"We drank, we ate, we sang. The Bible bade us rejoice during the seven days of the feast, to be happy. But our hearts were not in it. Our hearts had been beating more rapidly for some days. We wished the feast were over, so that we should not have to play this comedy any longer."
(Elie Wiesel, "Night," page 20)
This quote really spoke to me in a way I couldn't quite pinpoint. It seems to show how hard the Holocaust was for Jews- even before all the famous stuff really happened. Somehow, even during one of the most festive times of the year for a Jew, this quote shows how nobody really enjoyed it.
The part of the quote that says, "We wish the feast were over, so we should not have to play this comedy any longer," is the part that really stuck out to me. At first glance, my thought was, "Oh, they're just putting on a show in hopes of keeping their family members in good spirits." But when I really thought about what happened in this period of time, something struck me: The author is getting across that they weren't just putting on a show for their family members- they were also doing it for themselves! They knew this was a bad time for Jews, and that things were only going to get worse. But in the happy setting of the holiday, they tried to fool themselves into cheering up and getting in the merry spirit. But they couldn't. That's what the quote really says. They were trying to be happy in this dreadful time, but no matter what, they couldn't.
2 comments:
Susan, this blog could also mean that in the event of trying to cheer up her family she was not devoted enough because of how hard of a time it was on her to try to cheer herself up let alone cheer up her whole family.
You did a good job on quoting and doing the analysis on the quote!
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