IRB Intro -- "127 Hours" by Aron Ralston

The IRB I have chosen to read for this marking period is "127 Hours" by Aron Ralston. The book focuses on Ralston's experience being trapped in Blue John Canyon in Utah over a 127 hour period, which is where the book gets its name from. Both the book and the movie based on the book have received multiple awards.

TOW #8 -- "Night" be Elie Wiesel (IRB Post #2)

At Birkenau -- first thought to be Aushwitz by Elie -- the first of many “selections” occurs. During these selections, those thought to be weak or unfit for physical work were separated from the others and killed. Elie and his father remain together after being separated from his mother and younger sister, both of whom he never sees again. Upon reaching the Nazi guards, Elie and his father lie about their ages to make themselves seemingly more able to complete physical labor. It is after this process, however, that Elie's fear peaks. While waiting in line to enter the camp, Elie watches as the Nazis throw babies and toddlers -- still alive and screaming -- into fires lining the path. In this moment, Elie's mindset switches from confusion to fearing for his life. He tells his father that what they see is impossible, that “humanity would never tolerate” such an atrocity. His father goes on to explain that humanity is non-existent while the other prisoners around them begin to recite the Jewish prayer for the dead, "the Kaddish." Elie joins the other prisoners in prayer, but he has trouble understanding what he has to thank God for. At one point, when the prisoners are told to go either left or right, it is not made clear which path lead to the barracks and which path lead to the crematorium. This uncertainty keeps the reader's attention while also holding their feelings captive until they figure out if Elie and his father are sent to the barracks or not, though since Elie is the one writing book and there are more chapters, it can be assumed Elie, at least, lives.
At the end of the summer of 1944, after many months of hard labor, the Jewish High Holidays arrive but Elie does not find a reason to bless God and rather mocks the idea that the Jews are God’s chosen people. The celebration of the Jewish New Year is short-lived as another selection is announced. Elie passes the first round, and his father passes the second. Elie knows more work is to come for both of them, but is happy not to be by himself. Winter soon arrives and the prisoners begin to suffer in the cold. Eliezer’s foot swells up, and he undergoes an operation. However, rumors of the approaching Russian army gives Elie new hope. This hope does not last long as the Germans decide to evacuate the camp before the Russians can arrive. The prisoners arrive at the Gleiwitz camp a few days later, met with a third selection before the prisoners are taken to a field where a train of cattle cars picks them up. The journey to Buchenwald takes even more lives.
Elie mentions only two more events after this, the death of his father on January 29, 1945 and the arrival of the American army on Aprill 11th, 1945, following days of Nazis slaughtering the prisoners. Elie, after having fully recovered, looked into a mirror -- something which he had not seen since Sighet -- and peered back at himself, recounting: “From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me.”
Uncertainty of Elie's future throughout the book captures the reader's interest and captivates their feelings. Foreshadowing is used throughout the book as a device to always keep the reader guessing whether or not Elie will be alive on the next page. It is through this device that Elie explains his own feelings he experienced while he was in the concentration camps.