Four Perfect Pebbles

The opening chapter of “Four Perfect Pebbles” provides an acutely personal perception concerning life within Bergen-Belsen, a concentration camp in Germany. What sets this piece aside nearly immediately is the focus on Marion, a nine-year-old girl. Many works concerning the holocaust poses a lack of focus on children, most likely due to the age cut of in the labor camps. The author’s choice to focus on Marion instead of writing a story about her parents pierces the heart of the reader in a more intense manner. While death, pain and sickness are always horrible, it is human nature to feel even more sorrow when children are involved. The manner in which “Four Perfect Pebbles” begins is effective in capturing the reader’s attention. Instead …show more content…
This is quite effective for several reasons. Firstly, it draws upon the reader’s sympathy even further. This fact stresses the idea that, despite all of the horrific pain and struggles Marion and her family are facing, they still hold onto the single hope that they have each other. Not only does Marion rely on the embrace of her mother, but her mother also relies upon being able to hold onto her daughter each night. Secondly, this repetition succeeds in exemplifying the passing of time. On one hand, it provides the feeling that the end of the chapter is also the end of the day. On the other hand, it also causes the reader to feel the hard, mundane repetition that has overtaken the lives of the prisoners. Each and every day, they are forced to report to appel, they see each other for a short time, they go out to work, they report to appel a second time, and they return to their barracks. By ending the chapter in the same manner it begins, Perl shows how Marion and her family have been experiencing the same thing day by day, for what feels like an eternity. As Perl describes, Marion cannot remember what life was like before the concentration camp, and can hardly imagine what it would be like in the