"Now! The Allies have defeated the Germans, finally! And they gave me a bed all to myself! I asked how many people I had to share it with and he looked surprised. "Nobody ," he said. "It's yours." What!?! Then - wonder upon wonders- the soldiers gave me a blanket, a pillow, and sheets for the bed. Sheets! My fellow former prisoners and I looked at each other like we were on some kind of alien planet. I hadn't slept on a sheet, nor a pillow or a blanket for five years, perhaps six. I didn't think it could get any better" (Gruener 249). Every day I take all those things for granted. I sleep with a pillow, a blanket, and sheets every night paying no mind to how fortunate I actually am. The point of this quote is to show how fortunate they felt to have these simple things. This shows that if he would of knowing this war was going to happen, he wouldn't take these things for granted, he would kiss his mother one last time, he would say I love you to his father. There's so many things we don't know or appreciate we have until they are taken away.
"As the food filled up my plate in the soldiers and former prisoners around me begin to eat, I remembered that day so long ago, the day the war had begun. I remembered the food on the table in my old apartment and all my family sitting around me. My Mother, My Father, Uncle Moshe, Uncle Abraham, Aunt Fela, Aunt Gizela. My cousins Zytka, Sala, and Dawid. They were all dead and gone now. It was all the same for all the prisoners around me. They smiled as they ate, but there was sadness in their eyes. Sadness for the people they lost innocently and will never get back fir as long as they live here in this changing planet" (Gruener 251). As I read this, I felt the pain and sorrow of the character, Yanek Gruener, who later changes his name to Jack Gruener. He felt as if he could live no more in this excerpt. He knew he would have no one and wouldn't be able to start again with the same appreciation of his home town. He goes in to explain how he finds his Uncle Moshe who also survived but was only shipped to a different camp.
"Beside my bed, there was a little table, and on it the Americans had given us more gifts: a washcloth, a cup, and a tooth brush. I picked up the toothbrush reverently and cried as I held it securely in my hands. I remembered that day, standing at the pump in the camp. Which camp had that day, standing at the pump in the camp - Which camp had it been? - when I wondered when I had ever been so fortunate as to have something so simple as a toothbrush. Peace by piece, bit by bit, the Americans were giving me back my life" (Gruener 249). Secondly, this quote described the way Yanek was so thankful for ANYTHING the Allies would give him. They knew that the Americans were going to give them their lives back to them piece by piece. They just had to have hope.
"As the food filled up my plate in the soldiers and former prisoners around me begin to eat, I remembered that day so long ago, the day the war had begun. I remembered the food on the table in my old apartment and all my family sitting around me. My Mother, My Father, Uncle Moshe, Uncle Abraham, Aunt Fela, Aunt Gizela. My cousins Zytka, Sala, and Dawid. They were all dead and gone now. It was all the same for all the prisoners around me. They smiled as they ate, but there was sadness in their eyes. Sadness for the people they lost innocently and will never get back fir as long as they live here in this changing planet" (Gruener 251). As I read this, I felt the pain and sorrow of the character, Yanek Gruener, who later changes his name to Jack Gruener. He felt as if he could live no more in this excerpt. He knew he would have no one and wouldn't be able to start again with the same appreciation of his home town. He goes in to explain how he finds his Uncle Moshe who also survived but was only shipped to a different camp.
"Beside my bed, there was a little table, and on it the Americans had given us more gifts: a washcloth, a cup, and a tooth brush. I picked up the toothbrush reverently and cried as I held it securely in my hands. I remembered that day, standing at the pump in the camp. Which camp had that day, standing at the pump in the camp - Which camp had it been? - when I wondered when I had ever been so fortunate as to have something so simple as a toothbrush. Peace by piece, bit by bit, the Americans were giving me back my life" (Gruener 249). Secondly, this quote described the way Yanek was so thankful for ANYTHING the Allies would give him. They knew that the Americans were going to give them their lives back to them piece by piece. They just had to have hope.