What Influenced Elisha? - Caroline Tucker

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Remember in class when we predicted that Elisha would do the right thing. By that, I mean we predicted he would not execute John. Well, we were wrong. It is interesting that with all of the internal turmoil Elisha still executed John. Maybe, that is why Elisha wants John to make him laugh. Elisha mentioned that he was saved by a laugh. So, if Elisha was not sure whether or not to execute John, if he laughed maybe John would have lived. 
Something that influenced Elisha were the ghosts of people of his past. They influenced him to execute John. The ghost of his younger self told him that if he was going to execute John he would need all of them. I also thought it interesting that the ghost of young Elisha was eager to see an execution. 
These were my thoughts on just a small section of dawn. What do you think influenced Elisha to execute John?

P.S. I commented on Rebecca’s and Breanna’s posts.

Comments

Jamie Peters said…
I think that a lot of the influence towards his inevitable deed did come from himself, but also from his companions. All of the people in the room with him- Gad, Ilana, Gideon, Joab- had all been through so much of the same trauma that it was a sort of peer pressure to defend the cause. However, unlike the rest of them, he hadn't really had his defining moment like in the stories they told until the very end when he killed John Dawson.
February 16, 2020 at 4:47 PM
Logan Turner said…
I think whatever it was that influenced Elisha is supposed to be ambiguous. After all, the point of the story was about his own internal conflict and these types of conflicts are very rarely going to get wrapped up all nice and neat. By leaving it unresolved, we end up feeling as conflicted as Elisha did, because he didn't know why he pulled the trigger either.
February 17, 2020 at 7:54 AM
Eliza Colbert said…
I hadn't thought of the connection with the laugh, but you are absolutely right. Elisha doesn't come right out and acknowledge it himself, but I do think that if John Dawson had made him laugh he wouldn't have done it. He says that he cannot shoot a man who is smiling, perhaps he wouldn't have been able to shoot a man who made him smile.
February 17, 2020 at 12:23 PM
Luke Killam said…
I hadn't thought of the connection with the laugh either, and I think that's a great point. Also it did speak into his inner turmoil when it mentioned the ghost of his younger self was eager to see the execution.
February 17, 2020 at 2:13 PM
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