From Night Analysis

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.

From the time where Elie had to decide to fight for his father’s life, to the time where he questioned his beliefs, Elie has had to make many life-changing decisions. As some of his decisions left negative consequences, some were left a positive outcome. In the end, all the decisions Elie had made in the camps has made his life miserable or at its best. For better or for worse, the events that Elie encountered makes his life unforgettable as realizes there was more to life than he had thought of

The novel “Night” was written by Elie Wiesel and is a memoir of his life during World War II. The book starts with his life living in Hungary with his family. It then tells of how they were taken away to concentration camps throughout the war. During Elie’s stays at the various camps you see the sacrifices he makes and how the experience changes him.

In the memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel is only a teenager when he is taken by the Nazis and used as a labor force. He is taken to many concentration camps in Nazi Germany, now Poland. At the camps, he is treated awfully. He is at the bottom of the hierarchy of needs. Because of this, Elie changes in all kinds of ways.

Elie and his father are taken to Auschwitz where they are separated from the rest of the family and first hear about atrocities such as the incinerators and gas showers. In the beginning Elie believes that everything is a rumor, a lie, that humankind cannot perform such crimes, but he soon is forced to witness the demise in front of his eyes. This is when his outlook on his faith starts to waver. While watching the smoke billow up from a crematory, Elie hears a man standing next to him begging him to pray, and for the first time in his life Wiesel turns away from God. “The Eternal, Lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank him for?” (31).

The book takes place during the span of World War II, and continues through Elie’s perspective, as a prisoner, persecuted due to his religion as a Jewish student. The first main plot line is when Elie and his family are taken from their happy, peaceful lives in the small town of Sighet Transylvania, and are put into a

Then, throughout the middle of the novel, the strength of family bonds of the Jews is tested. After the run, a Rabbi asks Elie if he had seen his son, Elie tells him that he had not. Then Elie realizes that he had seen his son on the run, but he does not tell the Rabbi because his son left him behind on purpose. The text states, “He had felt his father growing weaker… by this separation to free himself of a burden that could diminish his own chance for survival” (Wiesel 91). This is where the reader begins to see the toll that the concentration camps are having on the families. Elie includes this to show, that now, family members see each other as burdens rather than a blessing. Later in the novel, family members go as far as taking a life. One old man

Death camps-A very heart wrenching subject. As a young boy, Elie had to experience the pain and suffering that was considered “normal” in a concentration camp. Death become just death, people became numb, life went on until one day you couldn’t go on and were then sent to the crematorium. Survival was a huge aspect in the book ‘Night’. The daily rations were a piece of stale bread and some soup. As time went on rations got less and people began to get ravenous. As stated in the text “You’re killing your father…I have bread…for you too…for you too…” (Wiesel 101) The theme of survival relates not to just this book and the Holocaust, but in the real world. It is our humanly instincts to stay alive. Once that factor kicks in you start to lose sight of what matters in your life, like happiness and relationships. That’s why on page 101 the boy killed his father for just

This shows Elie’s change in his thoughts on God and having faith. At the beginning of the story, Elie strives to be a spiritual kid and is fascinated by learning about God. He goes behind his father's back to learn about God with Moishe the Beadle, and has intense prayers everyday which he cries during. However, he becomes bitter towards God, angry about all the pain he has inflicted on the Jewish race. This change in perspective was brought on by the torture, abuse, and inhumane treatment by the Nazis. It causes Elie to question how God, who is supposed to be helpful and good, could ever allow such horror. This connects to loss, and how the traumatic

The Jews were the only ones who were persecuted during the holocaust. While Elie and his father were in the camp they were persecuted horrifically. When they first got to the (the first camps name) they stayed together everyday and every night. Elie was not going to let his father slip away that easy. Elie’s father did his best to take care of his son but it was very hard. Elie’s father would give him his rations. That is the kind of selfless love a father has for his son. Over the years Elie’s father began to grow weaker and it was an even more difficult time. One time Elie and his father had to lie about their age just so they could live and stay together. If the Jews did not do as they were told they were hit and sometimes even put in the cremation house. The Nazis did not have any sympathy towards the Jews and thats how Hitler liked it. Another type of propaganda used is fear. The Jews feared the Nazis every single day of their lives at the camps. All the Jews did not know when their day was coming, but knew it was coming soon. If some of the Jews were to old to work they were killed and so everyone tried to work as hard as they could no matter what age they were or how they felt. The nazis worked the Jews like dogs day in and day out. Elie feared not only for his life but also for his dads. Elie stuck with his dad till the end and it was well worth

Elie experienced many changes, as a person while he was in Auschwitz. Before Elie was sent to Auschwitz, he was just a small naive child that new very little

At the young age of 15, Elie was forcibly moved into a ghetto and soon after taken to a concentration camp. Human minds do not fully develop until a person reaches about 25 years of age. (Sandra Aamodt, Brain Maturity Extends Well Beyond Teen Years, National Public Radio) Comprehending the Holocaust is impossible for anyone, which makes it that much more unimaginable and unbelievable to a child. It is quite simple for one to lose sight of himself when faced with a scene of pure death. It is fair to say that most people will do anything in return to live a while longer with loved ones. Therefore, morals are thrown out the window and traded

The victims of the Holocaust depended mostly on the mere hope that they would be freed. Many had the realization that freedom was only through their death, so they forfeited their lives and took the hopes out of many. Individuals are capable of both love and greatness, but to go along with that, they’re also capable of cruelty and evil. In “Night” evil conquered all and Elie’s main struggle for freedom was competing to escape from evil. Escaping evil was Elie’s only freedom. Even though Elie escaped, he still had the horrific memories. He said when he looked himself in the mirror, “From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me

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 book opens with Elie’s life before him and his family were taken away. The story continues talking about how when they arrived in Auschwitz his mother and sister were taken to the crematorium with other women and children who were not strong enough to work in the camps. The only people left from Elie’s family were him and his father. Throughout the whole book Elie talks about how his father was his only motivation to keep going. When Elie’s father dies he contemplates to keep going or just to give in. In the end he is liberated and is freed.