dialectic journaling

Journal #1
“The student of Talmud, the children that I was, had been consumed into the flames.”(pg 34)

This is a short but simple quote from Eli. As he throws all of his clothes except for his belt and shoes into the fire he knows that he has a new life. He is now forgetting and loosing his childhood in Talmud. His pride and dignity and everything that made him happy has now burst into raging flames, and he reminisces on his childhood that is now gone. It also sounds like when he says “The child he was had been consumed into the flames” is also an indicator that he is being mature about the situation, and he is acting the age that he told the SS officer, 18.