Night, By Elie Wiesel

Of all the events that happened during World War 2, the Holocaust is arguably one of the most horrific and disgusting events. The Holocaust is a policy created by Adolf Hitler to extinguish the Jewish race by putting them though concentration camps and extermination camps. Overall, it killed 11 million people including 1.1 million children. Those who survived were lucky, and Elie Wiesel was one of them. His story “Night” is successful in capturing the events that happened in the author’s life and translating them into text for the reader to see.

One of the generalizations of change is, change can be natural or man-made. The entirety of the 1940’s change was due to man-made problems. Any memoir written by someone who lived through this decade would have included several examples of this generalization of change. This includes the book that I was assigned, Night by Elie Wiesel. Accordingly, Night clearly illustrates that change can be natural, or caused by a human.

At first glance, Night, by Eliezer Wiesel does not seem to be an example of deep or emotionally complex literature. It is a tiny book, one hundred pages at the most with a lot of dialogue and short choppy sentences. But in this memoir, Wiesel strings along the events that took him through the Holocaust until they form one of the most riveting, shocking, and grimly realistic tales ever told of history’s most famous horror story. In Night, Wiesel reveals the intense impact that concentration camps had on his life, not through grisly details but in correlation with his lost faith in God and the human conscience.

Elie Wiesel had his whole life to tell when he retold and wrote down Night. He was not telling these truths because he felt that it would be entertaining, or funny, or scary. He wanted to warn readers that this should never happen again. By giving the perspective of an actual Holocaust victim, an oppressed individual of the camps they were forced into, it can give a more human aspect to Night. This book emphasizes the point of why this should never happen again, the true cruelty, and the dehumanization and indifference from every single angle, and emphasizes the dehumanization of the prisoners, the suffering they endured, and how they subconsciously not only stopped the guard’s sympathy for prisoners but also the sympathy for each other, and

Night by Elie Wiesel focuses on giving the reader a precise understanding of the Holocaust from the perspective of a man who endured it. In order to vividly describe the situation, Wiesel uses specific words or phrases to signify the importance and value behind it. Wiesel writes, “Night. No one was praying for the night to pass quickly. The stars were but sparks of the immense conflagration that was consuming us. Were this conflagration to be extinguished one day, nothing would be left in the sky but extinct stars and unseeing eyes” (Wiesel 21). “Night” is used abundantly throughout the book. In today’s American society, night is for rejuvenation, peace,

Many themes exist in Night, Elie Wiesel’s nightmarish story of his Holocaust experience. From normal life in a small town to physical abuse in concentration camps, Night chronicles the journey of Wiesel’s teenage years. Neither Wiesel nor any of the Jews in Sighet could have imagined the horrors that would befall them as their lived changed under the Nazi regime. The Jews all lived peaceful, civilized lives before German occupation. Eliezer Wiesel was concerned with mysticism and his father was “more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin” (4). This would change in the coming weeks, as Jews are segregated, sent to camps, and both physically and emotionally abused. These changes and abuse would dehumanize

“Discuss the ways in which Elie Wiesel utilises language and stylistic features such as tone, symbolism, and personification to convey his changing view of God and the impact that loss of faith has on his identity throughout the novel Night.” In his memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel utilises language and stylistic features such as tone, symbolism, and personification to convey the impact that loss of faith has on his identity. Night begins in 1941 in Sighet, Romania from Wiesel’s perspective as a young Jewish boy who was taken prisoner by the German army along with his family and transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland in 1944. The audience grasps the severe reality of Holocaust victims through Wiesel’s morbid, mournful, and miserable

In Night, by Elie Wiesel, silence allows the atrocities of the world to prevail; additionally, the absence of God through times of suffering, lack of resistance from the Jewish victims and Elie’s reluctance to aid his father are actions that demonstrate the lasting impact of silence upon others. Initially, thirteen year old Elie has a strong passion for religion and studies many Jewish texts; however, when he is deported to Birkenau, he witnesses that God takes no action when the babies are being “thrown into the flames” (Wiesel 32). Consequently, Elie starts to question his faith: “For the first time, I felt anger rising within me. Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for?” (33).

There are many important themes and overtones to the book Night, by Eliezer Wiesel. One of the major themes from the book includes the protagonist, and author of his memoire, Elie Wiesel’s ever changing relationship with God. An example of this is when Moche the Beadle asked Elie an important question that would change his life forever, as the basis of his passion and aptitude for studying the ancient texts and teachings of Judaism, “When Moche the Beadle asked Elie why he prayed, Elie couldn 't think of an answer that truly described his faith, and thought, "a strange question, why did I live, why did I breathe?" (Wiesel 14).

Forty-two years after entering the concentration camp for the first time, Elie Wiesel remarked, “Just as man cannot live without dreams, he cannot live without hope” (Nobel Lecture 1). This means a lot from someone who endured almost two years of the terror in the WWII concentration camps. During these two years, Elie endured the sadness of leaving his former life and faith behind, the pain of living off of scraps of bread, and the trepidation of the “selections”, where he almost lost his father. He watched the hanging of innocent people, was beat by Kapos and guards time after time, and marched in a death march right after having a foot surgery. Through all of this, he survived because he remained hopeful. Hope was all the Jewish people

"We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." This quote was once said by a humble man whose name was, Elie Wiesel. He was a strong, but gentle man who had never thought he would undergo the pain that he endured. Elie lived humbly but happily with his family, which he adored. He had two older sisters, one younger sister, and two happily married parents. He was very religious and stuck to his Jewish beliefs and traditions. For the most part, everybody in his community treated each other with benevolence, respecting each others beliefs and traditions. Elie was just a normal kid wanting to live as much of a normal life as possible. He never looked for trouble or ways to hurt someone, he just wanted peace and love in his life. Elie also stated that "No

When learning about the Holocaust, most are deprived of being able to understand the emotions, thoughts, and experiences of the millions of Jews; however, Elie Wiesel gives this opportunity through the telling of his personal experience. After ten years of silence, Elie Wiesel recounts his personal experiences of the Holocaust and retells the horrific details of the events he witnessed in his honest, eye-opening memoir Night. Taken at a young age, Elie Wiesel is transported to Auschwitz; at this concentration camp, Wiesel is separated from his mother and younger sister, whom he would never see again. During his years in the concentration camp, Wiesel and his father worked long exhausting hours every day. After a forty-two mile trip from Auschwitz to Gleiwitz in the snow and bitter cold, Elie Wiesel watches the slow death of his father by malnutrition and a harsh beating from the Nazis. Three months later American forces liberate the camp, freeing Wiesel. One of the most important memoirs one can read and a true inspiration, Night deserves to be read by everyone.

As stated by ushmm.org, up to 6 million Jews were killed while the Holocaust occurred. 1.8 million of the people who died during the holocaust were Non-Jewish. Elie Wiesel writes about his experience in Auschwitz during the holocaust in the book Night. Throughout the book, Elie and his father’s relationship grew stronger and it became more intact. Elie’s mother and sisters were taken away into the crematorium and it was believed they died in the gas chamber. It was only his father and him. They only had each other which grew them closer together.

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.

Night by Elie Wiesel is an autobiography about his experience during the Holocaust when he was fifteen years old. Elie is fifteen when the tragedy begins. He is taken with his family through many trials and then is separated from everyone besides his father. They are left with only each other, of which they are able to confide in and look to for support. The story is told through a series of creative writing practices. Mr. Wiesel uses strong diction, and syntax as well as a combination of stylistic devices. This autobiography allows the readers to understand a personal, first-hand account of the terrible events of the holocaust. The ways that diction is used in Night helps with this understanding.