Dawn Analytical

The book of Dawn was brimming with symbolism and flipped through Elisha’s entire past so much that we, the reader, feel as if we’d known him our entire lives. Elisha was a character very confused about what was right and wrong. He knew his duty and that he must carry it out but for what purpose?

Elisha had a past of horrors in Nazi concentration camps, and was led to the terrorism world by a man named Gad. He’d 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 despised the idea of having to murder an innocent man with an innocent family just because someone told him that he’s his enemy. He finally sees the other side of the gun of his days in Buchenwald where now he kills an innocent man that he’s told is an enemy. Elisha feels like he’s betraying his past and his family if their teachings and friendships lead to him being a murderer. He does not understand why he must kill John Dawson except that he’s told to.

John Dawson, Elisha feels, is under the same impression except he doesn’t know why he must die. He’s an English captain with a family, but must die as revenge for David Ben Moshe’s hanging. Dawson is now seeing the side of the gun 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 naive. Dawson knows Elisha’s being taken advantage of by the higher terrorists and pities him for acting as a pawn. Elisha states 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’d send her voice across the radio to inspire the movement. In the book, she acted as a nurturer to Elisha, trying to comfort him as the time came closer to his murder 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 pawn in this all and shouldn’t