This story could have just taken a dramatic turn when Gad comes back from speaking with John Dawson and confesses to Ilana that the British prisoner had told him many stories, which Gad considered to be no big deal. The story also makes a hard right turn when Elie was shown the gun he was to kill John Dawson with. "The revolver was black and nearly new. I was afraid to even touch it, for it lay all the whole difference between what I was and what I was going to be" (Wiesel 62).
Not being super familiar with the Jewish religion, I was able to finally make the connection that "David" refers to the Star of David. This is a really interesting aspect of human history. The Star of David is also known in Hebrew as the Shield of David. This is a symbol comprised of two equilateral triangles whose point faces upwards, and one rotated 120 degrees to the right: a hexagram. The first triangle represents the tribe of Judah which ruled, and the other triangle represented the former tribe of Benjamin. This is a symbol of Judaism, as seen in many Synagogues. When David is mentioned on page 63 of Dawn, it makes me think about how they are referring to their holy figure; their Jesus equivalent.
Adding on to my theory that the beggar man and everyone else in that room were really dead it this quote: "'The beggar took my head in his hands and looked into my eyes. His look was so powerful that for a moment I doubted my identity. I am that look, I said to myself. What else could I be? The beggar has many looks, and I am one of them. But his expression radiated kindness, and I knew that he could not regard kindly his own look'" (Wiesel 64).
After Gad came back from speaking with Dawson, I was surprised that he had been down there for over two hours and there was only one hour left until day. He had been watching Dawson eat food and he listened to him tell a compilation of short stories from his. When Elisha asked if Gad had laughed at the stories he replied that he had not laughed and that thinking of David Ben Moshe to make himself not laugh. After hearing this, much to my surprise, Elisha decided to go down and talk to Dawson himself.
ReplyDeleteMy guess that the others had not told John Dawson about his execution was wrong when Dawson asked if Elisha was the executioner. I wondered how he could have guessed correctly. Did Gad tell him that Elisha would probably come down next or did Dawson’s gut feeling tell him? I have a feeling that it was just Dawson’s suspicion.
If I were in Elisha’s position, I would not have gone down to ask for a funny story because I would start to feel bad for him more and more. I could not live with myself if I knew some of his history and the fact that he had a kid would pretty much persuade me not to kill him. All I can say is that I am glad that Elisha blocked Dawson’s words out because the story would probably make him feel extra guilty.