After Tod’s horrific past is revealed this scene takes place at one of the Nazi camps, and the narrator explain: "Above its archways and gables the evening sky is full of our unmentionable mistakes, hydrocephalic clouds and the wrongly curved palate of the west, and the cinders of our fires. I can see a lock of snow-white human hair drifting upwards, then joining the more elliptical and elemental rhythm of the middle air."(pg 155) He is discussing the air being filled with the cinders that come from the cremation houses - the wrongly curved palate of the west refers to Western civilization's fascination with war and violence - as opposed to Eastern civilization which is based much more on spirituality and peace. Amis’ point being in that western society leans in the wrong direction. Bits of white hair from the elderly who die in the gas chambers mix with the white clouds and almost look as though they are part of them. Symbolically, it could refer to the souls going up to heaven. This is one of many of Amis’ successful attempts at taking a scene from a horrific place, where atrocious events took place, and upon reading it from the narrator point of view, it seems like a beautiful night, and most importantly Amis makes his point about the character’s
After Tod’s horrific past is revealed this scene takes place at one of the Nazi camps, and the narrator explain: "Above its archways and gables the evening sky is full of our unmentionable mistakes, hydrocephalic clouds and the wrongly curved palate of the west, and the cinders of our fires. I can see a lock of snow-white human hair drifting upwards, then joining the more elliptical and elemental rhythm of the middle air."(pg 155) He is discussing the air being filled with the cinders that come from the cremation houses - the wrongly curved palate of the west refers to Western civilization's fascination with war and violence - as opposed to Eastern civilization which is based much more on spirituality and peace. Amis’ point being in that western society leans in the wrong direction. Bits of white hair from the elderly who die in the gas chambers mix with the white clouds and almost look as though they are part of them. Symbolically, it could refer to the souls going up to heaven. This is one of many of Amis’ successful attempts at taking a scene from a horrific place, where atrocious events took place, and upon reading it from the narrator point of view, it seems like a beautiful night, and most importantly Amis makes his point about the character’s