The Last Night
At the beginning of the passage it is instantaneously established that the circumstances in which the two brothers, Andre and Jacob, are currently residing in are appalling. These would be the same conditions that most of the Jewish people would have been residing in prior to being taken to concentration camps. We are aware that the conditions are poor as Faulks tells us that ‘Andre was lying on the floor’ which implies that he has nowhere else to sleep, it also shows how exhausted he must have been as young boys would not normally be resting. We are also informed at the start of the passage that the boys are French-Jewish, by their names.
As Andre lies on the floor a Jewish orderly comes round with postcards on which the
Once again Faulks uses the same technique to remind the reader of reality, by leading on from the older boy showing his appreciation to telling us that the bucket was soon empty. The author now uses the word bucket instead of pail which could refer to the idea of a bucket list and the realisation that only a small percentage of the Jewish people would have made it out of the death camps alive. The phrase ‘the bucket was soon empty’ also seems to carry a resonance beyond its basic meaning.
After the woman left we are told that the brothers fall asleep with ‘only the small hours of the night to go through’. This refers to how slowly the hours go when you are attempting to sleep; their lack of sleep also portrays the worry of the Jewish people. Faulks tells us that Andre was sleeping on the straw, ‘the soft bloom of his cheek laid, uncaring, in the dung.’ The fact that Andre was sleeping in dung and on straw implies that the Jewish people were treated like animals as Faulks makes the comparison. Furthermore Faulks grants us with a pleasant image of the ‘soft bloom’ of Andre’s cheek which gives us a pleasing illustration within the unpleasant illustration of the dung in which Andre is lying. Additionally Andre’s limbs are intertwined with Jacob’s which also presents us with a pleasing image. These I believe show us that there is some hope, in terms of human contact, within a horrible