Monica Corcoro. Posting 1. Dawn.

 Something that really caught my mind on the beginning of this novel was how much Elie was so naïve to the world around him. The beggar was the person who taught Elie “how to distinguish night from day.” Although he had many fears in his life, he was told by the beggar to never be scared, especially of the dark. “Night is purer than day; it is better for thinking and loving and dreaming. At night, everything is more intense, more true. The echo of words that have been spoken during the day takes on a new and deeper meaning. The tragedy of man is that he doesn’t know how to distinguish between day and night. He says things at might that should only be said by day.” (5) What Beggar was trying to say is that he should not be afraid of the dark because night is no different day, except night has more mystery and meaning towards feelings and moods created then.
 

Not only does the beggar help Elie go through life-situations, Gad does as well. “Don’t torture yourself in the dark…This is war.” (6) Elie seems to remember what Gad ends up telling him. I think it’s because he knows that he can trust Gad and that he knows everything there is on learning and knowing how to survive under these conditions. Elie seems to be very ignorant to the world around him, but since he is still a juvenile, it makes sense that he still needs support and help from people Like The beggar and Gad.

 

What I find really interesting about the Holocaust is that they make people kill each other. While Elie was in Palestine, I felt terrible when he said that he had to go kill someone by force. I honestly don’t think it is right for prisoners to kill other prisoners because they did not do anything to harm each other in the first place. All Elie could know about this person was that he was his enemy. Knowing that Elie is limited to the things he knows about this person, he still has to follow the orders of what the guards say to do, or else he would be executed as well.