Book Club Blog

In the book I Have Lived a Thousand Years, Elli, the main character, has changed tremendously after her experience in the Holocaust. One change she went through was how much she could endure, physically and emotionally. In the beginning of the book Elli was very weak and she didn’t have much endurance. On page 60 it said, “The taste of the ashes in my mouth is laced with a sudden surge of nausea… I vomit, again and again. But the taste of ashes is not extricated from my insides”. 

Just from the taste of the ashes, Elli throws up. She can endure very little. On the next page she is given a backpack full of their things and she toppled over. She is not strong enough to carry the backpack of essential items and she can’t keep herself from vomiting after tasting the ashes of the burning books and pictures. 

   As the book goes on, Elli starts to be able to endure more. Although there are many examples of how Elli grows to endure more there is one on page 89 the says, “I snatch the bread from Mommy’s hand and begin to eat. The dry, mudlike lump turns into wet sand particles in my mouth. The others have eaten it. I swallow. The first food in Auschwitz. To survive”. Elli had grown up with good food to eat. She had a good life at home and she was healthy. Although the food at the camp is terrible quality and it did very little to quench their hunger, Elli still grabbed the sandy “bread” and ate it anyways. She is starting to endure more as her time continues at the concentration camps all because of her determination to live. 

   By the end of the book, Elli can endure much more than she had at the beginning. On page 146 it is stated that, “A roll on my abdomen and slowly pull myself up. My head reels. Blood is trickling from my nose and mouth. I cannot open my left eye. There is a very sharp pain in my left side. But my legs are not broken. I can stand”. This is right after Elli Had received a beating from an SS officer. She was terribly wounded and she had very little strength but she still stood up in an effort to survive. Additionally, Elli’s mother was wounded and old so, not only did Elli have to take care of herself, but she also needs to support her mother. Ultimately, Elli’s determination for her and her to survive resulted in exactly that. As Elli went through this experience she became a very strong woman who could endure much more than she could at the beginning. 

   Another drastic change that Elli went through had to do with her dignity. In the beginning of the book, after the school gets closed, Elli is very excited to be getting her diploma. It’s then she says, “ Then I remember the star. My heart sinks. I go to my closet, and there, on my blue spring jacket, left of the zipper, is the horrible thing. When I put it on, it looks even larger” (32). Elli has been so excited to go to school and receive her diploma. When she remembered the star that she was forced to wear, she became saddened. She didn’t want people to judge her because of her religion. Elli just wanted to be a normal kid and live the rest of her childhood life happily. She doesn’t want to lose her dignity. 

   When Elli first arrives at the camp, she quickly realizes that she can be dignified AND survive. In the text it says, “Get undressed? Right here? In front of all the men? No one moves… I hope no one will see me… I hesitate before removing my bra” (77). At this moment, Elli struggles to get undressed in front of all the other women. She was embarrassed of her body and ashamed to be naked in such a public area with people all around her. Fortunately, she gets snapped back into reality when another girl gets shot for not getting undressed and Elli realizes she has to lose her dignity in order to survive.

   Eventually, Elli didn’t care about being exposed in front of a large crowd of people because they were all experiencing the same thing. She had to get undressed in front of everyone around her but she wasn’t phased. Elli learned that, to survive, she couldn’t be ashamed of her body. If she cared about what people would think, she would die. You can tell that as time goes on, Elli grows into a strong, young woman in many ways. She grew spiritually, she gained hope for herself and her family, and gained patience and endurance that she needed to survive the terrible conditions in the camps. Without it, she wouldn’t have survived.