Chapter 2
Elie has transitioned from worry and anxiety to hope by the end of this chapter when he is deceived into believing that he has come to a place of safety and will not be separated from his family. However, on the train ride he experiences what is to come as he witnesses insanity and destruction of primitive humanity in Mrs. Schachter! He can not bear to see her screams and pains from the separation of herself and her husband, and especially can not bear seeing her young son lose hope in her and cling to her even though she is a fragment of her old self. Elie has already changed by realizing what can happen to people without love and how dehumanization is beginning to start. He worries what is to come and fights to keep a pure, innocent mind while others have already submitted to the Nazi pressure. Although he can develop some understanding of what the Nazis have to come, he clings to hope with his father so they can enjoy the time they have.
- “Her little boy was crying, clinging to her skirt, trying to hold her hand… He pained me even more than did his mother’s cries.” Page 25