Dawn Summary to Page 44

1) A summary of the book up to page 44.

      First Elisha states that "Tomorrow... I shall kill a man" and then questions who this stranger is, what he does and how he acts. He flashes back to a time before the holocaust when he is talking to a beggar about night. The man says that night is purer than day, and when you can see a face in a window that day has passed into night. Every night Elisha looks to see when night moves into day. Later he says that all of the people he sees in the window are dead, so it terrifies him when he sees himself in the window the night after he learned he was to kill a man the next day. He is an 18-year-old holocaust survivor who was liberated from Buchenwald by Americans. When they offered to send him to his old home, he refused, saying that there was nothing left for him there. They asked where he wanted to go and he said that he didn't know. They sent him to Paris, where he met Gad. When Elisha answered his door, Gad told him that he knew everything about Elisha. After inviting himself in, Gad asked for his future, then stated that he was a messenger.He said he would make his future "into an outcry... An outcry first of despair and then of hope. And finally a shout of triumph." He went on to talk about the Movement, and asked Elisha to join them; Elisha agreed. It returns to the present when Ilana is addressing John Dawson's mother on the radio. He flashed back to when he first killed a man, but he was in a group so it doesn't have as deep of a meaning. On the night before the execution Elisha, Joab, Gideon, Gad, and Ilana talk about how death saved their lives. Dead people surround him, the people who created who he was, egging him on to become a murderer, to make them murders also. Ilana said "poor boy" to Elisha, causing him to flash back to his time with Catherine, a lady who likes hitting on people who are death. She said that often and the two words and it still haunted him. The ghostly little boy was him before the holocaust and tried to persuade him to bring John Dawson food. When he finally agrees, Gad races down the stairs instead. Ilana chants "poor boy" and begins to cry.

2) A PREDICTION about what you think will happen.

I believe that the book will continue on to the execution. Because of the English's belief that the Jews are lying, I think that they will continue on with the killing of David ben Moshe to call the Jew's bluff. To prove them wrong, Elisha will still be forced to kill John Dawson, changing himself forever. No longer will he be Elisha the holocaust survivor, but Elisha the murderer. I don't think that he should be called a murderer because he isn't doing it because of a personal hate, but because of an obligation to the movement.

3) What you would do if you were in Elisha's situation.

      Elisha has no choice as to whether he wants to be John Dawson's executioner or not. If I were in his situation, I would have no other options than to go through with the execution or abandon everything I had come to known in Palestine. I'd probably end up following through with execution rather than escaping. Since I would have already gone through the Holocaust, I would not be able to leave behind my life once again. I believe that it would be horrible to be forced to kill another man just because his allies would soon be doing the same to someone from my side.