27 Matching Annotations
  1. Dec 2015
    1. Comrades, you are now in the concentration camp Ausch-witz. Ahead of you lies a long road paved with suffering. Don'tlose hope. You have already eluded the worst danger: the selec-tion. Therefore, muster your strength and keep your faith. Weshall all see the day of liberation. Have faith in life, a thousandtimes faith. By driving out despair, you will move away fromdeath. Hell does not last f o r e v e r ... A nd now, here is a prayer, orrather a piece of advice: let there be camaraderie among you. Weare all brothers and share the same fate. The same smoke hoversover all our heads. Help each other. That is the only way to sur-vive. And now, enough said, you are tired. Listen: you are inBlock 17; I am responsible for keeping order here. Anyone with a complaint may come to see me. That is all. Go to sleep. Two peo-ple to a bunk. Good night."Those were the first human words.

      The motif of this quote is religion. The purpose is that even in bad situations where people know their future is bleak they should still trust in their beliefs and have faith. The stylistic device used in this quote is restatement, when the man talks about having faith. His restatement reinforces the purpose because he is trying to get the men to trust in their god and keep faith and the restatement helps emphasize what he's saying.

    2. One by one, the houses emptied and the streets filled with peo-ple carrying bundles. By ten o'clock, everyone was outside. Thepolice were taking roll calls, once, twice, twenty times. The heatwas oppressive. Sweat streamed from people's faces and bodies.Children were crying for water.Water! There was water close by inside the houses, the back-yards, but it was forbidden to break rank.

      A. Oppression B. The oppressed don't understand why they are being oppressed and for that reason will have little knowledge of what is going on. They will not ask questions as they are the oppressed and are in no position to do so. C. Imagery D. Wiesel uses imagery to depict the state of confusion and despair that they were in.

    3. Kabbalah

      Kabbalah is the study of how to receive fulfillment in our lives. - See more at: https://www.kabbalah.com/what-kabbalah#sthash.Rxd6xGfz.dpuf

    4. "I am too old, my son," he answered. "Too old to start a newlife. Too old to start from scratch in some distant l a n d ..."

      A. Attachment B. People can make different decisions due to their attachment over something C. Repetition D. Wiesel's father repeatedly says "I am too old" which emphasizes how attached his father is to his home making him stay instead of go to a different country

    5. "Take care of your son. He is very weak, very dehydrated.Take care of y o u r s e l v e s, you must avoid selection. Eat! Anything,anytime. Eat all you can. The weak don't last very long around here..."And he himself was so thin, so withered, so weak..."The only thing that keeps me alive," he kept saying, "is to know that Reizel and the little ones are still alive. Were it not for them, I would give up."

      1. Staying alive
      2. Love helps one to stay alive.
      3. Repetition of the idea staying alive, and "take care".
      4. The repetition of taking care to stay alive emphasizes that fact he wants to stay alive, and connects the the fact he wants to stay alive for his loved ones. So the repetition of him wanting to stay alive shows just how much he loves his family, because he is doing so much just to stay alive for them.
    6. "Remember," he went on. "Remember it always, let it be graven in your memories. You are in Auschwitz. And Auschwitz is not a convalescent home. It is a concentration camp. Here, you must work. If you don't you will go straight to the chimney. To the crematorium. Work or crematorium—the choice is yours."

      1. Remembrance
      2. They must keep in mind that if they are danger, they aren't at home.
      3. Repetition
      4. The repetition of "remember" reinforces how the SS officer wants to remind them that Auschwitz is a camp, and if they don't work they will die.
    7. The Kapos
    8. The student ofTalmud, the child I was, had been consumed by the flames. Allthat was left was a shape that resembled me. My soul had beeninvaded—and devoured—by a black flame
      1. The motif is trauma
      2. This quote is saying that everything that he was put through had changed him as a person, and who he was before the traumatic events was no longer there.
      3. "My soul had been invaded--and devoured-- by a black flame." this is an example of personification
      4. The black flame that devoured his soul represents the terrible Nazis and the traumatic events that they put him through, and because he had to live through those inhumane experiences, he was forever changed as a person because his faith and innocence were completely lost.
    9. As for me, I had ceased to pray. I concurred with Job! I was not denying Hisexistence, but I doubted His absolute justice

      A) The motif in this quote is the denial of god/religion. B) The author is trying to tell you how Weisel is starting to deny god and religion because of what is happening to them. He is losing his hope. His belief in god is being changed because of the trauma going on. C) An allusion. He is referring to God and if you do not know that, you will be lost on who he lost absolute justice with. D)This connects to the theme because after the quote, Akiba talks about god testing them; trying to see who believes in this faith more.

    10. New suits, old ones, tornovercoats, rags. For us it meant true equality: nakedness.
      1. The motif is religion
      2. When people are put through traumatic events, some turn to religion to help them live though it.
      3. "New suits, old ones, torn overcoats, rags." This is an example of sentence fragments.
      4. The sentence fragments help support the motif of religion because when these people are thrown into this traumatic event they can only think in fragments because they are so scared, but when they think about religion it helps calm them down and lets them think.
    11. He was leaning against the wall, bent shoulders sagging as if under a heavy load. I went up to him, took his hand and kissed it. I felt a tear on my hand. Whose was it? Mine? His? I said nothing. Nor did he. Never before had we understood each other so clearly.

      Father/son relationship. All the events they have gone through together caused them to become closer to each other. This is an example of rhetorical question because he is asking whose tear it was, but its not supposed to be answered. They have grown so close to each other that it doesn't matter whose tear it was to each other, but only that they are still there for each other.

    12. I stood petrified. What had happened to me? My father hadjust been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked. I hadwatched and kept silent. Only yesterday, I would have dug mynails into this criminal's flesh. Had I changed that much? So fast?Remorse began to gnaw at me. All I could think was: I shall neverforgive them for this. My father must have guessed my thoughts,because he whispered in my ear:"It doesn't hurt." His cheek still bore the red mark of thehand

      1). The motif is the loss of care among prisoners.

      2). Being constantly exposed to these actions leads to the loss of care among the prisoners.

      3). When Wiesel says "What had happened to me?.. Had I changed that much? So fast?" These are examples of rhetorical questions.

      4). This use of the rhetorical question helps us fully understand how Elie is deterring mentally. He says that the previous day he would have mauled another prisoner had they done that to his Father, but today he has changed from that motivation because of all the horrific actions that he sees every single day, he's so used to it that it doesn't even affect him anymore.

    13. We believed in God, trusted in man, and lived with the illu- sion that every one of us has been entrusted with a sacred sparkfrom the Shekhinah's flame; that every one of us carries in hiseyes and in his soul a reflection of God's image

      God. He knows that god is with them, watching over. This is an example of Personification because everyone can't carries his eyes in his soul.

  2. Nov 2015
    1. I was afraid.Afraid of the blows.That was why I remained deaf to his cries.Instead of sacrificing my miserable life and rushing to hisside, taking his hand, reassuring him, showing him that hewasnot abandoned, that I was near him, that I felt his sorrow, insteadof all that, I remained flat on my back, asking God to make myfather stop calling my name, to make him stop crying. So afraidwas I to incur the wrath of the SS.

      A) Fear B) One can have so much fear that they can start to only care about their own survival and begin to have so much fear that they only care about self preservation. C) One literary device he uses is restatement. D) He uses restatement to emphasize how he was afraid of the SS.

    2. Dr. Mengele, the notorious Dr. Mengele
    3. We stood stunned, petrified.Could this be just a nightmare? An unimaginable nightmare?

      A) The motif for this quote could be fear. B) The theme for this quote could be fear can blur the lines of reality and fiction. C) The stylistic devise used in this quote is rhetorical question. D) By using a rhetorical question it allows a reader to see he is questioning himself. He is so scared that he believes for a second he is in a dream. He then questions himself wondering if it is just a horrible dream. This shows how sometimes in situations of terror we can feel as though it is not even reality.

    4. The baton, once more, moved to the left. A weight lifted frommy heart.

      A) The motif in this quote could be father/son relationship. B) A theme for this quote could be even in the most extreme situations love for you family still prevails. C) This stylistic device that is found in this quote is an idiom. D) When he says that a weight is lifted from his heart it shows that his heart was heavy from the thought of being split from his father. When his father is put into the same group as him and the weight seems to be lifted it shows that even in the situation they are in his father is the only thing that matters to him. Thus, connecting to the theme of love for your family prevailing through horrific times.

    5. By day I studied Talmud and by night I would run to the syna-gogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple

      This shows religion. You can do one thing while feeling different. He uses slang/dialect in words such as Talmud and synagogue. he does what he is supposed to during the day but lets his feelings out at night.

    6. Days went by. Then weeks and months. Life was normalagain.

      A: Overwhelmed B: To show how different it was and how easily it changed. C and D: Sentence fragments are used to reinforce the idea of showing how fast and easily their lives changed.

    7. "Yisgadal, veyiskadash, shmey raba...May His name be cele-brated and sanctified..." whispered my father.

      Religion. They are in a tough time and are seeking to religion to help themselves and their people. It makes them feel more safe and comfortable in a dangerous environment. This is an example of restatement because the quote is shown in two languages. They keep repeating religious quotes in memory of their people.

    8. she looked like a withered tree in a field of wheat

      A) The motif or subject that is continuously repeated is depression B)Traumatic events can lead to people being depressed and hopeless C)The stylistic technique used in this quote is a simile D)This simile reinforces the purpose of the quote because it's stating that the character is "withered" or worn out and depressed, from these traumatic events.

    9. I remember that night, the most horrendous of my life:...Eliezer, my son, comehere... I want to tell yousomething...Onlytoyou...Come, d o n 't l e a ve me a l o n e ... E l i e z e r ..

      Father/Son relationship: Because of these quotes it's telling us that family member care for each other, even if it's they'er last day of living. This quote is using connotation, to show the emotion of how the dad feels about the son.

    10. "Yisgadal, veyiskadash, shmey raba...May His name be cele-brated and sanctified..." whispered my father.

      Religion When all seems hopeless, people need something to lean on so they feel not all is lost. Earlier in the book the father was not religious at all and even discouraged Elie to read and study religion, but once in the death camp he prayed and recited their book of religion.This an example of repetition of how he repeats it to insure that it works somehow. He repeated it in jewish and in english.

    11. The wind of revolt died down

      Trauma; People were flustered during this time yet were forced to get over it to stay focused; Personification; People were in disgust and fear for what they'd just witness of the vital babies being thrown into the fire.

    12. Was it to leave behind a legacy of words, of memories, to helpprevent history from repeating itself?

      Denial; Because of a piece of writing, these actions shouldn't take place again; Rhetorical Question; I highly doubt that the action of writing a novel about the genocide would prevent the world from repeating these horrific actions. If so, I believe the Holocaust would not have triggered after .. slavery, a genocide itself.

    13. People thought this was a good thing. We would no longerhave to look at all those hostile faces, endure those hate-filledstares. No more fear. No more anguish. We would live among Jews, among brothers...

      Denial People didn't want to have to live with the reality that their world was crumbling before them. so they tried to make the best out of it in order to see the positive side instead of what it really was. This is parallelism as the he was shortening the sentences to get across the main, simple point of how they were belittling their problems and not taking it in the serious, ground shattering way that it was.

    14. My father was a cultured man, rather unsentimental. He rarelydisplayed his feelings, not even within his family, and was moreinvolved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin.The Jewish community of Sighet held him in highest esteem; hisadvice on public and even private matters was frequently sought.

      A) Father/Son relationship B) I believe that this is just giving some background information on his relationship with his father, and showing how his father interacts with the rest of the family. It's saying that you might see your parents in an entirely different way than how the community sees them. C) A small bit of repetition when he tells his father's traits D) This helps show the theme/motif by really showing how his father acts towards the family, but then is completely different towards people outside of the family.