Blocking Out

Kayla Reid

One must pretend or imagine being somewhere else in order to survive and be happy but what does one do when it’s not possible? “In Auschwitz reality was so overwhelming, the suffering, the fatigue, the cold so extreme, that we had no energy left tor this type of pretending.” (Delbo 2) If it was so hard to pretend then how did they survive with ought that comfort? The reason people pretend and dream is because their reality is a bad place so in their dreams weather it is a day dream at night is like their “happy place”. It’s like going through something unpleasant and telling you “don’t think about it” over and over in order to survive this becomes necessary. I couldn’t imagine being so tired and not being able to escape even if it is inside my own mind. Because they couldn’t escape, they lost all hope for the future their life dragging on. Their present was so bleak that they had lost hope for the future. But once the victims left the camp and threw all of their memories behind, they had to put up a wall to block off the pain and suffering. The old memories are to be blocked off separate from the new memories because the old ones could taint the newer better memories. When the past collides with the present, the victim will be in constant fear and sorrow in order to spare the pain, they do not think about what happened. Sometimes they put on a brave face to act strong for society and the people they love but perhaps in reality, they are crumbling away on the inside. The memories are so raw and impactful that they cannot get over them. People remember the most terrible things that happened to them because it was so shocking and terrible they may not be able to make sense of it all when all you know is fear and death. Those terrible things changed them into the person they are today making them see themselves as flawed beings. Metaphors of two separate people; the bad memories and the good memories is true to a person because when someone constantly thinks about the bad things, they are a spate person, one who is fearful, sad, and weak. A person who thinks about the new memories or rather blocks out the bad ones has a better outlook on life and they are stable. One person has both stable emotions and thought while also having instable personalities inside them. Whichever one people see depend on what that individual is thinking about.  Sometimes it hurts too much to feel so they sacrifice their emotions to save them the pain when they are telling other people their story while in private, the slowly break down. Blocking out is important to the individual to save themselves heartache, pain, and sorrow.