post 1

"She only wanted the pain to stop, she wanted to put this revolting birth behind her as quickly as possible. It was her fifth. She had effected all the others here at the fish booth, and all had been stillbirths or semi-still births, for the bloody meat that emerged had not differed greatly from the fish guts that lay there already, nor had lived much longer, and by evening the whole mess had been shoveled off and carted off to the graveyard or off to the river."(Suskind 5).

Holy crap. i chose this passage because it was the most appalling one so far. although there are some others that come close. this book is a shocker. and i do enjoy it. The above passage illustrates, o so pleasantly how the main character is born. In the worst way possible. It shows how gruesome life is. perhaps the author will use these images for contrast with nicer ones later on. The process in the passage seems like its nothing out of the ordinary. the way the scene is described seems matter of fact. which makes me cringe even more.

-How much does this impact the main character's future life?
-the story happens to follow the one child who lives. is there something special about him?