalled for. Elie tries to teach his father how to march better but he does not get any better. His dad seems like a good man and should not be beaten for not marching correctly just to get it on the sons nerves.

Pages 61-70
Page 62
Quote:
“Behind me I heard the same man asking: Where is God now? And I heard a voice within me answer him: “Where is he? Here He is- He is hanging here on this gallows….” That night the soup tasted of corpses.”

Reflection:
Before this they saw a boy getting hung. At this point Elie believes that God is dead and that he had no longer had faith. He now only cares about himself and his father. He just needs to survive now.


Pages 71-80
Page 73
Quote:
“In 3 days I shall no longer be here…Say the Kaddish for me.”…..And three days after he had gone we forgot to say the Kaddish.”

Reflection:
Lost faith in everything, don’t care about anything but their own life, and the life of their family if they even had anyone left. Elie had his father. Elies father is his whole support throughout this whole book. I think that Elies father is a good man. They forgot to say the Kaddish because no one cares anymore.


Pages 81-90
Page 81
Quote:
“I was putting one foot in front of the other mechanically. I was dragging it with me this skeletal body, which weighed so much. If only I could have for rid of it! In spite of my efforts not to think about it, I could feel myself as two entities- my body and me. I hated it.”

Reflection:
This is were they are running to the place because the camp was getting bombed and attacked and they needed to go somewhere safer. Elies foot had just had surgery done and he should he in bed rest, but instead he has to run twenty-three miles to get to the destination that they are going to. Elie has no more faith.


Pages 91-100
Page 96
Quote:
“Meir. Meir my boy! Don’t you recognize me? I’m your father…. You’re hurting me… you’re killing your father! I’ve got some bread…for you too….for you too…”

Reflection:
A son is attacking his own father just to get a piece of bread when he was going to share it in the first place, that is just wrong in my opinion. They have lost everything so why not keep the one that that could matter, family. All this violence to see at such a young age, I don’t know how I would deal with it if I was him.


Pages 101-109
Page 109
Quote:
“One day I was able to get up, after gathering all my strength. I wanted to see myself in the mirror hanging on the opposite wall. I had not seen myself since the ghetto. From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me. The look in his eyes as they stared into mine has never left me.”

Reflection:
After not seeing yourself for a long time, like a few years, is crazy I wouldn’t want to see how much I aged. All he sees in a corpse with no faith and nothing left in it because everything he ever cared about is dead. This poor boy experiencing all this at just the age of 15. He survived and he is very brave and strong for that.