Eliezer Character Timeline by LUIS LOPEZ GUANDIQUE

Eliezer meets Moishe the Beadle

llopezgu0004 — 2024-10-15 20:52:59 UTC

"'Why do you pray?' [Moishe] asked after a moment. Why did I pray? Strange question. Why did I live? Why did I breathe? ... [Moishe] explained to me, with great emphasis, that every question possessed a power that was lost in the answer ... The real answers, Eliezer, you will find only within yourself" (5).

This is the first time Eliezer gets to talk to Moishe the Beadle ,who is Eliezer's mentor and they both discuss why do they pray.

This moment is crucial because before that moment Eliezer prayed and believed on God because those were the values his family inculcated on him and starts a tendency of Eliezer doubting about God/starting to do things against his religion and Moishe also teaches Eliezer an important lesson;to only trust himself and that the real answers are inside him which is going to be important for Eliezer in order to survive in the concentration camps.

Eliezer and the other Jews arrive to the concentration camp

llopezgu0004 — 2024-12-02 21:04:37 UTC

"Our doors opened. Strange-looking creatures, dressed in striped jackets and black pants, jumped into the wagon. Holding flashlights and sticks, they began to strike at us left and right, shouting: "Everybody out! Leave everything inside. Hurry up!" We jumped out. I glanced at Mrs. Schächter. Her little boy was still holding her hand. In front of us, those flames. In the air, the smell of burning flesh. It must have been around midnight. We had arrived. In Birkenau." (Eliezer 28)

This is the moment in which Eliezer,his family and the other Jews arrive to Birkenau,the concentration camp in which they are going to stay under the Nazis' command.

This moment is crucial because is the start of their journey in "hell" and is the last moment Eliezer is going to be with his close family together,it also starts a journey in which Eliezer is going to face religious struggle,decide between his own good or family obligations.

Mrs.Schater's son holding her hand is a representation of Eliezer doing anything possible to not be separated from his father through the whole journey.

This matters because it starts the character development of Eliezer and how he is going to need to make changes and take crucial decisions in order to survive.

The night Eliezer's perspective of life changed

llopezgu0004 — 2024-12-02 21:39:17 UTC

"NEVER SHALL I FORGET that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky. Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes. Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never." (Eliezer 34)

This is the moment in which Eliezer develops a "trauma" and rancor towards the Nazis and everything involved with the holocaust.

This is crucial because Eliezer starts to develop loss of hope , rancor and is the moment in which himself as a person starts to change and fight with the values he has been taught such as religion as he mentions " Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God " those moments murdered his inner faith in God.

This matters and shows a develop and change inside him because he starts doing this for his own good such as eating on rosh hashannah instead of following the others as their religion commands them to do.

The Hanging of prisoners

llopezgu0004 — 2024-12-04 20:53:23 UTC

"But the third rope was still moving: the child, too light, was still breathing… And so he remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death, writhing before our eyes. And we were forced to look at him at close range. He was still alive when I passed him. His tongue was still red, his eyes not yet extinguished. Behind me, I heard the same man asking: "For God's sake, where is God?" And from within me, I heard a voice answer: "Where He is? This is where—hanging here from this gallows… " (Eliezer 65)

This is not the first time Eliezer and the other Jews witness a murder/hanging of a prisoner,but its the first a child survives to the hanging and its left dying in pain with no one being able to help him.

This moment is important because it is one of the first moments in which Eliezer faces religious struggle and doubts of God's power,even telling himself that God is "dead" hanging on the gallows.

This is crucial for his character development because he gets a different perspective of God and all the values he has been taught and starts to think more deeply on why he does what he does or why things happen.

Eliezer losses faith in God's mercy

llopezgu0004 — 2024-12-04 21:17:40 UTC

"I know. No one has the right to say things like that. I know that very well. Man is too insignificant, too limited, to even try to comprehend God's mysterious ways. But what can someone like myself do? I'm neither a sage nor a just man. I am not a saint. I'm a simple creature of flesh and bone. I suffer hell in my soul and my flesh. I also have eyes and I see what is being done here. Where is God's mercy? Where's God? How can I believe, how can anyone believe in this God of Mercy?" (Eliezer 76/77)

In this moment Eliezer's faith in God is gone,and completely says things he would've not said before.

This is crucial because is the first big change in Eliezer's personality,losing faith in God doesn't only mean that he won't believe in him and thats it,he starts doing things that Believers won't do because is a sin or is incorrect under God's view.

An important connection is that he losses faith in God's mercy,he still believes that there is a God but he losses faith in any type of mercy God has on humans.

Eliezer's life is hanging on a cliff

llopezgu0004 — 2024-12-04 23:14:42 UTC

"A small red flame… A shot…Death enveloped me, it suffocated me. It stuck to me like glue. I felt I could touch it. The idea of dying, of ceasing to be, began to fascinate me. To no longer exist. To no longer feel the excruciating pain of my foot. To no longer feel anything, neither fatigue nor cold, nothing. To break rank, to let myself slide to the side of the road… My father's presence was the only thing that stopped me." (Eliezer 86)

This is the moment in which Eliezer losses hope not only in God,in life too,with his faith and reasons to live hanging on his dad.

This moment symbolizes a change in Eliezer,even though his faith in God's mercy is gone,his body is in bad conditions,out of energy of both running and living,he shows he has matured throughout the journey to stay loyal to his dad and keep going,acting as a leader and motivating his dad to also keep going to stay with his son.

Their final destination

llopezgu0004 — 2024-12-07 06:42:52 UTC

"The death rattle of an entire convoy with the end approaching. All boundaries had been crossed. Nobody had any strength left. And the night seemed endless. Meir Katz was moaning: "Why don't they just shoot us now?" That same night, we reached our destination. It was late. The guards came to unload us. The dead were left in the wagons. Only those who could stand could leave. Meir Katz remained on the train. The last day had been the most lethal. We had been a hundred or so in this wagon. Twelve of us left it. Among them, my father and myself. We had arrived in Buchenwald." (Eliezer 103)

This is the moment in which the evacuation and the march ends and they arrive to Buchenwald.

This moment connects to the theme of Individual survival vs the collective good because Eliezer is going to need to decide between his own good or to continue with his father which could be an extra problem for him to worry about him.

This moment is significant because it shows how he has overcame all the problems by completely changing his ideas and mentality and still managed to make it to his last concentration camp with his father.

Eliezer's dad dies

llopezgu0004 — 2024-12-07 06:52:58 UTC

"Then I had to go to sleep. I climbed into my bunk, above my father, who was still alive. The date was January 28, 1945. I WOKE UP AT DAWN on January 29. On my father's cot there lay another sick person. They must have taken him away before daybreak and taken him to the crematorium. Perhaps he was still breathing.… No prayers were said over his tomb. No candle lit in his memory. His last word had been my name. He had called out to me and I had not answered. I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. But I was out of tears. And deep inside me, if I could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience, I might have found something like: Free at last!…" (Eliezer 112)

This is the moment in which his father dies.

This moment is significant because it shows how Eliezer is basically dead on the inside,he didn't even cry because of his father's dead,he felt like he was charging his father and that was slowing him down,he rather his own good than his father's live as he recognizes he thought he was free at last.

This event suggests that he now thinks that the only way to survive is by himself,he doesn't believe in God's mercy anymore,he feels a little bit "happy" because of his father's death,the holocaust completely destroyed him as a person that broke his loyalty to his family.

Eliezer is free but at what cost?

llopezgu0004 — 2024-12-07 07:02:06 UTC

"One day when I was able to get up, I decided to look at myself in the mirror on the opposite wall. I had not seen myself since the ghetto. From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me." (Eliezer 115)

This is the first moment Eliezer gets to see a reflection of himself after months.

This event is significant because the look in his eyes shows the trauma the holocaust has left on him,how his life is never going to be a normal life ever again,he is not going to have a life as any other kid his age would have and as he says that has never left him.

This event also represents his change,his deterioration over time,how he lost his faith in God's Mercy,he lost his dad and his values,but he managed to trust himself and that gave him the chance to survive.