Etgar Keret - optional assignment


Please read one of the short stories by the Israeli author Etgar Keret and write a post consisting of 3 paragraphs about it.

- Please describe what the story is about (without ruining it for those who will want to read it!!)
- Did you connect with this story? Why/ why not? Would you recommend it?
- What do you think the author is trying to say? How does it reflect contemporary Israeli society?
- In what way can this story be viewed as Jewish or Israeli literature?

Enjoy!!!
Ariella

Comments

  1. Sara GrinDecember 21, 2017 at 7:16 AM

    The short story I read in Etgar Keret's "Missing Kissinger" book is called "Hope they die". To me, this story teaches about appreciating the moments you have and thinking before saying something out loud.
    This story happens during Hannukah when the main character, who is a boy, goes to a sleepover camp. During the week he feels very lonely and wants to go home, and what made him feel even more lonely was seeing the other kids being happy, and he couldn't understand why they were so happy and he was so sad. One night, he snuck out of his cabin to call his parents and convince them to take him home, and eventually they agreed. They promised to pick him up in an hour, but never came, on which the boys reaction was "lying son-of- bitches. I hope they die." When his older brother picked him up the following day he repeated the same sentence, which was a result why he got a very harsh slap from him. As the boy said, his older brother is not that kind of a person who would do that, so it was shocking to him. To me, that meant that something had maybe happened to the parents (it doesn't say anything in the story), and since they never came to pick up the boy, and later his older brother also couldn't even make himself say anything about it, something serious might have happened, and the boy should have thought trough before saying anything bad. Also, what reminded me that this was happening in Israel was the boy having Hannukah brake from school and his older brother being in the IDF, and so it reminded me that this is Israeli literature. What I also really liked is the way the boy's mother called him "Dandush"- I really like that version of the name Daniel, and it again showed the love his mother has for him.
    To me, this story reminded of great morals-to think before saying anything, especially if it can hurt someone's feelings. In this story it seemed that the boy's parents are very loving since they were ready to come and take him back home, and it didn't seem like they would just "give up on him" like that by just not coming, something reasonable should have happened. Instead of thinking through the situation and realizing that the boy just decided to blame his parents, which lead to his brother slapping him for that, and I think that taught him of processing his feelings before saying them out loud. I very enjoyed reading this short, and even though it is short it still was interesting and it also taught me morals.

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