This way for the gas,ladies and gentlemen– Jing Cao

I go back inside the train; I carry out dead infants; I unload luggage. I touch corpses, but I cannot overcome the mounting, uncontrollable terror. I try to escape from the corpses, but they are everywhere: lined up on the gravel, on the cement edge of the ramp, inside the cattle cars. Babies, hideous naked women, men twisted by convulsions. I run off as far as I can go, but immediately a whip slashes across my back. Out of the corner of my eye I see an S.S.man, swearing profusely. I stagger forward and run, lose myself in the Canada group. Now, at last, I can once more rest against the stack of rails.

-What is going on in the example you share?  This is  a description of his life, and from this part, I can know his feeling, he has to face the dead body every day, and he is desperate.

-What about this example made a particularly strong impression on you?  The first sentence, “I carry out dead infants.”

–What is its significance within the context of the story? There are so many people dead, he wants to escape the corpses, but they are everywhere. Killing is not a serious thing in there, dead body all around. I can image from his description, there is a dark place, and people has no freedom.

–What questions does it raise? life is cheap in there, even the infants. All the sentences can express his feeling. I think this example include a lot of information, his daily life, the environment, the situation he faces.

One thought on “This way for the gas,ladies and gentlemen– Jing Cao

  1. Jing,
    The lines you quote here help us to understand the narrator’s reaction to what he is seeing and experiencing. He is changed by the experience he has unloading the trains. In the lines you quote, he is terrified, but elsewhere we see that he is also angry. Why doesn’t he feel more compassion for the new arrivals? What does this experience do to him?
    JS

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