Dawn

The book of Dawn was full of symbols, themes, and so much information that told about the authors life. The novel told many things about Elisha’s entire past so much that I could feel as if actually knew him. The main character, Elisha was a character very confused about what was right and what was wrong. He knew his duty as a solider and that he must fulfill his every duty, but for what purpose?

Elisha’s memories were so freighting because some things he knew and some things he didn’t had a past of horrors in Nazi concentration camps, and was led to the world of terrorism by a man named Gad. He killed people before, so why was killing John Dawson so difficult for him. This time, he was an executioner and not someone fighting to stop an enemy caravan or another man with a gun. Elisha didn’t like the idea of having to murder an innocent man with a family just because someone told him that he’s his enemy. He finally sees the true meaning of what many people meant in Buchenwald where now he kills an innocent man that he’s told is an enemy. Elisha feels like he is betraying his past and his family if their experience and loyalty lead to him being a murderer. He does not understand why he must kill John Dawson except that he’s told to.

Elisha feels that John Dawson is under the same impression as he is except he doesn’t know why he must die. John Dawson is an English captain with a family, but must die as revenge for David Ben Moshe’s hanging. Dawson is now seeing the side that the Jews saw during the Holocaust. When Elisha visits Dawson during the hour before his death, Dawson tells Elisha that he feels sorry for him. He feels this way because he knows Elisha is so young and immature. Dawson knows Elisha’s being taken advantage of by the higher terrorists and feel sorry for him because he was acting as a “flunky” (my term). Elisha always say throughout the story that he has no idea why he should kill Dawson except because that he’s his enemy.

Ilana was a woman who was the voice of the terrorist movement. She would send her voice across a radio station to “boost up” the movement. In the book, she acted as a care giver to Elisha, trying to comfort him as the time came closer to his execution of John Dawson. She seemed to know that the whole movement was wrong and that she didn’t truly support it. This was seen when she came back from the radio announcement and her speech was complemented and she said that it wasn’t her words but the Old Man’s. She calls Elisha a poor boy because she knows he’s just a “fluky” in