Analysis Of Unable To Work By David Olere

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The painting, “Unable to Work” by David Olere in 1944, shows a families expressions as they first walk into a concentration camp. We see a family of two adults, a girl, and two young boys exhausted from their travels, entering the camp. Unlike the rest of the scenery, this family is dressed in light colorful clothes while everyone else depicted in the background are in black, making the painting very moody and dark. We also see death encompassing the family, chimneys and an SS soldier holding a gun to the family. Overall the workers, death, and the selection foreshadow the effects of the concentration camp on the lives of the people. The selection, the test determining whether you live or die, is depicted in the painting via the chimneys in the background and the people walking towards the …show more content…

We see in the book how if you are unable to work, you die, “Behind me, an old man fell to the ground. Nearby, an SS man replaced his revolver in its holster (30)” and we see in the painting that the elderly woman has the hand of death on her showing that she is told old to work, therefore leading to her inevitable death. This previous quote means that the old man was too weak to work, so he was therefore shot and killed on the spot which sends the message that only those strong enough to work will live, unlike the elderly lady who is too weak. Finally, the workers in the painting represent the hardships that the prisoners had to endure if they were not sent to the crematorium. For Elie and his father, that means that they have “to work in a warehouse of electrical materials (49).” Even though Elie and his father fell into a good “Kommando”, they still had to deal with their rageful boss, Idek who took his anger out on his workers in the shape of beatings, especially Elie. Throughout the painting, we see how many key parts of Olere’s painting was relatable to the book Night by Elie

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