Elie Wiesel: Night The five letters that Elie Wiesel utilizes as the title for his book summarize, within one word, all the feelings, the uncertainty, the anger, the fear, etc. associated with the events contained in this novel. The book is a work of art, and Wiesel is a great storyteller, leaving his audience with a deeper knowledge of both historical events and the defiance and courage of the human spirit. Perhaps the most memorable scene in the story is that in which the author and his father begin the journey out of the camp, a cruel death march towards other, harsher, conditions, a tragic tale is loss, fear, and hopelessness. It is, indeed, a memorable scene that culminates with the death of Wiesel's father, and it symbolizes the greatest of human emotions that one could associate with the events of the Holocaust; namely, and as aforementioned, hopelessness. This paper will discuss Wiesel's character in detail, as well as this condition of hopelessness, how it is provoked, and how it is symbolized throughout the novel. Wiesel experiences this feeling at numerous points throughout the autobiography. When the audience first meets the boy, he is a teenager who lives in Sighet, in what is now Romania, and who is quite a na誰ve and innocent student. The simple story with which the novel starts, however, soon morphs into a tale of horror, as the Jewish people begin their plight as a cause of advancing German soldiers. Many neighbors, friends, and family are transported,
Night by Elie Wiesel is an autobiography about his experience during the Holocaust when he was fifteen years old. Elie is fifteen when the tragedy begins. He is taken with his family through many trials and then is separated from everyone besides his father. They are left with only each other, of which they are able to confide in and look to for support. The story is told through a series of creative writing practices. Mr. Wiesel uses strong diction, and syntax as well as a combination of stylistic devices. This autobiography allows the readers to understand a personal, first-hand account of the terrible events of the holocaust. The ways that diction is used in Night helps with this understanding.
In the book Night by Elie Wiesel it says “human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere.” This shows that the world’s problems are everyone’s problems. Everyone has their own responsibilities and when war occurs people tend to take on more responsibility than ever before. The United States is a prime example of making the world’s problems their own.
In Elie Wiesel’s Night, he recounts his horrifying experiences as a Jewish boy under Nazi control. His words are strong and his message clear. Wiesel uses themes such as hunger and death to vividly display his days during World War II. Wiesel’s main purpose is to describe to the reader the horrifying scenes and feelings he suffered through as a repressed Jew. His tone and diction are powerful for this subject and envelope the reader. Young readers today find the actions of Nazis almost unimaginable. This book more than sufficiently portrays the era in the words of a victim himself.
In the novel “Night”, by Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor suggests that when humans are faced with protecting their own mortality, they abandon their morals and values. This can be seen in both the Jewish and German people. The German’s are inhumanely cruel to protect their own jobs and safely by obeying government commands. The Jewish captives lost their morals as they fight to survive the concentration camps. Elie Wiesel encountered many obstacles that made many of his ideals changed drastically for Wiesel which was his loss in humanity throughout the book he explains the many ways he does not see people as people anymore. He also explains how all of his natural human rights were no more during the time in the Holocaust. He had to find a sense of self because he could have easily fallen apart. He could not have done anything different, he knew it was going to end poorly. Silence is a very important and prominent theme in this book as silence represents many key symbols such as. God’s silence: Eliezar questions God’s faith many times throughout this book and wonders how he could just sit there and be silent while people are mass murdering people.
One day, when Elie returned from the warehouse, he was summoned by the block secretary to go to the dentist. Elie therefore went to the infirmary block to learn that the reason for his summon was gold teeth extraction. Elie, however pretends to be sick and asks, ”Couldn’t you wait a few days sir? I don’t feel well, I have a fever…” Elie kept telling the dentist that he was sick for several weeks to postpone having the crown removed. Soon after, it had appeared that the dentist had been dealing in the prisoners’ gold teeth for his own benefit. He had been thrown into prison and was about to be hanged. Eliezer does not pity for him and was pleased with what was happening
He originally thought that Hungary was a safe and inhabitable place. Even when Wiesel arrived at the camps, he didn’t feel threatened. Wiesel stated in the book that, "We didn't know. Nobody had told us. He couldn't believe his ears" (Page 30). Nobody in the town was well informed about the events occurring outside of Sighet, and as a result, nobody grew a strong fear towards the uprising Nazis. Wiesel was in denial of the actions of the Nazis until the entered the camps, where he soon began to deny the events that were occurring at the camps. He thought that life would continue as normal in the camps, even though he was subject to crude treatment and insufficient food. Soon, he would deny that anything safe would ever happen to him and his father. As Wiesel stated in the book, "How we would have liked to believe that. We pretended, for what if one of us still did believe?" (Page 46). Wiesel at first worried about the whereabouts of his mother and sisters, but soon he resorted to believing that they were already dead - he doubted that they would survive past the first day. As time went on, Wiesel began losing more and more of his sanity and doubted that he would eventually make it out of the camp alive. When veterans tried to tell their stories of survival, Wiesel stated, “‘Enough! Be quiet!’ I begged them. ‘Tell your stories tomorrow, or some
In the book Night by Elie Wiesel there are many instances where his use of imagery helps establish tone and purpose. For example Elie Wiesel used fire (sight) to represent just that. The fire helps prove that the tone is serious and mature. In no way did Wiesel try to lighten up the story about the concentration camps or the Nazis. His use of fire also helps show his purpose. “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times scaled. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw
After being moved within their town, relocation to another country is the final step taken in separating Jews from society. Wiesel’s father shares the news of relocation after a meeting with local leaders: “‘The news is terrible...Transports.’ The ghetto was to be liquidated entirely. Departures were to take place street by street, starting the next day” (13). This measure marks the end of Sighet Jews’ lives in their town and the beginning of a totally different life. They are pulled from everything they know, their town, their schools, their stores, and their friends. Lives in Sighet are brought to a stop while a new life, under a
In the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie Wiesel is a young boy who struggles to survive after being forced to live in the brutal concentration camp of Auschwitz. In Auschwitz, death and suffering is rampant, but due to compassionate words and actions from others, Elie is able to withstand these severe living conditions and overcome the risk of death in the unforgiving Auschwitz. As shown through the actions and words of characters in Night, compassion, the sympathetic pity for the suffering or misfortune of others is critical to the human experience because it enables humans to empathize with each other, empathizing which allows us to feel the need to assist others which can often be vital for survival.
Night by Elie Wiesel describes the strenuous life of victims of Hitler’s genocidal actions in the Holocaust from the perspective of a teenage boy during this time. Throughout his journey, Wiesel describes the hardships of the physical journeys executed during the Holocaust. These physical journeys taken upon by the victims depict an ample role in the book. In Night, the physical journey during the death march plays a critical role in the book because it emphasizes the need for willpower throughout the book.
Under the rule of the Nazis, and in the battle between life and death, the caring, courageous, and thoughtful Elie Wiesel recounts his life events in the memoir Night. As a Jewish boy growing up in Sighet, Transylvania during World War II, Wiesel experiences firsthand the cruelty of mankind. The author depicts the unpleasant living conditions contributing to the starvation of the prisoners in the concentration camps and the violence in the struggle to survive. Throughout Wiesel’s writing, there are a variety of literary techniques to describe the horrors he has experienced. Elie Wiesel utilizes figurative language to describe the men and their actions, and he writes a flash-forward to complement the greater ideas about humanity and savagery
Journal Entry 1: There are many assumptions that came to mind when I first saw the book. The images that they title brought to my mind is someplace where there is no light, no happiness.When you think of night you clearly think of physical darkness but I think night symbolizes a place without God’s presence, somewhere where there 's no hope. The emotions that this title brought to my mind is sadness. Sadness because once you are in the dark there is nothing you can do but wait. Wait on your destiny. The impression that the picture on the book gave me was very vague. I was not certain if this book would be a boring book because of the lack of designs or if this book would be a deep, interesting book by the title Night. I have never heard about the author Elie Wiesel, so i was unfamiliar with his work. The fact that this book has been assigned to me, I thought it was going to be boring but now that I seen the physical book and made some assumptions I am very eager to begin reading.
Many themes exist in Night, Elie Wiesel’s nightmarish story of his Holocaust experience. From normal life in a small town to physical abuse in concentration camps, Night chronicles the journey of Wiesel’s teenage years. Neither Wiesel nor any of the Jews in Sighet could have imagined the horrors that would befall them as their lived changed under the Nazi regime. The Jews all lived peaceful, civilized lives before German occupation. Eliezer Wiesel was concerned with mysticism and his father was “more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin” (4). This would change in the coming weeks, as Jews are segregated, sent to camps, and both physically and emotionally abused. These changes and abuse would dehumanize men and cause them to revert to basic instincts. Wiesel and his peers devolve from civilized human beings to savage animals during the course of Night.
While Elie Wiesel, a Jewish boy subjugated to the violence of the Holocaust in Night, embarks on his atrocious journey in struggling to survive the brutality perpetrated on him, he loses his innocence in the traumatic circumstances. Wiesel’s main aspiration of writing about his development from childhood to adulthood is to showcase how cruelty within society can darken innocents’ souls. As Elie grows throughout the story, he starts to understand that he has changed from a pure, little child to a young man filled with distress and thoughts of danger. He reflects over what kind of individual he has evolved into because of the all the killings and torture he has witnessed: “I too had become a different
After reading the book “Night” the Nazi treated the people like nothing. When families arrives at Auschwitz, the men and women are separated, and Elie sees his mother and sisters vanishing in the distance. He holds onto his father and is determined not to lose him. A fellow prisoner tells Elie to say that he is eighteen (though he is really fifteen) and that his father is forty (though he is fifty). The prisoners who have been at Auschwitz for a while are brutal and cruel to the new arrivals, and one of them tells them about the crematory. Some of the young men talk about revolting, but are silenced by their elders. Thereafter, everyone is forced to march past SS officer, who uses a baton to pick out who will remain alive and who will go to