Homework 1

MOCHA

Moishe the Beadle: poor, lived humbly, master of making himself insignificant, seeming invisible, awkward as a clown, waiflike timidity, great deeming eyes, spoke little; deported as a foreigner and escaped from a leg bullet and told his sight of seeing children dying used as targets and such; he becomes a symbol later in the book, I assume

Elie: a higher understanding to be able to learn the cabbala, believed profoundly in his religion

Elie’s Father: occupied with his business and the doings of the community might be the leader of the community since prominent members of the community seek him out

SETTING:

Detail the time and place the story begins:

When does the story begin?

1941

What year is it at the end of Chapter One?

1944

Where does Elie live?

Transylvania

IN-TEXT QUESTIONS:

Infer the answer from the text (Minimum 1-2 sentences):

Describe where Moishe the Beadle is taken and what happens to him.

The deportees crossed the Hungarian frontier and on Polish territory.  They were to be taken in charge of the Gestapo; in which the deportees had to dig there own graves as they were hanged or babies shot in the air for targets. This was near the forest of Glaicia, near Kolomaye. Moishe was wounded in the leg and taken for dead and took his escape from there.

Describe the treatment Moishe the Beadle is given when he returns.

No one listens to him, believes him, they start to believe he is doing this all for attention, to make them pity him. They began to believe he was a mad man.

Describe the condition of the synagogue when the Hungarian police bring the Jewish Community there.

The altar was broken, the hangings torn down, walls bare, person had to relieved themselves in a corner of the room, it was destroyed from its original glory.

LITERARY ELEMENTS:

ALLUSIONS:

The Destruction of the Temple (pg. 1):

There were two temples in Jerusalem. After the destruction of the first Temple, the Jews of Israel were exiled to Babylon. After the destruction of the second Temple, the Jews of Israel were exiled by the Roman Empire. 

The Cabbala (pg. 4):

Wisdom that teaches you how to receive fulfillment in your life; he direct definition Kabbalah means to receive

The Week of Passover (pg. 8):

The Jewish holiday.

SIMILIES AND METAPHORS: GIVE FOUR EXAMPLES

METAPHOR: A wind of calmness and reassurance blew through our houses.

            SMILI: “They take me for a madman,” he whisper, and tears, like drops of wax, flowed from his eyes.

            METAPHOR: rub salt in their wounds

            METAPHOR: The shadows beside me awoke as from a long sleep

IRONY:

The celebrating of Passover in their current situation (pg. 8):

They were supposed to be happy, to rejoice, but they weren’t.

SHORT ANSWER QUESTION

Minimum 4-5 Sentences

Why don’t the Jews listen to the warnings of the danger to come? What explains their ignorant optimism?

The Jews believed that God wouldn’t do this to his chosen ones, that he wouldn’t make them suffer as if they were in hell. It is explained when they turned every negative information into a better view, the other side of the coin, saying this would be the last, it will only cause a great happiness. The whole deportation was to protect them.