Monday, February 14, 2011

Chapter 6 (pages 85-97): Death

Why was Elie fascinated by the idea of death?

13 comments:

  1. He was fascinated by the idea because he believed there would be no suffering in death. He didn't want to continue on the horrible path to this new camp and he was also enduring the worst torture most humans could not take. He has the idea that if he dies there will be no more torture or suffering for him. He won't be starving, he won't be freezing, and he won't be completely exhausted. He wanted to "no longer feel anything". Also there will be no more physical and mental pain. He will basically "no longer exist". And to no longer exist will be a paradise compared to what he is having to go through at this point in his life.

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  2. Compared to his reality, death seemed much more pleasant by far.When Elie considers dying, he is outside, running in the frigid snow with his injured foot throbbing as he uses every last ounce of energy to keep going. He is in pain and agony, surrounded by death and dying men, and by living, he is suffering. He has to endure the emotional, physical, and mental tortures that plague the Jews daily as a result of being alive. It is no wonder that death would seem so sweet at this moment. By dying, Elie can escape his current Hell and rid himself of the terror he faces every moment. In his mind, he thinks nothing could be worse than what he is going through right now. He sees the dead corpses that are robbed of life, but he also sees that they no longer have to struggle through the excruciating anguish required in order to stay alive. By dying, he can be free from the chains that bind him to death and misery.
    -Sonya

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  4. Death was amazing compared to what he was living. When you're dead, you feel no pain. That's exactly what he wanted. Death was so much better than no food or water, dirty clothes that NEVER get washed, and the constant smell of burning human flesh. It wasn't only the physical things that hurt, but he was also hurt emotionally. Seeing people get beaten and die everyday sticks in your mind forever, especially when it's your own father. If he was dead, he wouldn't have to worry about any of these things. Death seemed like paradise. He could run and escape from the horror. The terror and pain was agonizing that everything about death seemed better than reality.
    -Tiana

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  5. He did not want to suffer any more. He thought that when you die you do not hurt anymore. He did not want to freeze anymore than he had to, his foot was swollen and in excruciating pain. He was starving and forced to run more than fifty miles. All night and day. All around him men were dying: falling, passing out, or shot, then left to die. He figured that they were escaping all the pain that he and his father were going through. If he died he would not have to be terrified of being burned, or scared for his father, h would not have to be worried about Hitler, the guards or the SS soldiers.

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  6. To Elie, death was the end to all of his troubles. As Elie ran outside in the snow, he felt as if he “could touch death.” Death was just a fall away. If he had fallen at that instance, he would escape his pain. One fall would be his trip to heaven, where he would no longer have to suffer. To Elie, death was the easier way out of the situation. He could force pain on his wounded body by continuing to run in the snow, or he could simply choose to die and everything would be over – his life, the pain, and the suffering. He mentioned that the only thing that stopped him from giving up was his father. His father was the only form of motivation to stay alive. He claimed that he was his father sole support. In a way, Elie and his father appeared to have switch roles. Elie showed signs of a father as he cared for his father while Elie’s father was like a son because he depended more on Elie as he grew older and weaker.
    -Nancy N.

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  7. I agree with Sonya. Elie became so fascinated because of what he has gone through and what he is going through now. When Wiesel starts to think about death, he is running in the cold with his injured foot surrounded by dying men and death itself. He was in pain and suffered emotionally, spiritually, and physically. This is why he even considered death. He would have rather died than stay alive and go through all that suffering, running in the cold injured. He believed that death was the only way out of the situation. Elie lost his hope and that was all he could really think of... that was all that filled his mind. Instead of seeing death as a bad thing, he though it was way better than going through what he went through, an easy escape. And by dying, Wiesel believed that he could be free from this nightmare he lived everyday. And that was all he wanted.

    -jessica c.

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  8. The sweet release of death. Death is a last resort to the hells that are found on our earth. Imagine having kids, a wife, uncles, and cousins, parents, everybody on one plane. Then it crashes into a firey pit, and everyone dies. You would be alone in the world. Then the thought of feeling the same ecrutiating, gut and ab twisting pain would make you hesitate in meeting anytype of new people. A similarity between the book and this hypothetical situation is when you are in a living breathing hell there is no sign of heaven in the distance. Right now he was in this german ruled hell, and wanted a way to get out, but death was anyones only escape plan.

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  9. Like others said, death was paradise compared to the hell that he was going through right then. Death was an escape, a release, a way out of the torture of concentration camps. To die would be the easiest way out, and many took it, willingly or not. Elie, right then, is confronted with another situation where he thinks about ending himself, like when he almost did when he got to Auschwitz. Like Nancy said, his father was the only reason that he didn't just fall and go to paradise. He was the crutch that supported his father during his time of struggle, and if he died, the death of his father would surely not be far behind.

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  10. He was trapped and death was a door that led him to his freedom. The conditions he was left in and the rules that he had to follow were so unbelievable and ridiculous he would do anything to get rid of this horror. This includes facing death by their hands. In his mind anything was better than his situation he was jammed into, literally.

    Elie would have ended his own life if it wasn't for his father. He considered himself as the wind beneath his father's wings. He feels like he has to support his father in his time of need, or he would not be able to go to a paradise in peace. His mind would be clouded and confused until his father died and joined him. Then he would finally be at peace.
    -Saphira

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  11. Elie was fascinated by death because he was always so close to it. Death, to cease to be, a rather hard concept to grasp, seeing as though I cannot imagine what it would be like to simply end. Elie was intrigued by this idea, mainly because he was always on a wavering line, unsure weather he would survive or not. Elie has come, not to fear death, but to respect it. What I think is that Elie respects death in the sense that, eventually, one must die. However, I also think Elie has mixed feelings about death. He obviously likes death, in the sense that it is always there, he could just jump in front of the train and be over with the suffering, just to have a tempting offer to know that it can be all over. Then, he hates death, as do most people. He hates death for the toll of people it has taken from him. He hates death for taking his entire family, community, city, and faith. At the same time, Elie knows that the ways of death are always unknown, and even if one may not like it, it happened for a reason. Elie knows that his father was old and wouldn't last long in the hard camps. What I mean by this is not that the Jews who died should have died, on the contrary, this must NEVER happen again. However, to move on, one must accept the past and make sure that it will not happen again in the future. That is how Elie has a balance with death. He knows that innocent people died unjustly during the Holocaust, but he tells his story in honor of them, and makes sure that their spirit never truly dies. This is what I think Elie has learned from his fascination of death, it is a strange state of being, but very knowing too. I admire this way to look at death, and I'm sure Elie has paid a hard price to interpret life like this.

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  12. Elie sought the thought of death almost inspiring becuase he felt it would relieve him from this curse. He thought that if he were to die then he would be free. This of course came to his intrest yet he never seemed to try and commit suicide. It seemed as if he had a little more faith than he really had thought or he just didn't have the guts to go on with killing himself. All he had to do was to run into the fence or go out of line and be shot and yet he never did. Michael L

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  13. He was tired of living. He had experienced so much, and all of this was within about a year. Can you imagine going throught the horrible things Elie had to endure? And especially in such a short amount of time. I couldn't. I would want death as well. Death is easy, life is hard. I completely understand his fascination, his longing to die. To leave the world and never have to endure the hardship again. I would want the exact same thing if I were in his position.

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