Identity In Elie Wiesel's 'Nightwood'

Throughout a lifetime, people undergo many different identities to discover their true self. Elie Wiesel, the author of the memoir Night, suffered a major event that changed his identity forever. In his experience at the concentration camps during the Holocaust, Elie had to fight to stay alive even during the most resilient moments. This event shaped his life and brought Elie to endure different perspectives in his time in the camps. Eliezer’s identity changed throughout the memoir from faithful, to fearful, to hopeless.

"The night seemed endless" (Wiesel 26) on the train to Auschwitz. In the memoir "Night" by Elie Wiesel, Night is symbolic, and its meaning can be interpreted in multiple ways. Night epitomized fear whilst also serving as a haven from the torture in the camp. The horrors Elie witnesses in the camp are relieved, even if it be for a little while, at night. Night is not just a period of respite, but also a time of anxiety for the coming day of torture.

The holocaust ended May 8, 1945 but it took the lives of millions of people with it. Depriving millions of innocent souls of basic rights we have today. In the book Night, we are shown the experiences and transformations of young Elie from the day he arrived in the ghetto, to his last day in a concentration camp. As a result of his experiences during the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel changes from a religious, sensitive little boy to a spiritually dead, unemotional man.

Symbolism: the artistic and poetic use of a phrase, object, or relationship to express a deeper idea. Night, by Elie Wiesel, is a retelling of Wiesel’s sacrifices and experiences as a young Jewish boy who had spent many years in concentration camps. Throughout the book, Wiesel uses an overwhelming amount of symbolism to express the deeper thoughts and feelings of the Jewish people as they did all they could to survive. Wiesel’s relationship with his father, Juliek’s violin, and the rations of food the Jews are provided with all symbolize the remnants of humanity that still remain in the Jews, who have been stripped of basically everything.

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.

A little over 70 years ago, Elie Wiesel survived a situation that many people could not even fathom. In 1944, Elie and his family were brought to Auschwitz where he nearly experienced death many times.

Elie Wiesel faces many conflicts throughout this memoir. In the memoir, Night, by Elie wiesel, Hitler works hard to eradicate the Jewish people. Fallaciously, he forces Jews into thinking they aren’t going to be harmed. Adolf Hitler houses all Jewish people in death camps for he is indignant and he needs revenge after the World War. Also, Hitler is being hypocritical because he says the only worthy people are Aryan people, but he isn’t even Aryan. He often instructs the Nazi Soldiers to make all Jewish people despondent about life. The Germans are to have no decorum with the Jews. They are told to starve, beat, and punish the prisoners. Throughout the story, Wiesel struggles with staying alive and with helping his father stay alive in aspiration

Sometimes in life we are faced with challenges that threaten our identities. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel his challenge was the holocaust, and every aspect of his identity changed. He lost his faith, his appearance changed dramatically, and his lost his ability to care about things he loved most.

Eliezer in the book mentions several times that the prisoners and him were no longer men. The prisoners in camp were broken down into shadows of the men they were before their imprisonment. This is because the Nazis tormented them. The Nazis treated the prisoners like animals. They put them in cattle cars, forced them out of there homes, and fed them the bare minimum they needed to stay alive. All of these things made the prisoners lose their identity as men. This helped the Nazi cause because it made the prisoners lose hope. Prisoners with no hope become easier to control, and that benefited the Nazis. Therefore the loss of identity of the prisoners helped the Nazi cause.

When a son kills his father over bread, the meaning of Night is further brought to light. It is illuminated by the fact that Elie loves his father very much, how little food they were given, and how ruthless people had become to get what they needed.

Strong bonds built upon trust and dependability can last a lifetime, especially through strenuous moments when the integrity of a bond is the only thing that can be counted on to get through those situations. In Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, he writes about his life spent in the concentration camps, while explaining the experiences and struggles that he went through. However, not everything during that period was completely unbearable for Wiesel. When Wiesel arrived at the first camp, Birkenau, the fear instilled in him and the loneliness he would have felt forced him to form a stronger attachment to his father. That dependence towards his father gave Wiesel a reason to keep on living. In turn, his father was able to support Wiesel and make the experiences in the camps a bit more manageable.

At the beginning of Night, Eliezer describes himself as someone who believes “Profoundly.” However, as the book carries on, that tends to change. The experiences he goes through changes him as a person.

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.

Imagine one day being able to be yourself and the next day someone else is in control of your every move. This is what happened to the Jewish people during the Holocaust. When the Germans came in to take over, they imposed regulations that did not allow the Jewish people to uphold their identity. Some restrictions that stripped away their identities include having to wear stars on their arms, having numbers tattooed onto their wrists, and wearing a striped uniform. The Book Night by Elie Wiesel is a true story told from the perspective of Elie, explaining what life was like living through the holocaust at a concentration camp. A major idea that ties into Elie and the loss of identity was Elie’s major personality change from the beginning of the book to the end of the book. All the little things that the Jewish people could not do anymore stripped them of their identity as well. There were a bunch of rules set: they could not attend synagogue, be on the streets after 6, and they were not allowed to travel they train. By taking away these little things, it did not allow the Jewish citizens to continue their daily activities and be themselves. The Germans also dehumanized the Jewish people, which means to deprive of human qualities, personality, or spirit. This is exactly what the Germans did by treating the “Jews” as less. The inhumane way that the Jewish people were treated did not allow them to be themselves, which then lead to the loss of identity.

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.