Have you ever endured a trauma or tragedy ? From the dictionary, a trauma is an experience that produces psychological injury or pain. A tragedy is a fatal event or affair. In the book “ Night” by Elie Wiesel, we get a glimpse though his eyes to see what life was like during the Holocaust. For those who lived in the concentration camps, like Wiesel, or those who witness this event ; the Holocaust can be seen as tragedy and trauma. In the book , Wiesel had to change from being a careless free kid to being an adult for his survival. He witness his people get taken from their homes, beaten death,killed, and receiving unfair treatment just because they were Jews. His experience going through that tragedy, definitely questioned his views about life. The reader can see how trauma and tragedy can shift a person's faith, views about society, and within themselves. Wiesel had to change within himself. From being a regular fifteen year old into an eighteen year old adult. Wiesel had to grow up fast. ““No.” The man now sounded angry, …show more content…
Was I awake ? how was it possible that men, women and children burned and that the world kept silent”” (32). At that point , Wiesel view on society changed. He felt like the world didn’t care about his people. In that moment, he felt must of felt ignored by the world. All this catastrophe all because he was a Jew. Going through everything he faced, he wouldn’t want anyone ever to relive his story. ““ Was it to leave behind a legacy of words, of memories, to help prevent history from repeating itself ?”” ( pg vii). ““What I do know is that there is a “response” in responsibility”” ( pg xv). Wiesel tells his testimony of survival to show living proof of what happened. He goes from not thinking the world would care about his story into writing his story down and seeing a massive loving response to his book. Wiesel going through his trauma and tragedy has made him an important figure in society to recognize and
Elie Wiesel’s autobiography Night is an account of the brutality of the Holocaust faced by Elie at the age of fourteen to fifteen and the horrors he endures. Night exposes much that is wrong with human nature and reveals little that is right. During the novel, he endures loss of faith as his experience within the Holocaust becomes more difficult. The elements wrong with human nature are represented by the novel, particularly the cruelty and the ignorance. The autobiography, however, only represents little that is right, such as the memory kept in order for the events never to happen again.
Wiesel wrote his novel for more than simply wanting to share his story with his reader, he wrote “Night” because he felt, “I needed to give some meaning to my survival” (Wiesel, 6), he believed he survived for a reason not simply by luck or chance. Although there are many controversy as to why he wrote his novel, in his interview with “The Paris Review” he address as to why, “I didn’t want to write those books. I wrote them against myself. But I realize that if we do not use words, the
These are used to show drama, side thought, and emotion. “‘The Red Army is advancing with great strides… Hitler will not be able to harm us, even if he wants to…’” (page 8) The author uses ellipses to show side thought, which means that more was said or thought, but the most important information was given to the reader. Wiesel also uses short, and simple sentences to add drama. “I was sixteen.” (page 102) During this part in the story Elie Wiesel had just witnessed a father die at the hands of his son, then his son die at the hands of others. He tells his audience that he is sixteen when this happens. This fact surprises readers and adds both drama, and sympathy. However, other emotions are also invoked in this story such as Anger. “They pray before you! They praise your name!”(page 68) By adding exclamations the author adds intense emotion. This scene creates upsetting emotions for the reader, and also reveals Wiesel's anger with his situation. Wiesel is angry and frustrated at God for everything that he has been put through. He is upset that others are still praying to God, even when God has done nothing to help them. The way that he structures his sentences give a sense of style to his
The terrors of the Holocaust are unimaginably destructive as described in the book Night by Elie Wiesel. The story of his experience about the Holocaust is one nightmare of a story to hear, about a trek from one’s hometown to an unknown camp of suffering is a journey of pain that none shall forget. Hope and optimism vanished while denial and disbelief changed focus during Wiesel’s journey through Europe. A passionate relationship gradually formed between the father and the son as the story continued. The book Night genuinely demonstrates how the Holocaust can alter one's spirits and relations.
In the May of 1944, Wiesel is first sent to Auschwitz. This is where he, along with the other Jews, learn how people are no longer treated like human beings. They are not treated like human beings anymore because, they are forced to give up the things that mean a lot to them such as their hair, shoes, and even their lives if they are not considered strong enough to be working. Not only do they realize that, but they just can not come up with an answer to why people could be so harsh and heartless. Wiesel starts to think to himself, “ How could it be possible for them to burn people, children, and for the world to keep silent?” (Wiesel 41). How is possible that any human would want to hurt a child? How can others
As the famous journalist Iris Chang once said, “As the Nobel Laureate warned years ago, to forget a holocaust is to kill twice.” After experiencing the tragedies that occurred during the Holocaust, Eliezer Wiesel narrated “Night”. Eliezer wrote “Night” in an attempt to prevent something similar to the Holocaust from happening again, by showing the audience what the consequences are that come from becoming a bystander. Elie illustrated numerous themes by narrating the state of turmoil he was in during the Holocaust. In Night, Eliezer provided insight into what he experienced in order to teach the unaware audience about three themes; identity, silence, and faith.
There are many records of first person experiences in the Holocaust that show what it was like to live during the time period, and most records are the victims; telling their story. During the Holocaust, about 6 million jews were killed. A spectator witnessing this horrendous brutality was Elie Wiesel. Elie Wiesel was born in Transilvania and was sent to a death camp when he was around 15. He witnessed horrible things and wrote a book about his experiences in 3 Austwitz death camps. The plot of his memoir,”Night” follows him through his life in the death camps with his father and how they stay together until the enevitable death of his weak and ailing father. A big part of the memoir is how their relationship changes throughout the story.
Six million jews. Six million innocent men, women and children. Emerging from the ashes and corpses, one man had the intention of preserving this tragedy, yet at the same time preventing it. Elie Wiesel’s fulfilled his purpose of showing the heinous crimes of the Holocaust through the change of characterization of Elie before, during and after the events of Wiesel 's 1940 memoir-Night. The Holocaust is remembered as a stain on history, where a massive genocide occurred. but we must also recognize the souls and personalities that were killed and burned. Wiesel trembling hands picked up these ashes, personifying their ebony remains into a young child-Elie.
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.
Wiesel’s story centers around the tragic horror that is genocide. He was apart of what is notoriously known as the Holocaust. This event is the most talked about and studied example of genocide but that doesn’t mean it’s the only one of its kind. There have been various examples of mass genocide over the years that don’t seem to stick in history the way the Holocaust does. This is precisely what Wiesel wanted to make
The early 1940s, an observant, young boy, and his caring father: the start of a story that would become known throughout the world of Eliezer Wiesel. His eye-opening story is one of millions born of the Holocaust. Elie’s identity, for which he is known by, is written out word for word his memoir, Night. Throughout his journey, Elie’s voice drifts from that of an innocent teen intrigued with the teachings of his religion to that of a soul blackened by a theoretical evil consuming the Nazis and Hitler’s Germany. Elie Wiesel's memoir, Night, examines the theme of identity through the continuous motifs of losing one’s self in the face of death and fear, labeling innocent people for a single dimension of what defines a human being, and the oppression seen in the Holocaust based on the identities of those specifically targeted and persecuted.
Wiesel establishes pathos when he discusses how the Holocaust victims felt due to the indifference of the people. He evokes feelings of guilt and sadness in the audience when he makes statements such as, “They feared nothing. They felt nothing. They were dead and did not know it.”
Vivid descriptions sprung out of in every page of Wiesel’s book. For example, Wiesel asked himself, “Was I still alive? Was I awake? How was it possible that men, women and children were being burned and that the word kept silent? (32)”
”(112) Wiesel was so tired of searching and figuring out why he was still alive or even existed anymore because everything he has hoped in has been crushed, except if you did not lie to him and kept your promises, in which only Hitler did, he felt like his identity was ripped away from him emotionally, but they also took away from his
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