Lara Vapnyar hones in on that universal false and completely ungrounded sense of security on page 48 of There Are Jews in My House: "something prevented [Galina] from imagining that she or Tanya could be killed or even hurt. And she couldn't fear anything that she couldn't vividly imagine." Reading that passage brought me back to ski week when I was in fifth grade at Nueva. While skiing, my younger sister's skull got a little to friendly with a tree, causing major fractures across the front of her skull. On the way to the hospital and in the emergency room in Denver, I don't remember once being scared. I remember a fierce sense of determination as I rushed to alert the ski patrol, but it never hit me that my sister's injury had the potential to be fatal, even when the doctor told my dad so (don't worry; she's fine!). I didn't even cry about the incident until nearly six months later, when the added stress of being in a new school and having to adjust to a new social scene finally made me crack. Later, when I thought about why I felt so numb during the whole ordeal, I realized that naive, eleven-year-old me wasn't capable of thinking anything truly terrible could befall my family, since nothing (in my memory) ever had. I could only equate her accident with things I knew, like sprained ankles or paint scratches on a new car. Galina's never experienced massacre, and despite her unvoiced unhappiness, she lives a comfortable life. Therefore, how is she supposed to know how to feel about Raya's life being in peril? For her, the war is just another thing that happens. We've been fighting a War on Terror for most of our lives, unless we have family or close friends in the Middle East, the occasional news article doesn't stir up our live significantly. I have to wonder how I would respond if I lived in a war zone... Would I stoically remain in a state of denial like fifth-grade me and like Galina, or would I wake up to the situation and be shocked into a frantic state like Raya?
Monday, March 1, 2010
Denial of the Unimaginable
In our readings about genocide, I keep running across the word "unimaginable", or at least the theme of an event being too big to be conceived. When we were reading Black Dog of Fate, we discussed how much more tangible Dovey's story was because it was personal as opposed to a list of inconceivable numbers. Night also hit home because Weisel presented us with forthright, laceless imagery. We've also seen that the people actually involved in the various genocides couldn't fathom the atrocities being committed against their friends and neighbors. In Night, for example, no one listened to Moische the Beadle's warnings. But we can't really blame them; after all, do we really have any idea of what it's like to be living in Haiti or Darfur right now?
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When I read about your experience with your sister's injury I cannot say I was shocked. It's expected from an eleven(?) year old girl to not completely comprehend the gravity of a situation until much later. You didn't know a hit to a tree could be fatal and possible cause permanent damage, which is why you were rather calm. This you already stated. However as to your question about how you would react in a war zone, the answer can be complex. Personality also plays a role in your response. Say you aren't a very nice girl, it's possible you wouldn't even care unless it directly affects you. However if you are particularly sensitive to others around you then you might act like Raya, as if you are in danger. This of course isn't very accurate, if it's accurate at all. The problem with war zones is that it can bring about numerous emotions and actions that used to be completely out of bounds, unthinkable. I, like you, wondered about the same topic while I was reading the short story. I ran several scenarios in my head; however, most of them seemed to be what I hope I would do. It was too unrealistic compared to Raya or Galina. In the end the only conclusion I got to was that in a setting so complicated and dangerous, the only prediction is the approach of the unpredictable.
ReplyDeleteA couple of years ago, I remember thinking to myself, "Hey, wait! We're in a war!" It was the first time it had registered that my country is actually engaged in fighting, and some day it could affect me... except, it really hasn't. And I think the fact that I'm still young has affected that.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was younger, I read the American Girl books about 10-ish-year-old girls from different periods of history. I remember that Kit, the one who lived during the Depression and WWII, had a story which really struck me because her life was so normal. Yes, her family lived on rationing and sometimes had to hide in their bomb shelter in the cellar, but she was still so happy and a normal kid like me. I suppose that unless you're living (if it can be called living) in a death camp, even if you have to cope with the hardships of war, most people are able to find some kind of normalcy.