In I Have Lived a Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson which is a book about her experiences as a Holocaust survivor, the author has a Forward where she talks about why she made the book in question. In it, she said that her stories (in the book) “are of faith, hope, triumph, love, perseverance, loyalty, courage (in the face of overwhelming odds), and never giving up.” While she does list a lot of qualities, the three qualities in this essay that are exemplified are love, courage, and perseverance. The first message, love, is illustrated through many scenes in the book. When the main character, Elli, can’t carry her pack due to its excessive weight, so Aunt Serena says on page 61, “Why don’t you add those things to my pack? My pack is too light anyway. You know I can carry much more.” However, Aunt Serena is in her late fifties, and is in poor health, which meant that she couldn’t, suggesting that she is volunteering for the family …show more content…
The quote from page 43 mentioned earlier is a good example of both courage and perseverance, but for another example, on page 89, Elli and her family need food, but all they get is dust for bread. However, even after her mother says how bad it is, “I [Elli] snatch the bread from Mommy’s hand and begin to eat. The dry, mudlike lump turns into wet sand particles in my mouth. The others have eaten it. I swallow. The first food in Auschwitz. To survive.” This suggest despite how bad the food is, Elli knows that she needs to eat it to survive, to persevere. Also, on page 193, when Elli and her family are getting gunned down, Elli says, “ Whatever happens I must survive. Arms, legs, don’t matter. I must protect my head to survive,” suggesting the Elli put what was the most important in order to keep going. Overall, while courage and perseverance are mixed together, there are enough moments where they are separate to consider them both separately very important to the