While reading Dawn, the major aspect that stood out to me the most was the brutally endless cycle of violence and revenge. Both the English soldiers and the members of the Movement seemed dutifully committed to Exodus 21:24-25 which states, "Eye for eye, tooth for a tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, and stripe for stripe." Whenever one side threw a grenade at the other, the opposing side retaliated almost immediately.
This constant state of "war" soon had me questioning, at what point does it end? At what point do the warriors end up just killing because they feel they should? When do you cross the line, moving from duty to personal glory?
So, bear with me here because I'm going to take a wonderful novel written by an incredible author and contrast it to a portion of a song sung by an equally wonderful artist... Lorde. I will ask for your forgiveness now.
In all honesty, when I was reading Dawn, all I could think about was Lorde's epic ballad, Glory and Gore. There was one section, specifically, that invoked this odd comparison. The verses state:
"No one 'round here's good at keeping their eyes closed
The sun's starting to light up when we're walking home
Tired little laughs, gold lie promises,
We'll always win at this, I don't ever think about death
It's alright if you do, it's fine
We gladiate but I guess we're really fighting ourselves
Roughing up our minds so we're ready when the kill time comes
Wide awake in bed, words in my brain,
"Secretly you love this, do you even wanna go free?"
Maybe it's just me, but these few verses seem to almost perfectly describe Elisha's internal and external struggle in Elie Wiesel's riveting tale. I mean, Lorde even sings about the sun starting to light up... Hence dawn!
In all seriousness, the line between *ahem* glory and gore is a fine one. Both are united in a strange and vicious cycle causing spectators to wonder, how does it all end? Or are we already past the point of no return?
Thank you for reading. Once again, I am so sorry.
Edit - Replied to Jamie Peters and Moriah Nelson.
This constant state of "war" soon had me questioning, at what point does it end? At what point do the warriors end up just killing because they feel they should? When do you cross the line, moving from duty to personal glory?
So, bear with me here because I'm going to take a wonderful novel written by an incredible author and contrast it to a portion of a song sung by an equally wonderful artist... Lorde. I will ask for your forgiveness now.
In all honesty, when I was reading Dawn, all I could think about was Lorde's epic ballad, Glory and Gore. There was one section, specifically, that invoked this odd comparison. The verses state:
"No one 'round here's good at keeping their eyes closed
The sun's starting to light up when we're walking home
Tired little laughs, gold lie promises,
We'll always win at this, I don't ever think about death
It's alright if you do, it's fine
We gladiate but I guess we're really fighting ourselves
Roughing up our minds so we're ready when the kill time comes
Wide awake in bed, words in my brain,
"Secretly you love this, do you even wanna go free?"
Maybe it's just me, but these few verses seem to almost perfectly describe Elisha's internal and external struggle in Elie Wiesel's riveting tale. I mean, Lorde even sings about the sun starting to light up... Hence dawn!
In all seriousness, the line between *ahem* glory and gore is a fine one. Both are united in a strange and vicious cycle causing spectators to wonder, how does it all end? Or are we already past the point of no return?
Thank you for reading. Once again, I am so sorry.
Edit - Replied to Jamie Peters and Moriah Nelson.
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