But later, when everyone else asleep, I hear my aunt, her tears, they fall like rain.”
This is a very powerful quote as it shows the true struggles which people went through the genocide. When first reading this quote it is possible to notice a contradiction when the aunt says not to cry however, she cries herself. Although, the contradiction in this quote is what actually brings even more meaning to the quote itself. This quote demonstrates what people go through for others during a genocide and how people are forced to adapt into not showing emotion in order for them to stay alive.
Firstly, this quote shows the struggles which people go through for each other during a time of genocide as this quote shows that the aunt forcefully kept her own emotions inside in order not to trigger the burst of emotion from the family, She knew that if she started to cry then everyone would start to cry which would literally be a death request. Therefore, the aunt would try to calm the children and when the children would be asleep she would start crying because in order for her to be able to stay strong for the kids she needs to release her emotions at one point to be able to show the children how strong she is.
This quote also demonstrates how people are forced to adapt during a time like this in order to be able to survive. The quote demonstrates this because in any normal circumstance his sisters would have cried however, they had to adapt into learning not to cry. Therefore, this helped them survive as this helped them to desensitize themselves and hide their emotions as a whole throughout the genocide and would lose the urge to cry when witnessing the horrific murders in the camps.