Reading Journal Three (Last Christmas of the War)

For the Reading Journal Three, I have chosen to respond to Last Christmas of the War by Primo Levi. The piece is about two prisoners, the writer and his friend, Alberto’s conspiracy to hide the food the former received from his sister and mother.

As I read the piece, I highlighted certain quotes. For an example, ‘the terms eating, food, hunger had meanings totally different from their usual ones.’ is one of them. The prisoners in the camp eat to satisfy hunger while ‘usually,’ people eat at social events even if they are not hungry to meet the social needs. The food the prisoners consume does not promise taste while ‘usually’ the food people consume is cooked to meet the desired taste. Another quote that I highlighted is, ‘Some other famished man was celebrating Christmas at our expense, maybe even blessing us.’ This sentence lessens the melancholy mood effect of the incident of the stolen jacket. Here, I am also impressed with Alberto’s ability for having a positive view from an unwanted incident. The quote at the end of the story, ‘this would be our last Christmas of war and imprisonment.’ has neutralized the effect on the whole mood of the story by giving hope that the suffering in the camp will end in about another one more year.

When I was reading this piece, my sense of smell and taste became active when the author described that ‘the package contained ersatz chocolate, cookies, and powdered milk’. I was imagining the smell and sweet taste of the chocolates and cookies. When the writer mentioned that he would get twenty-five whacks with a stick for not being able to stitch the registration number, my sense of hearing and touch stood out uncomfortably. I could ‘hear’ the sound of the whip from the air to the writer’s body and ‘feel’ the excruciating pain resulting from the whack!

One of the styles the writer had used to present the story is foreign language. ‘Mazel tov’ was used to congratulate the writer. Another example of this style is found in the supply master’s reply, ‘bekommst du fünfundzwanzig’ which means, the writer would receive twenty-five whacks with a stick. Besides that, the writer had used connotation to describe the hunger and desire for food when he mentioned the food package he had received from his family members.

Reading the story had made me to think about food wastage by those who can afford it. It is a disgrace when people throw away the leftovers while there are underprivileged people who cannot afford to eat the required amount of food to meet their basic needs, at another part of the world. I see the need to be grateful for the food we get and the easy access we have for the food. It is good to take and eat the required amount of food without wasting it.

At the end of Last Christmas of the War, my mind was in wonderment: How would the writer get a needle and thread? Did he able to find them on time? I hope he could sew the registration number on his new jacket so that he would not be whacked.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this story. It was easy to be understood in the first reading and it kept me interested as I was curious to know what would happen to the food at the end.