Even though I have finished my book already I am writing about the third quarter of it. A lot has happened so far and it  is a lot to handle. In this post I am going to be talking about the theme topics present in the book so far and especially in the third quarter. The first theme topic that I  will be discussing is morality. Throughout the book Yanek has come in contact with morality countless times. One example of it in the third quarter is when he had to decide whether or not he was going to help the boy who had fallen onto him and who  was about to die. In this instance Yanek had a decision to make based on his morality or moral universe, he could either save the boy and carry him even though it would be extremely hard and grueling or he could let the boy drop and die just like so many other people  during the march. One quote that shows this is when the boy originally falls on him and he makes the choice to save him. It is “I should never have helped the boy. I knew that. But now that I was helping his, I refused to let go”.(178) This quote shows he the clash of his moral universe when he says that he should have let the boy go but he didn’t and now he was going to help. The fact that he actually helped the boy instead of himself shows that his moral universe is guided by  kindness, compassion, and thoughtfulness of others.

One more theme topic that is clearly shows throughout the book and is probably shown throughout every holocaust novel and memoir is dehumanization. This theme topic is present throughout the book and whenever it is shown it is horrifying and gruesome. One clear example of dehumanization is the third quarter is just how the prisoners are being treated in the camps and how they are treated in the death march. In the  camps if you don’t work you die, if you try to escape you die, if you look at one of the guards wrong you die. The fact that this is who at every camp Yanek has been too is terrible. One quote that shows the deamination of Yanek and the prisoners is during the death march. During the death march the prisoners were forced to walk in the snow, most of them barefooted for the whole day until night. If any prisoner was too slow or moved to the back of the line they got shot. Thousands of people died during the march and nobody was saved at all. This chapter in the book clearly shows dehumanization because just like at each of the camps the prisoners are killed as if they are not people, but property. Dehumanization  morality are just some of the theme topics present throughout the book and but they are some of the best theme topics through the book