What is it like to be a prisoner of war? Very few ever live to tell the tale. There are survivors though. Among these survivors is Elie Wiesel. Elie Wiesel survived the Auschwitz concentration camp at the age of thirteen. Elie wrote a book to tell his story of how he survived the horrors of the Holocaust. Elie’s account details his daily life as a prisoner. Throughout the entire book, In “Night” by Elie Wiesel, the main character, Elie, changes as a person because of his experiences at Auschwitz.
Before Elie’s experience in the Auschwitz concentration camp, he had many character traits such as being unwise, innocent, and impatient. When Elie first arrives at Auschwitz and receives his first meal, his father warns him to ration his food. For example, “I was terribly hungry and swallowed my ration on the spot” (Wiesel 44). During Elie’s first meal in Auschwitz, he gobbles down his food and does not think about what might happen later. When his father starts to give him some advice, he is already finished with his meal. Elie acts unwisely by not thinking ahead to what might happen in the days to come. Earlier in the story, Elie and his family are waiting their turn to be put onto a train that will be sent to a concentration camp. Before they enter the train Elie asks, “ ‘When will it be our turn, father?’ I asked my father” (Wiesel 18). This quote shows that Elie really has no idea what is happening and what will happen to him. Elie has no idea that “his turn” will end up with him in a concentration camp. He is innocent and does not think about what bad might happen to him. Upon entering Auschwitz, Elie sees people being thrown into the fire and decides to die a quick death rather than suffer. Wiesel states, “ ‘If that is true, then I don’t want to wait. I’ll run into the electrified wire. . .’” (33). Elie is afraid of what is to come upon him arriving at the concentration camp. Because of this fear, his thoughts become driven by fear and cause him to think impulsively. Elie would rather die in the electric fence, than be worked or starved to death. Elie acts very unwisely in his reactions to seeing people killed. To sum up, before Elie changes as a person, he had traits such as being
While Elie was in the concentration camp he changed the way he acted. This new behavior led him to develop new character traits. While Ellie was in the concentration camp he became angry at many things. For example “I would have dug my nails into the criminals flesh” (Wisel 39). Elie shows extreme anger when the Nazi officials are beating Elie’s father. Elie was angry because the Nazi soldiers were not treating them nicely and keeping them in poor conditions. Elie was usually not a person to display anger, but he shows this when his family members are being hurt. Elie wants to stand up for what is right and for his family members. Despite his studying, Elie wavered in his belief in Kabbalah while he was at the camp. Elie was a religious boy before he went to Auschwitz, but while in the camp, he became angry at God. In the book Elie says, “‘Where are You, my God?’” (66). Elie is wondering why God is not helping the Jews. Elie had complete faith in his religion until he experienced and witnessed such horrible suffering. He had been taught that God will punish evil and save the righteous. However, when Elie saw that God was not helping the Jews situation,
Elie has lots of character traits that helped him get through Auschwitz, such as resourceful, traitor, and determined. In Night, Elie states “I went back a week later. With the same excuse: I still was not feeling better” (52). Elie came up with excuses to get out of getting his gold crown out. He got resourceful and came up with the idea to keep making an excuse that he was not feeling well, until they got a new doctor and he got to keep his gold crown. He used what he already had to get more out of people later and use his tooth as an advantage. Not only was he resourceful but he was also a traitor. Elie just let his father die and his father was still breathing yet he didn’t move.“My father groaned once more, I heard: ‘Eliezer…’ I could see that he was still breathing- in gaps. I didn’t move” (Wisel 111). He just let his father died and didn’t even try to help him and he died and his last words were “Eliezer…”, but he is thinking for his own future and if he will live or not. He betrayed and was a traitor to his father and didn’t even say goodbye. He was also very determined on living as said by Elie in the expert from his book, “‘Listen to me, kid. Don’t forget you are in a
Eliezer Wiesel, a Jewish boy during the Holocaust, survived more in that time period than most should in a life time. He had overcome fatigue and starvation, and survived the regime of two concentration camps. Not only that, but he did it with his father, his support throughout the book. Eliezer had his will to survive that kept him alive, his father that was his crutch, and his hope that everyone else was grasping onto and losing. Night shows the true strength of Eliezer Wiesel and his indomitable strength of the the human spirit, showing the characteristics of survival, family bond, and hope, all throughout the book.
In the book, our narrator, Elie, is constantly going through changes, and almost all of them are due to his time spent in Auschwitz. Prior to the horrors of Auschwitz, Elie was a very different boy, he had a more optimistic outlook on life. During the first few pages of the book, Elie tells us a bit about how he viewed the world before deportation, “ I was almost thirteen and deeply observant. By day I studied Talmud and by night I would run to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the temple.” ( 3). Elie was, as he says himself, deeply observant and devoted most of his time to his faith. He spent almost all of his time studying and worshiping. At this point, Elie’s faith is the center of his life. Elie is also shown to do a few other things and has a few more early character traits aside from being dedicated to what he believes in. Elie also sees the best of people, a few pages later he says, “The news is terrible,’ he said at last. And then one word: ‘transports’ The ghetto was to be liquidated entirely… ‘Where will they take us?” (Wiesel 14). This is one of the only time we hear about Elie being worried or scared because of the Germans before Auschwitz, and still, despite the warnings that were given and the rumors circulating, Elie doesn’t think that the Germans are actually going to do all of those terrible things. Around this time in the book, Wiesel starts to become more emotionally weighted, but none of what has happened takes full effect until much later. There are multiple instances in the book where Elie is given reason to distrust or even hate the Germans, he talks about how the Gestapo treated him and his family on page 19 “‘Faster! Faster! Move, you lazy good-for-nothings!’ the Hungarian police were screaming.”. Yet he then goes on to say, on that very same page, that “Still our first
The novel Night written by Elie Wiesel recounts his horrible experience as a young Jewish boy during the time of the World War 2, his story shows the lengths of man’s capability to act inhumane to one another. Millions of Jews -countless women, men and children- were murdered during the Holocaust. Unfortunately for the Jews in Sighet their projected fate became reality, although there were warnings of the danger coming. These signs were constantly ignored and overlooked. Characters such as Moishe the Beadle and Mrs. Schächter revealed people’s ability to ignore the reality that is approaching and how people often disregard information that is too difficult for them to accept. The Jews in Sighet preferred to remain oblivious in order to protect
When Elie first arrives at Auschwitz, he is completely overwhelmed. He meets another inmate and the three are all very optimistic about their futures. This is not the case for all inmates, though. The very next person Elie meets has adopted an indifferent attitude about his situation, and has become so tauntrimized by the hardships of life in a concentration camp that he does not care if he lives or dies. When he approaches Elie and his father, his only advice is, “You should have hanged yourselves rather than come here” (30). Because of his traumatic experiences, the inmate has become so numb even death seems better than the life he is being forced to live.
People can change very much in bad situations like the people in the Holocaust, more specifically, Elie Wiesel, a 15 year old who got sent to a concentration camp in Auschwitz. In the book “Night” by Elie Wiesel, the main character, Elie, changed in many ways throughout the book because of the different experiences and sights he had to go through in Auschwitz.
There have been tons of events recorded over the years, but nothing has ever reached the scale of the Holocaust. During the events of the Holocaust, the most deadly time in recorded history, many people, specifically people that practiced the Jewish religion, went into work camps and never came out. In the award winning novel entitled “Night” by Elie Wiesel, the main character and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Elie, changes from before his stay in the most infamous camp, Auschwitz, and after he got out alive.
What would it do to a person to go to a concentration camp, see the horrible things, and come out alive? This book, Night, is about Eliezer Wiesel, who is both the main character and the author. Elie’s book is a memorial about his experience in Hitler’s concentration camps, what he went through, and how he survived. This paper is going to be about Eliezer’s horrific experience and the ways that it changed him.
Traumatic and scarring events occur on a daily basis; from house fires to war, these memories are almost impossible to forget. The Holocaust is only one of the millions of traumas that have occurred, yet it is known worldwide for sourcing millions of deaths. Elie Wiesel was among the many victims of the Holocaust, and one of the few survivors. In the memoir, “Night”, by Elie Wiesel, Elie, the main character, is forever changed because of his traumatic experiences in the Auschwitz concentration camps.
In the book “Night” by Elie Wiesel, Elie goes through many changes, as a character, while he was in Auschwitz. Before Elie was sent to Auschwitz he was just a small child that new little of the world. He made poor decisions and questioned everything. Elie was a religious boy before he went to Auschwitz but while in the camp he became otherwise. Elie writes “Moshe came running to our house. ‘I warned you,’ he shouted” (10). In the excerpt Elie exhibits his poor decision making skills. Elie and his family did not listen to Moishe. This cost them them, because if they would have listened then they could have avoided the concentrations camps. Elie was a young boy, knowing little, he asked questions a lot hoping he could find an answer. In the book Elie says “‘Why do you pray Moishe?’”(Wiesel 4). Elie is not afraid to ask people questions in order to find answers. Elie benefits later in the book because he asked so many questions in the past, he already knows the answers in the future. Elie liked to learn, especially about his
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
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.
Page number seventeen begins when the Germans are clearing out the ghetto, in which Wiesel first states, “On everyone’s back, there was a sack.” From his position on the sidewalk, he describes the raw emotions that everyone’s eyes and posture were exposing, but no one had the courage to speak about. He says that as everyone moved in a slow and steady pace to the gate of the ghetto with distress and tears running down their cheeks. He states that he is stiff, unable to move, when the whole situation becomes surreal, as if it was torn out of a novel. Wiesel sees Chief Rabbi hunched over with a bundle on his back, looking strange without a beard and hunched. Teachers, friends, and people who Wiesel had once feared or had found ridiculous all
Is changing your personality a good or bad thing? Many people gained new traits and evolved due to concentration camps. They did this to survive. One of the people that had to change their personality to survive was Elie Wiesel. In “Night” by Elie wiesel, the main character, Elie, changed as a person due to his experiences at Auschwitz.