- A tall, grey-haired woman who has just arrived on the “transport” whispers, “My poor boy,” to our narrator. What does she mean?
I think she means although our narrator doesn’t have to go to the gas and go for death now, he will also die after his value is exploited. From this point, the narrator is more piteous than the woman because he works for the people who will kill him at the end with no compensation and even no respect. After he finish his work and his tired and sick body can no longer create the value as a free labor, his death will come.
- “Are we good people?” asks our narrator. What is this exchange about? What do you think?
This scene reminds me of the prison experiment and also of what Chinese people suffer in the World War II. In my point of view, perhaps those crazy Nazi are just ordinary people before the war and before hearing those incitement slogans and ideas. Gradually, they become furious after they witness too many deaths and become indifferent about lives. They no longer view others as equal human beings, but rather, animals under the human just like pigs. Therefore, they kill people with no feelings or sympathy. In the prison experiment, ordinary people start dehumanizing the “prisoners” once they believe these “prisoners” are inferior to themselves. Japanese troops also did lots of crazy things to Chinese people such as Nanjing massacre and 731 bacterial troops. Before they were sent to war, many of them are actually kind people but their brute-hood were stimulated by the environment of war.
3. Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.” What seems strange about it?
This title is so strange and sorrowful because “This way to the gas” simply shouldn’t be put together with “Ladies and Gentlemen” just as “Let me kill you” shouldn’t go along with “my dear guests”. Using this title is astonishing to show the calm and indifference of Nazi when they kill harmless people, and the latter even don’t know they will face death shortly, many of who “think now they will have to face a new life in the camp, and they prepare themselves emotionally for the hard struggle ahead” (707). But my dear ladies and gentlemen, it’s not the camp, this way is just to the death.
Yanyan, Thanks for these responses. Just to be clear, the grey haired woman is about to go to her death. She takes the babies from the narrator with the understanding that this is her fate. The narrator’s fate is unclear, however. The grey haired woman wouldn’t have any reason to expect that he will be killed, though she probably would understand that he is a prisoner and is simply following orders in unloading the “transport.” Your connections to Chinese history are quite interesting. We certainly see these same themes of dehumanization and “blaming the victim” here.