At the very end of his memoir, Elie says, “From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me” (page 115). Why does he call himself a corpse, and what does this signify about the way his life was changed forever?

Question

in 1 sentence

Answer 1

Elie calls himself a corpse to symbolize the loss of his innocence, identity, and spirit due to the horrors and dehumanization he experienced during the Holocaust, signifying that his life was forever transformed by the atrocities he witnessed and endured.