McGrath/D’Abramo 42 mile run
The 42 mile run is from Buna to Gleivitz and it takes place during the Holocaust. It seems impossible especially since they are prisoners and they are skin and bon literally. They had accomplished it by being almost like a machine, also having a large pack of people contributed a large amount. The most important contribution was if you had family, if you had family you can use that as motivation like Elie Wiesel the writer of Night.
“We were no longer marching; we were running. Like automatons.” said Elie Wiesel. This means that they were running mechanically or like a robot. Elie said, “I was putting one foot in front of the other mechanically.” This means that he wasn’t doing it on purpose his body was doing it on its on. He said that he could feel himself as two entities of his body and himself. Almost as if his mind and body were separated.
The power of the pack was very strong but full of weak people. If it wasn’t a pack and it was just one person it would be impossible to do especially in these conditions. In the book Elie describes the pack as a tidal wave of men. This meant that there were thousands of men in the pack. If you were to stop you would be killed either by the guards or members of the pack trampling you. He said his body as galloping, and the others were too. So it was like a pack of horses running 42 miles.
“Death wrapped itself around me till it stifled. It stuck to me. I felt that I could touch it. The idea of dying, of no longer being, began to Fascinate me.” Elie said this, and this means he was going to give up, to just stop running and either be trampled or shot. But one thing stopped him, his father. If it wasn’t for his fathers presence Elie would be dead. This shows that if you had a family member with you then it would seem almost as motivation.
The three things that helped the pack run the 42 miles. One was running almost as if a robot, being mechanical. Another The size of the pack, if you stopped you would be killed by a tidal wave. And the last, Family, it had to be the biggest motivator.
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