This Way to the Gas..

A detailed Summary of This Way to the Gas..


The short story, "This Way To The Gas, Ladies And Gentlemen" by Tadeusz Borowski and the poem "On My First Son" by Ben Johnson, both deal with death. They are very different types of death and are told in different ways but through some similar approaches, a similar feeling is portrayed to the reader of each.

One of the first similarities of the two is that they are both told in the first person as well as being personal accounts. Ben speaks, as himself, about the death of his son and Borowski tells of events at a death camp that he was in during WWII. They both tell their stories through their own voices which adds a lot to the experience of reading. It allows the reader to except just how real the story is. Once the reader accepts that, then the reader is able to more fully understand and relate to the feelings of the authors especially because of how reality based they are. For example, in "On My First Son", when Johnson says "Oh, could I lose all father now!"(Johnson, ln.5), the reader is able to feel the deep sorrow in that line. That is because it is told to the reader by Ben Johnson, the father of a dead son. When the story is made that personal, it is impossible to not share the passionate feelings that are expressed. Bor


There is one major difference surrounding death in the two pieces. Both authors have a different outcome on the way they view deaths. Borowski only remains numb to deaths for a small time. By the end, the shield finally breaks and he has a different attitude about the horrors surrounding him. "His whip flies and falls across our backs. I seize a corpse by the hand; the fingers close tightly around mine. I pull back a shriek and stagger away. My heart pounds, jumps up to my throat. I can no longer control the nausea. Hunched under the train I begin to vomit." (Borowski, p121) This quote shows this change in feeling in Borowski, by illustrating what seems to be the last scene that he can handle. The description following his encounter with the corpse finally shows some real feeling in Borowski. His violently described vomiting shows his disgust with the extreme deaths surrounding him. Johnson, has quite a different feeling at towards the end of his poem as well. His poem starts !

Both authors also set a mood with their writing to help the reader understand their feelings on the deaths occurring around them. Borowski set a mood that showed the numbness he developed surrounding death through his descriptions of the events occurring at the station. "The whip flies, the woman

Some common words found in the essay are:
Ben Johnson, Johnson Oh, reader able, , set mood, Tadeusz Borowski, thee loved boy, loved boy, hope thee loved, johnson piece, understand feelings, ben johnson, thee loved, hope thee, feeling borowski, whip flies,

Approximate Word count = 862
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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