Kluger

After getting into Still Alive, the tone in which Kluger discusses the things about her past in regards to the Holocaust, is in a tone that is much much different from what I expected, or rather her tone/ demeanor comes across as being very complacent, which is startling considering some of her horrific encounters. The way she recalls and illustrates past events is in such a removed and numb tone that it, in my opinion, makes for a more dramatic read, and perhaps allows the reader to in a sense truly get an understanding for how tragic her childhood was that she can look back on it with almost little to no emotion. For example the way she describes relatives of hers being killed in gas chambers or at concentration camps, is stated in such a casual and almost nonchalant way that is makes one question how much Kluger really understood about death at such a young age, or why death, especially with loved ones did not seem to greatly effect her so. Or perhaps, it is because Kluger herself stated that such events of the Holocaust cannot be retold and one cannot truly be expected to comprehend and feel what it was like to endure it, and so she skips the emotional aspects of what she recalls and just merely states what happens. My other interpretation is that perhaps she was so greatly affected by it that she uses a complacent tone as a means of masking up her real feelings. For example, in the passage where she discusses her half brother, Schorschi, and his relationship with her mother compared to her, she recalls feeling like her brother was favored more and upon asking her mother is blatantly told that her mother does indeed love Schorschi more than her. Kluger's reaction to such a blow is to try and justify her mother's response as being rational and logical however, in the line "Sixty years later, however, I still hear her say it" (29), one can clearly see that Kluger, although she tries to make less of the situation, cannot easily shrug off such a remark, especially when the measure of her mother's love is not infinite for her children. That sense of rationed out love is what Kluger grew up with and so perhaps that is why she remarks to such family matters and their deaths in the Holocaust with such complacency.