Journal Entry #1

Jounral Entry #1
Chapter 1 : The Journey

Chapter 1 was a kickoff of Primo's unfortunate events. Even though chapter 1 only described the deportation and selection process, I was still very horrified by how Primo described his feelings using many similies and metaphors. "We said farewell and it was short; everybody said farewell to life through his neighbour. We had no more fear." How can someone let go of hope of living and be afraid of nothing? It seems that the Jews knew what their destiny was going to be, letting looses of any hope that they had before riding the train. The train is very symbolic in this story since the train is the transportation the German's use to send the Jews to their "final destination." Primo Levi describes this gruesome journey as a journey towards nothingness, which is very ironic that the Jews are going somewhere, but that somewhere would become nothing to them. The process of moving the Jews at dawn, and stopping at dusk is very symbolic with the train also. When the day starts, the train also starts heading towards its destination. When dusk comes, the train also stops. We can compare the live's of the Jews like dawn and dusk also. Every day, at dawn, the Jews who survived through the journey for one day needs to get ready to experience hell in the train again. Just like the way the sun falls at dusk, however, the Jews who aren't strong enough fall dead also. I wonder how it was like being in one of those trains, feeling the stench and longing for just a drop of water in order to survive.
Though chapter 1 was only a beginning to all this, it still infuriated me how the German's treated the Jews. I wonder how it would be like off the train, and inside the factory of death.