"Why Did You Kill John Dawson?"

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"Why did you kill John Dawson?"- the most significant question in the story, and it gets left unanswered. I think that the question gets left unanswered is largely because Elisha himself didn't really have an answer. The answer "because he's the enemy" that Gad would typically resort to didn't reside well in Elisha. He attempted to justify it by saying he hated him - because he was an Englishman - but Elisha couldn't bring himself to hate John, try as he might. He even tries to say "I hate him not because he's my enemy, not because he hates me, but because he arouses me to hate," but even Elisha doesn't believe it. So the question remains- why did he do it? Why kill John Dawson?

P.S. I apologize for the late post, my internet at home was down all weekend.

Edit: Commented on Caroline Tucker's and Rebecca Belew's posts

Comments

Osten said…
Well, killing John Dawson was a political statement. Yes, anyone could have done it but it was a sort of baptism by fire. This had to take place in order to know that Elisha was truly a part of the freedom fighters. However, your point still stands. I think another thought to add to that would be, why try to hate someone by asking them for a funny story?
February 17, 2020 at 12:09 PM
Drew Hedden said…
It's definitely a pressing question. I personally feel like Elisha's choice didn't rectify that question because it's supposed to raise questions about why any human could kill anyone. There is a level of justification, but there's always justification with any choice. I feel like Wiesel definitely could have been very relative/subjective when it came to philosophy.
February 17, 2020 at 1:27 PM
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