We now learn that the young man's name is Elisha. This is a weird name for a man; I have never heard of a man named Elisha prior to reading this book. As of now, I am sure that Elie Wiesel is actually this Elisha. Having read Night by Elie Wiesel and with Dawn being part of the Night trilogy, it makes sense that he is writing again about himself. Although I am confused at the drastic jump from the twelve-year-old boy who looks at the sky and witnesses various faces to the eighteen-year-old man who is assigned to assassinate a man.
As I had assumed in the last section of Dawn, this is not taking place during the war. "after the war..." (Wiesel 11). I find it really interesting how the people of Normandy in France fully paid for Elie Wiesel's education and living. I knew that could have been arranged if one was in trouble, and he seemed to be off fairly well with Gad. However, he was an orphan, and I suppose that would get one what they needed. And since Wiesel was living in a foreign country with a foreign tongue, he needed the education. And his time for the "organization" who is funding his stay is running short--three weeks left until Elie has not one thing to hold on to. Finally we are given some insight to the mysterious character who is mentioned a few times in the previous section of the book. Gad appears to be a man in his This is why Gad could be either a light or road block at the end of the tunnel to Elie now. He has proved to be a road block, because instead of Gad killing the man, he assigns Elie to do so.
Through reading this section, we learn that Elie Wiesel was in a concentration camp between the ages of twelve and eighteen (the young boy was twelve and not in the concentration camp, and the man he became is now eighteen and about to kill someone.) I find it interesting that someone would appoint one who has been through the concentration camps and seen death and far worse--to kill a man of which could be a friend. Why did Elie Wiesel write about his passion for philosophy?
Another quote that I found surprising was one spoken by Elie: "'The future,' I answered 'is of little interest to me'" (Wiesel 13). If I were set up to become someone whom I dreaded not to be, I would want as much insight into my future as this strange figure could offer me. I suppose that one might be drained of all hope after being stuck in a concentration camp for one-third of ones life, yet one might still show interest in what lies ahead of them. Obviously, Elie wanted to know about his future, because Gad has reoccured throughout the book many times.
The opening line of Dawn was "Somewhere a child began to cry" (Wiesel 3). Then, Wiesel mentions it on page 18 when it is said that "Outside the child was still crying." This has to have some significance to the situation, for it is mentioned twice and I shall record when I read something related to a child crying again. A child crying--to me--symbolizes hurt, treachery, pain, and struggle. When a child cries, something is wrong, something that adults cannot always understand. Maybe that is its meaning--when Elie cannot understand something, he refers to the child. In this case, on page 18, he cannot understand why this man has come to him, why he is so keen on Elie's future, and seems to disregard his own.
This section of the book also connected to The Da Vinci Code because part of it was set in Paris, France which is the main setting in The Da Vinci Code. In this part we learn that the main characters name is Elisha and that he is an 18 year old who’s parents are dead. We also learn that his home town is occupied by Russians, he was sent to Buchenwald (which is the same camp that Elie Wiesel was sent to in real life), and then he was sent to Paris. Wiesel also introduces Gad more formally. We learn that Gad has a really strong and influential personality. In order to develop the characters, an author must show their personality and I think that Wiesel does this well. I believe that Elie Wiesel is making himself Elisha and that when he was writing this book he was choosing whether or not he should kill John Dawson.
ReplyDeleteI think that Elie Wiesel’s writing style is a little confusing to understand because of how he switches from scenes. One minute they are in France talking and the next they are in Palestine preparing to kill John Dawson. Although the scene switching is bad,I like the way that Wiesel describes the characters by their emotions and even thought there are no physical descriptions that tell us what they look like, I can guess based on their emotions and actions. I have found a few words that I have not seen before. For example Messianic, which I now know means “of the Messiah.”
What will happen next? Will Elisha decide that killing John Dawson is for the sake of freedom, or will he bail out because he has moral issues and maybe he has seen death many times at the death camp?