Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Chapter 3 -- Teeth

Why were the Nazis so interested in the teeth of the prisoners?
What decisions did Elie make about his teeth that may have large consequences later?
How does Elie's reponse to the death of the dentist demonstrate how he (Elie) is changing?

5 comments:

  1. The Nazis were interested in any way or form that they could get gold or anything valuable during this hard war. Teeth were one way. When the prisoners would arrive at the concentration camps they would see a dentist who would examine their teeth for any gold or silver fillings or crowns. Elie or now, A-7713, was instructed to visit the dentist. The dentist, a Jew from Czechoslovakia, simply tells Elie that he has to remove his gold crown. Elie pretends to be sick, and tells the dentist he has a fever. The dentist tells him to return in a few days, when he feels better. A week later Elie returns, with the same excuse, that he is still not feeling well. The dentist grants Elie a further delay and when Elie returns a few days later, the dentist's office was shut down. The dentist had been thrown in prison and was about to be hanged for dealing in the prisoners gold teeth. At hearing this Elie feels pleased with this, not even feeling pity for the dentist. His gold crown was safe, what else could he want. In this way Elie is changing, he no longer feels for other, but mostly for himself, getting his daily bowl of soup and his crust of stale bread. No longer was he a soul, he was just a body, no feelings; he was actually more like a stomach. Was his mind telling the time, no, it was his stomach.

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  2. Upon coming to the camps, everyone was searched for anything of value. Coins, jewels, gold, silver, anything the Nazis could use to make a profit. Teeth were a big hit since a couple of people carried gold crowns. When known that Wiesel, or better yet his number assigned there, A-7713, had a gold crown, he was sent for someone to take them out. Elie played his dentist; he played him well with his sick act. Elie was beginning to understand what people needed to hear to get out of bad situations. Elie keeps playing his sick act, and it works out nicely because the dentist is soon sent to prison for dealing around with the gold crowns. Upon hearing this news, Elie doesn't show emotion. He doesn't feel pity, depression, or regret. Being in the camp, Elie learned to block anything getting in the way of him succeeding. Succeeding meaning him getting food. That's all that everyone thinks now. They don't feel emotions, as if they have no soul anymore because they learned to not feel anymore, what they do feel is food running down to their stomach. That's the only thing they feel now. The camp has numbed them. It has taken their soul and heart. Their hearts are getting cold now. The camp is doing horrifying things to these poor Jews. What Elie may regret later not giving the gold crown is that someone might see it and take it away from him and kill him. Someone might want to trade for something and they would end up tricking him. Elie is getting into big trouble with him hiding his gold crown. That one piece of gold could get him killed. -Nalleli

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  3. The Nazi's wanted the teeth of the prisoners because it was another source of money or value. The Nazi's had already taken everything else they had that might have been worth something, like their watches and shoes and jewelry. Their teeth was just the last step to take everything away from them that was worth something. Now, all the prisoners had left were their faith and their souls. Even then, the Nazi's seemed to be trying to break their faith and take away their souls as it is. Elie's decision to fake an illness was basically pointless. They took it anyway and he lost his chance of having someone who might would be sympathetic to Elie at having his tooth pulled. The new dentist was there to do his job and didn't care about Elie's feelings. As for the other dentist, Elie didn't particularly care about his death because his survival instincts finally kicked in. I don't think it would've mattered who it was that died because the Nazi's had made the prisoners almost completely apathetic to the others. They were only worried about themselves and whether they would live to see another day.

    -Yolanda-

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  4. The Nazi were only interested in getting anything thing they can from the Jews, especially valuable items. One of these items were teeth. Some Jews had golden or silver teeth, and the Nazi decided to take every single golden or silver teeth from the Jews as they can. But not only that, but also anythin valuable, like coins, jewels, and other items.To protect his tooth, Elie lies about feeling sick, and the dentist delays his time to get his tooth tooken out of. When the second times comes, Elie makes the same excuse, and still keeps his tooth. Then, when he comes back the third time. Elie notices that the dentist was going to be hanged and he feels pleased by this news. He was able to keeps his tooth, but also, his way of thinking was changing. He started to be more selfish and wanting to worry about himself.

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  5. The Nazis were so interested in the teeth because some people would have golden teeth, so they would take the teeth out and sell it. When the doctor was going to take out Elie's tooth, Elie lies to the doctor saying that he doesn't feel good. Then the doctor says to come back later until he feels better. Later, Elie comes back to the doctor and saying that he still doesn't feels better, but the doctor was happy because Elie did really come. When the doctor goes to the jail Elie gets happy. I think Elie is getting like more evil every time.

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