chapter 5 & 6

CHAPTER FIVE & SIX

1.    1. What does Elisha imagine that the room is filled with?

He imagines that the room is filled with ghosts from his past. Every human being that is dead and helped him become who he is.

2. What does the beggar tell Elisha about this night?

The beggar says that it is a night of many faces.

3. What does the little boy tell him?

The little boy says that he and the rest of the ghosts are not judgeing, but want to see the act of murder being commited because they were to turn into murderers because of Elisha.

4. Why is it significant that it is the boy who speaks?

The little boy is his old self.

5. How did John Dawson react when told he would die?

John Dawson smiled and said his stomache had told him. He requested a last meal.

6. Why does Elisha not want to see Dawson eat?

He wants to remember John Dawson as a man who never eats. Also, he believes men who are going to die can’t eat.

7. What problem does Elisha think is worse than fear?

He was worried about John Dawson making him laugh because a laugh saved Elisha. Also, the roles that the executioner and victim are worse than fear itself.

8. In what way does Ilana say that war is like night.

War covers everything.

9. What other observations of war does she make?

There are two ways to kill: one way is with your hands, the other is with you voice.

10. After the war ends, what does Elisha think will remain?

Elisha believes he will remain an executioner forever even after war has ended. The purpose and the end is all that will last.

11. What does he think the silent dead do?

Elisha thinks the silent dead judge him and his actions with out pity, and commend with not words or jestures, but their very existence.

12. What does he say the freedom nation is built upon?

He said the freedom of the nation is built upon a foundation of dead bodies.

13. Elisha says he is not a murderer but an idealist. How is this true?

He is choosing life apposed to death.

14. In what way did he, as a youth, try to follow any idealist dream?

When in their youth, Yerachmiel and Elisha tried to purify their souls enough to bring the Messiah to earth.

15 What do the presences symbolize as far as what makes a man?

The presenseces symbolize that a man is made up of everyone and everything that helped him become who he was.

16. What does the revolver symbolize for Elisha?

The revolver symbolizes Elisha, and all of the people who created him, turning into murderers.

17. Why does he say that in an hour everything will be different?

At the end of the hour he will become a murderer.

CHAPTER SIX

1. What is ironic about the meaning of Elisha's name?

Elisha’s name is ironic because it is also the name of a prophet that brings life to people and he does the exact opposite.

2. What does Elisha think the next day will bring him?

Elisha thinks the next day will bring him

3. Why does John Dawson understand Elisha better than any human

being?

John Dawson and Elisha have a special connection between executioner and victim. Elisha was the last man John Dawson ever saw.

4. What two burning sensations does Elisha feel?

The pistol in his pocket and every sentence John Dawson spoke were two burning sensations Elisha felt.

5. Whom does Elisha picture when he tries to picture David Ben Moshe?

He pictures John Dawson because John Dawson is the only man that he knows, and has seen, that is condemned to die.

6. What experiences did Dawson's artistic hands make Elisha think of?

Elisha thought of how Stefan back in the holocaust, got each one of his fingers on his right hand cut off because he wouldn’t tell the names of other Jews that were doing a resistance against the Germans.

7. Is he right in saying, "Now our only chance lies in hating you, in learning the necessity and art of hate"?

Yes he is right, because that’s the only way to possibly cope with killing John Dawson.

8. What is the meaning of, "I've killed Elisha"?

He killed his old self because he changed drastically.

9. What does he hear his mother say to him?

His mother says poor boy, poor poor boy.

10. Explain the last line of the novel.

Elisha sees his face and before he has always seen dead people’s faces, but now he has seen his own. He killed himself and  changed so drastically that his old self has died.