The absence of a boot.

Artifact from:

 http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_da.php?MediaId=111

Passage: pages 82 to 84

Here Elle is recalling the time as a child when he and his father tried to escape the Nazi camp by running away from the camp with the other Jews, instead of staying back in the infirmary and hoping for the best.  The biggest problem for Elle here was that before his attempted escape his foot that had been operated opened up and began to bleed, this ended up causing many problems for Elle.

Now the artifact I have posted above is of a boot which was supplied to someone named Jacob Polak(a former Nazi prisoner) by the American army after the liberation of the Nazi camp begam.  This tells us that the Jewish prisoners of the Nazi’s didn’t have proper footwear, of which we also see when Elle was running away on his bare bloody painful foot.

These facts have led me to think that Elle is symbolizing not having proper footwear or proper boots (in relativity to a Nazi prisoner) as defeat, and not being able to escape Nazi imprisonment.  This can be seen in the passage towards the end on page 84, as Elle and his fellow inmates become captured again by the Nazi S.S. officers.  Though in the story of the artifact of the link I have posted above, Jacob should in my opinion associate his proper footwear/boots with victory, as it was only brought to him by people who were trying to save him and liberate him from the Nazi’s, the American army.  So Elle is basically trying to say: our escape was unsuccessful.

            Another interesting thing to notice in this passage is when Elle was trying to fall asleep but could not as his “foot was on fire”.(Wiesel, 83)  Now, you might think that Elle just can’t fall asleep because his foot was killing him, of which we can interpret from this metaphor.  Though I also think Elle is trying to bring back and repeat the idea of the crematorium, and the fire and flames which come with it. I think Elle is trying to foreshadow that their escape will be failed and they will be caught by the Nazi’s again, as Elle and the reader is now well aware that “fire” symbolizes death and loss for the Jews in this Nazi camp, and by saying that his “foot was on fire.(Wiesel, 83).  Elle is trying to show in easy terms of his foot hurting that his escape will be a failure, as it is hard to run fast or even walk with a burning foot. Therefore Elle foreshadows in the end basically that him and his escaped Jewish inmates will become Nazi prisoners in the future again.

In the end, Elle using symbolization and foreshadowing together to help him signify that him having no proper footwear for his painful foot, shows that his escape with the others will be a failure.