Dawn Essays - Holocaust Literature, Night, Narration,

Dawn Chapter 1 Takes place in Palestine. The narrator knows that he has to kill a man tomorrow. He doesn't know who it is but he knows what he has to do. The man that was going to die was an Englishman. The reason that he had to kill was because there is a war. Beggar. A man that taught the narrator the difference between night and day. Narrator met him while he was at the synagogue. The man wears black clothes. The narrator met the man when he was 12 years old. The narrator, as a child admitted to the beggar that he was definitely afraid of the beggar. "Night is purer than day; it is better for thinking and loving and dreaming." (4) The man wants to teach the narrator to distinguish between night and day. The beggar taught the narrator to look into the dusk and there would be a face that would appear. Night has a face and day does not. The face that appears is of a dead person. The night before the narrator does what he has to do, he looks into the night and sees his own face. There is going to be an execution at dawn. All of the executions happened at dawn. The "Movement" always kept their word. A month earlier there was one of their fighters that had been on a terrorist operation. He was hauled in by the police and they found weapons on him. They hung the man. By law this is what they were supposed to do. This was the tenth death sentence by the mandatory power in Palestine. The "Old Man" decided that things had gone far enough and now he was not going to allow the English to rule any longer. The Old Man ordered that a military officer be kidnapped. They kidnapped Captain John Dawson who walked alone at night. (6) This made the country very tense. The English ordered a 24 hour curfew. They searched every house, and also arrested hundreds of suspects. Tanks were stationed at the crossroads, barbed wire barricades at street corners. They did not find the hostage. The High Commissioner of Palestine said that the whole country would be held responsible for the murder of the Captain, if he was in fact murdered. A few people got in touch with the Old Man and told him not to go too far. They wanted the man that was supposed to die, to live. If he died than the Captain would die. The mother of the Captain demanded that the English give up the young Jew so that she could have her son back. The men told her that "The Jews will never do it." (8) The Palestinians would not give up the Captain because it would show a sign of weakness. The English would not agree to the pardon because it would show a sign of weakness. It was announced over radio that the Jew was to be executed the next day. They said nothing about the Captain but everyone knew that he would die also. The narrator asked Gad who was going to kill the Captain who was going to kill the Captain. He replied "You are." It was an order from the Old Man. To Gad it was not a big deal. The narrator was amazed by the whole thing. Definite connection to Night. Foreshadow of events. Not wanting to Kill. But being ordered. Chapter 2 The narrator's name is Elisha. Age 18. "Gad had recruited me for the Movement and brought me to Palestine. He had made me into a terrorist." (11) The narrator was held in Buchenwald, a prison camp during the World War. The Americans liberated it and then they offered to send him home. He rejected it because he knew that his parents were dead and that his house and lands were under the control of foreign hands. He went to Paris and that is where he met Gad. He was offered asylum in France. He wanted to learn the language and go to school. but Gad came into his life. "The study of philosophy attracted me because I wanted to understand the meaning of the events of which I had been the victim." (12) "In the concentration camp I had cried out in sorrow and anger against God and also against man, who seemed to have inherited only the cruelty of his creator." (12) Gad, one night, knocked on the narrators door and walked in.