I Have Lived a Thousand Years

723 Words2 Pages

“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed…“(Wiesel 32) Livia-Bitton Jackson wrote a novel based on her personal experience, I Have Lived a Thousand Years. Elli was a Holocaust victim and her only companion was her mother. Together they fought for hunger, mistreatment and more. By examining the themes carefully, the audience could comprehend how the author had a purpose when she wrote this novel. In addition, by seeing each theme, the audience could see what the author was attacking, and why. By illustrating a sense of the plight of millions of Holocaust victims, Livia-Bitton Jackson explores the powerful themes of one’s will to survive, faith, and racism.

The one’s will to survive is a theme in this story and shown in almost every situation. This was shown first when Laura showed Elli a little pond at the ghetto, and how they drank dirty water in order for their thirst to subside. Furthermore, Jackson might be trying to say that if someone wants to subsist (like them); they will have to make sacrifices in order to live. However, because of their hunger, they got animal-like. For example, this is a quote between Elli and her mother in the ghetto. “Mommy, there’s a worm on your spoon!…””Nonsense, These are not worms. Eat, and leave me alone.” (Jackson 102-103). Her mom was sightless by the worms and just saw only the soup, and would not see the veracity. Jackson is trying to prove that practically everyone turned un-civilized for their will to survive, because the Jews are in a place where they are treat them like animals, furthermore, if they are in a place like that, they are not civilized no longer. In brief, the one’s will...

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...der feel sympathy for the Jews, and to feel hatred towards the Nazi’s. Finally, racism is a situation that cannot fade away because people still feel hatred towards one another, like in the situation of the Holocaust.

Finally, upon the analysis of the themes, one’s will to survive, faith, and racism in Jackson’s book, her illustration of the Holocaust victims and their choices made her want people to understand what they went through. If anyone likes reading about the Holocaust, this book is the right one for its vivid images, and more of an understanding of the Holocaust, by letting you (the reader) to get into the book and living it.

Works Cited

Jackson, Livia Bitton. I Have Lived a Thousand Years: Growing up in the Holocaust. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster for Young Readers, 1997. Print.

Wiesel, Elie. Night. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1999. Print.

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