Don't Fight the Enemy in Night by Elie Wiesel Essay

Often, the theme of a novel extends into a deeper significance than what is first apparent on the surface. In the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, the theme of night and darkness is prevalent throughout the story and is used as a primary tool to convey symbolism, foreshadowing, and the hopeless defeat felt by prisoners of Holocaust concentration camps. Religion, the various occurring crucial nights, and the many instances of foreshadowing and symbolism clearly demonstrate how the reoccurring theme of night permeates throughout the novel.

When responding to situations in life people must consider if doing so will benefit themselves or the people around them. In circumstances that demand quick thinking people often can not form a concrete decision based on how little information and time they have. In life people frequently must try to do so through their daily battles with the people around them as well as themselves.

In Night, memoirist Elie Wiesel shares his most personal memories of the Holocaust, which he experienced directly and during which he lost his family and many friends. On page eight, Wiesel accounts for the lack of initiative adults in his community took to protect themselves and their families against the Nazis. He states that they concerned themselves with “strategy, diplomacy, politics, and Zionism—but not with their own fate.” Elie Wiesel describes these distractions with resentment, and rightfully so. In Sighet, Wiesel shows many of the Jewish people downplaying the need to take action because they believe circumstances will improve. Wiesel believes that if the elders had taken precautions earlier on and prepared themselves, the tragedy

In the beginning he was horrified of the things he saw. On his first day at a concentration camp Elie saw babies being thrown into large pits of fire, people being taken to the crematory and Jews being hit and beaten for no reason. As time past and Wiesel was moved from camp to camp he started to only care about his survival and the horrible things done by the Nazi’s became apart of his everyday life.He saw a boy whose face he said looked like the face of an angel being hung. The little boy struggled to breathe for over thirty minutes before the life in his eyes faded away. Wiesel's own father was beaten because he was sick and not given the proper medical care from the nazi’s. Days later his father was taken to the crematory. Instead of Wiesel being sad he was relieved that he no longer had to take care of his father. Elie lost friends family and saw many more being killed. Wiesel was almost numb to the things happening around him.

As Elie gets used to his new life in such a hellish state, he realizes that the trusting and faithful child that he once had been had been taken away along with his family and all else that he had ever known. While so many others around him still implore the God of their past to bring them through their suffering, Wiesel reveals to the reader that although he still believes that there is a God, he no longer sees Him as a just and compassionate leader but a cruel and testing spectator.

“Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself.” After World War I Germany had suffered great loss. Their economy was especially weak. The German people desperately seeked for a leader that could help them. Adolf Hitler had won over the people of Germany and gained control. Many thought he would be the one to save them. Hitler slowly began turning everyone against the Jews. He said the Jews were the ones to blame for their country’s problems. Hitler began sending them to concentration camps in order to exterminate them, this was known as the Holocaust. Between five to six million Jews were killed. Elie Wiesel experienced all of these horrors right in front of his very own eyes, alongside his father.

The Holocaust was a very terrible time in history over six million Jews perished in concentration camps. Even though in every tragedy there are survivors. Elie Wiesel was a little boy when all of this happened. He experienced all of the terrible things that happened during this time frame. While suffering in the terrible condition of the camp Elie and his father’s relationship goes through a drastic change.

As humans, we require basic necessities, such as food, water, and shelter to survive. But we also need a reason to live. The reason could be the thought of a person, achieving some goal, or a connection with a higher being. Humans need something that drives them to stay alive. This becomes more evident when people are placed in horrific situations. In Elie Wiesel's memoir Night, he reminisces about his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust. There the men witness horrific scenes of violence and death. As time goes on they begin to lose hope in the very things that keep them alive: their faith in God, each other, and above all, themselves.

In the memoir, Night, author Elie Wiesel portrays the dehumanization of individuals and its lasting result in a loss of faith in God. Throughout the Holocaust, Jews were doggedly treated with disrespect and inhumanity. As more cruelty was bestowed upon them, the lower their flame of hope and faith became as they began turning on each other and focused on self preservation over family and friends. The flame within them never completely died, but rather stayed kindling throughout the journey until finally it stood flickering and idle at the eventual halt of this seemingly never-ending nightmare. Elie depicts the perpetuation of violence that crops up with the Jews by teaching of the loss in belief of a higher power from devout to doubt they

The novel Night by Eliezer Wiesel tells the tale of a young Elie Wiesel and his experience in the concentration camps,and his fight to stay alive . The tragic story shows the jewish people during the Holocaust and their alienation from the world. Elie’s experience changes him mentally, and all actions in taken while in the concentration were based on one thing...Survival.

Night by Elie Wiesel was published in 1955 and narrates the author’s personal experiences during the Holocaust. Young Elie Wiesel recounts his struggles as he was forced into various concentration camps through his writing. The events that are written in Wiesel’s Night exemplify the brutality evident during the 1940’s Nazi Era. Eliezar Wiesel was born on on September 30, 1928, in Sighet, Transylvania, now Romania. He attended a nearby yeshiva, a Jewish institution that studies traditional religious texts, until he was fifteen years old.

He wondered why he should “sanctify His name?” (Wiesel 33). Thousands of people were dying and nothing was being done about it. Although, there were many who had lost faith some still spoke of Him. Elie had stopped praying and though he did not decline His existence, he “doubted His absolute justice” (Wiesel 45).

When Elie arrived at the first concentration camp, he was a child, but when left he was no longer human. Elie’s character changed through his encounter of the Holocaust. Elie idolized his religion, Judaism, one relevant identification for him. Elie spent hours praying and learning about Judaism, but it was the reason he and his family were tormented for. Elie was so intrigued by Judaism, that he wanted someone a “master” to guide in his studies of Kabbalah, an ancient spiritual wisdom that teaches how to improve the lives (Wiesel 8). Furthermore, he loses hope in God and in life. Elie only had a few items when he arrived in the camp, one being his family, but that would soon be taken from him. When Elie and his family arrived at the camp in Auschwitz, he was kept by his father. He always gazed after his father, caring for him until his death.

“Behind me, I heard the same man asking: “Where is God now?” And I heard a voice within me answer him: “Where is he? Here He is—He is hanging here on this gallows…”” (Chapter four, page 62). This is the most significant quote because Elie is expressing how he is losing faith in his God that he has lived for since he was a boy. He is revealing how he feels about God’s non-existent actions to try and help him, his family, and everyone else in those camps. This quote represents how much the camps have immensely changed his life for the worst and how he does not think that his situation could ever improve. He is no longer believing that God is on his side in this war. Elie took the death of the child as a sign that God was not helping anyone

The setting of “Night” is Eastern Europe and during Nazi rule between the late 1930s and the mid 1940s. Throughout the entire story it takes place in Europe but the location varies to different concentration camps around Nazi occupied Europe.