Reading Check
Discussion Questions
Quote Analysis
Literary Elements
Ignore
100
What kept Elie from falling behind and getting killed during the march?
Elie's father running beside him.
100
Juliek seems to only focus on the care of his violin in such dreadful circumstances. Playing music with it was even the last thing he ever did. Why was he so attached to it? Why is it that Juliek finds the care of his violin so imperative?
Juliek has been traveling on his own (he has no family with him). The only thing he still has from his old life is the violin. The violin is to Juliek what Elie's father is to Elie.
100
"These words of encouragement, even coming as they did from our assassins were of great help".(92)
Even though the encouragement is coming from the SS officers it was the only thing they could hang on to to keep from giving up. They were so desperate for any reason to live that encouragement from just about anyone could keep them going.
100
"We threw blankets over our shoulders, like prayer shawls".(96)
Simile
100
Ignore
What is no
200
Why didn't Elie and his father want to fall asleep in the snow after reaching the shed?
They were afraid of dying in their sleep due to the cold.
200
Why would Elie forget about Zalman and Juliek so soon after their deaths?
Elie forgot about them because so many people were dying that everything was blurred for him, and the constant terrors he faced forced the past hardships out of his memory.
200
"He was gasping: I... I'm afraid ... They'll break ... my violin ... I ... I brought it with me."(94)
Juliek is afraid of losing his violin breaking because it is his last string of hope. The Nazis have taken everything else away from him without his violin he is nothing. His violin is his reason to live.
200
"How was I to leave this warm blanket?"(88)
Metaphor
200
Ignore
What is love, baby don't hurt me, no more
300
How were Elie his father able to stay together during selection?
Elie runs after his father and the commotion causes confusion, which allows him and his father to move to the other line.
300
What is the significance of Rabbi Eliahou’s son abandoning him on the road? Why does he do it and what do you think was going through his mind?
It shows that the Nazis had broken them down to the point that some people are forsaking there family in there own self interest. he did it because he saw his father falling behind and he didn't care enough about his father to stay behind and risk being shot. Run, stay alive, and don't get shot were probably the only things going through his mind
300
"My father's presence was the only thing that stopped me. He was running next to me, out of breath, out of strength, desperate. I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me?"(87).
Elie and his father are the only family that either of them currently have so they to be there for each other. His father keeps going for Elie and Elie keeps going for his father they support each other so that neither has to watch the other die.
300
"windowpanes were shattered,its walls covered in soot".(88)
Imagery
300
no
You should've realized what these are by now
400
What is the name of the facility they "marched" to?
Gleiwitz
400
After the run why does Elie say that he not only lost all strength but all illusion?
The illusion Elie is talking about is hope. At the end of the run Elie loses all hope of getting back to his old life and loses hope that they will be rescued as they move farther and farther into enemy territory.
400
"His whole being was gliding over the strings. His unfulfilled hopes. His charred past, his extinguished future. He played that which he would never play again."
He was saying goodbye to the world in the best way he knew how. He played his soul out breaking the silence which has so many times brought despair, heartbreak, and pain. He was going to die so he gave it everything he had so that everyone else could have a little bit of hope in this sea of hopelessness.
400
"It arrived only very late that evening. An infinitely long train, composed of roofless cattle cars."(97)
Hyperbole
400
Really
Stop
500
Who was Eliahu?
A rabbi looking for his son.
500
Why would Elie chase his father after he was called to the left for the selection of the weak and the ones who could walk?
Elie chased after his father because not only did his father need him to survive but his father symbolized the last of his humanity and the last thing he cared for other then him self.
500
"I knew that to sleep meant to die. And something in me rebelled against that death. Death which was settling in all around me, silently, gently.
Elie is fighting his urge to sleep because his father can't survive with out him and knows once he dies it means the Hitler and the Nazis won.
500
"Oh God, Master of the Universe, give me the strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahu's son has done".(91)
Irony
500
Turns out you win
No you don't