How would you describe the war through the eyes of a school girl, and what does the author mean when she states, “memory says want to do it right? Don’t count on me.”
a) To the girl, the war is a very confusing and bizzare topic. It’s nothing like anything she’s seen or read about before. The fact that she’s Jewish and sees fellow Jews going through a genocide makes it even harder to comprehend. She reads alot of books to try and “grasp the world”- but these barely provide an explanation for the things she’s seeing.
b) When the author Rich says “Memory says: Want to do it right? Don’t count on me,” I think her message is that we shouldn’t look to the past for inspiration on how society should function. She points to several ills in society like war, genocide, prostitution and poverty to show that the world isn’t perfect. She lists several places around the world like Mississippi and Berlin to show that such problems are a global epidemic. Her statement “I’ve dreamed of Zion.. I have dreamed my children could live at last like others” shows that she has hope that in the future these problems will be solved.
