Book of Yolek, Essay Example

In the “Book of Yolek”, the poet is speaking to a survivor of the Nazi death camps who experienced the death of their friend or relative Yolek. This individual appears to be haunted by this death and even though it has been about a year since this event, this person continues to see Yolek’s ghost everywhere. This poem is slightly complicated, because the pronouns “we, them, and you” mean different things in different stanzas.

Firstly, while the narrator of the poem is talking about someone else’s concentration camp experience, it clearly reflects his own because he seems to be affected by the death as well. Therefore, it is possible that the narrator refers to “we, them, and you” as the same person; one version of himself has yet to experience the torment of the death camp and the second version of himself is the one who has lost Yolek. Occasionally, “you” refers to this other person in lines such as “the dowsed coals fume and hiss after your meal”. In other situation’s, “you” refers to the narrator’s memory, such as “wherever you are, Yolek will be there too”. Through these two lines, we see that the narrator knows a lot about the person that he is speaking to, suggesting that both these people are himself.

On the other hand, “them” refers to other Jewish children that were victims of the death camp, which includes Yolek as well. Furthermore, this reveals the possibility that “we” also refers to both the narrator and Yolek. Throughout the poem, it seems that while Yolek was physically murdered in the death camp, his spirit never left the narrator and it continues to haunt him.