Furthermore, through the use of contrast and word choice, readers’ pathos is further evoked by the tender age of the children, which highlights their innocence as some were too young to go through such unforgiving life experiences. Faulks talks about some children being “too small to manage the step up” so the gendarmes had to help them on to the bus, or they were “pulled up by grown-ups already on board” emphasizing the small size of the children in contrast to the bus, thereby evoking sympathy. In addition, we also see that the adults had given up hope to such an extent that they are even helping the gendarmes. We see this attitude all the way through but it is confirmed in the final act of the adults. When the writer talks about “a baby of a few weeks was being lifted on to the back” and the “gendarme needed time to work the wooden crib over the passenger rail and into the crammed interior”, it provides a respite from the horrible moment when the children were going to be driven away to the camp. But then the author makes the story more cruel by telling us about the baby who also has to go to the concentration camp. By choosing to include this baby in a place that was already very cramped, we sympathize even more and feel that so much injustice was being done to the victims. On top of that he also displays the children in an animal like manner when they cluster around a bucket of food “holding sardine cans” and on another occasion when they slept peacefully on straw on the ground like unintelligent animals. They were also abruptly woken up and sense danger like animals much like sixth sense, when the gendarmes come for them so as to “[dig] their heels and [scream]” in the “filthy straw”, which makes us sympathize with them.
In conjunction, Faulks makes us sympathize with the refugees even more by showing them as near animals in the way they are portrayed and treated. The adults are shown to have animal behaviours when “a Jewish orderly came with postcards” and told the refugees to “write a final message”, which they could not even post properly as the “camp orders forbade access to the post”. Even though this is a very important message, which “some wrote with sobbing passion, some with punctilious care”, they had to either leave it at the station or throw it off the train. Also it felt like a total confinement for the refugees when they were “in [a] room sat slumped against the walls” and not able to move or escape as if they were in a cage.
The parents were shown experiencing pain and suffering when they had to separate from their children and face death, which made us feel sorry for them. The parental grief was shown when a “shower of food was thrown towards [children] by women wailing and calling their name, even though none of the scraps reached as far as the enclosure” hinting to us that their cries of desperation were useless. They were captives and had no chance of escaping, as the author tells us that they could get only as far as the enclosure but no further. The scraps of bread were symbolic of the refugees as they were treated like rubbish and animals and had no chance to escape. The adults also had a very restrained mood, controlled actions and thoughts. They presented themselves as if there was nothing wrong with the situation by “[sitting] slumped against the walls, wakeful and talking in lowered voices”. When “the adults refused to drink [coffee] because they knew it meant breakfast, and therefore the departure”, it showed that they refused to believe that their death was coming by trying small things such as staying awake and not having breakfast but eventually gave up hope.
The author continuously changes the narrative perspective to make us pity the children but not the gendarmes. For most part of the extract he talks through the perspective of a child, as children are considered the symbol of innocence and truth. Much of the extract is as seen by Andre who is shown with his brother telling us how much he cares for him. Andre’s legs are “intertwined” with his brother and Andre “held on hard to Jacob when they mounted the bus” showing the love and affection between the two. By doing this Faulks sets up reader expectations at the very beginning by showing that the children have no chance. By showing that the children were orphaned, Andre was “uncaring” for what was happening and that he knew that they had no chance, the author draws our sympathy and makes us feel sorry for the children that they had to go through such a horrid ordeal and they had nobody to look up to except themselves. Additionally, when Faulks talks in his own narrative all-knowing view he talks about the setting to give us greater depth of the entire scene. He never actually went into views and perspectives of the gendarmes. This is done purposely because if we were to look at the perspective of gendarmes that would possibly make us side with them and then this piece would not draw as much sympathy. This is very smart as Faulks is able to draw more sympathy from the readers through this narrative technique.
The refugees constantly support each other to make the situation lighter than it actually is, which makes us admire their courage and determination. Faulks clearly displays this in one significant moment when “a woman came with a sandwich for each child to take on the journey” also bringing a “pail of water” depicting the determination of adults to keep the journey as comforting as possible. This is further supported when the parents “[talk] in lowered voices” to each other while the children were sleeping and “dreaming of other places”. Also Andre shows some able support for his younger brother, Jacob when their “limbs are intertwined” showing Andre’s care for his brother to make his journey as comforting as possible. This brotherly love symbolized by Andre and Jacob and the determination of the adults to keep their journey comforting even though they knew of the danger lying ahead, is very admirable.
The author uses narrative technique, innocence of children, grief and misery of admirable parents and animal attributes of adults to bring together this sympathy evoking piece to life. This is a good example of what could have happened in the “real” world. This extract based in the 1940s during World War II written by Faulks is commendable, showing what happened on “The Last Night” and invoking deep sympathy for the Jewish refugees.
