Dawn

“I did not know the man. To my eyes he had no face; he did not even exist, for I knew nothing about him. I did not know whether he scratched his nose when he ate, whether he talked or kept quiet when he was making love, whether he glories in his hate, whether he betrayed his wife or his God or his own future. All I knew was that he was an Englishman and my enemy. The two terms were synonymous.”

This passage alludes to Elisha’s discomfort with dispassionately killing a stranger. Executing John Dawson means that he’ll be killing solely because he was ordered to do so, a prospect he finds harrowing. He previously killed only as part of a group. In this case, however, he can’t disappear into a group; he must come face to face with the man he kills.

“Tomorrow, I said to myself, we shall be bound together by the tie that binds a victim and his executioner.”

This line highlights Elisha’s fatalistic outlook. Although he doesn’t want to kill Dawson, he’s already resolute that he must do it. His reflections on the metaphysical connection between killers and victims speaks to his fatalism and intimate association with death.

“‘You mustn’t be afraid of the dark,’ he said, gently grasping my arm and making me shudder. ‘Night is purer than day; it is better for thinking and loving and dreaming. At night everything is more intense, more true. The echo of words that have been spoken during the day takes on a new and deeper meaning. The tragedy of man is that he does not know how to distinguish between day and night. He says things at night that should only be said by day.’”

This passage is central to the themes and events of Dawn. The Beggar appraises humans’ tendency to withhold their thoughts and feelings by day, when they’re most visible. This echoes the discrepancy between Elisha’s thoughts and actions. At night, he agonizes over Dawson’s execution; at dawn, he clears his mind and dispassionately kills.