The final section of the book... We were introduced to this character, whom Elisha doesn't want to be friends with, doesn't want to share any memories with, and doesn't want to think of him as alive. This is a terrible thing: for John Dawson is reminiscing about his son who is "nothing that you are" (Wiesel 69). I think that this part hit Elie the hardest, knowing that the man he was destined to shoot in cold blood was comparing him to his own son. This would be shocking and life-changing; to be compared to a loved one of the man you are to shoot. Though Elie tries his hardest and absolute hardest to block out this memory, that fails. His heart listens while his brain ignores. He wants to like this man (and he does in a sense, handing him a notepad and allowing him to send a letter to his SON which he was comparing).
I thought it particularly interesting the following quote said by Elie Wiesel: "John Dawson has made me a murderer, I said to myself. He has made me the murderer of John Dawson. he deserves my hate. Were it not for him, I might still be a murderer, but I wouldn't be the murderer of John Dawson" (Wiesel 75). This was so abstract, it caught my attention. It was so simple, so redundant in its wording, yet the meaning was so plain and clear: Elie doesn't know what to do nonetheless who he is and who he is becoming.
The end of the book was perfect: the (the readers presume it is the same) child that was crying in the night was crying when Elisha fired the gun. This is symbolic as I had mentioned before, reasoning that the child represents despair, hope, growth, and birth. New life. New despair. And everything that John Dawson will never live to be.
I can't believe Elie actually shot John Dawson. I was anticipating a great escape, something that would have turned the story around dramatically. This, however, did not. The man died, Elisha killed him. The child remained crying in the dawn, and that was it. End of story. To me, that wasn't the best ending for the readers, however it was truly perfect for the story line. What would have happened if John Dawson lived? Just something to think about..
The final part to this book was very fitting even though I thought something else would happen. I thought that Elisha would develop some plan for Dawson to escape alive, but still fake the execution and make it so that Dawson had to stay hidden yet alive. Although this did not happen I believe that killing him was to be expected considering how this whole book is about Elisha preparing to kill a man. I think that the last paragraph actually ended the story quite well because of how the book started and ended with a child crying as a symbol of death.
ReplyDeleteI think that Elie Wiesel did a brilliant job expressing how someone might feel when preparing to kill someone. He showed that Elisha wanted to hate John Dawson in order to have a better reason to kill him, but in fact Elisha liked John Dawson. Elisha ran through a scenario that would express his fears. He thought of what people might ask him after he had killed John Dawson and that he would have no reason except that he was the enemy and that Elisha had to follow his orders. He wanted so badly to hate him so that he had a good reason to have killed him, but it was not in his heart to hate him for any reason.
I think that Elie Wiesel’s writing style could be better in some areas. I think that the flashback interruptions are sometimes misplaced resulting in the reader being confused. I certainly was confused and impatient when Dawson was writing a note and then suddenly Elisha had a flashback of people he met in Germany. I just wanted to know what John Dawson was writing to his son.
The one major thing from Dawn that was very similar to The Da Vinci Code was the fact that both books, from start to finish, happened in the same time span. They both started at night and ended the next day. Compared to The Da Vinci Code I think that Dawn was less interesting and not as well written. I think that I personally liked The Da Vinci Code more because of all the action and learning and I think that Dawn was a good book, but it was mildly depressing and short.