Quotes From Night By Elie Wiesel

Elie’s father loses his strength quickly, “his eyes [grew] dim” (46) almost immediately after arriving. The horrors which he had seen were easily enough to crush the spirit of a former community leader. His disbelief of the horrors he saw questioned the very basis of his soul, and he began to despair. His father’s eyes soon become, “veiled with despair” (81), as he loses hope for survival. The despair of camp life shrouds the human within, showing only another cowed prisoner. Elie’s father no longer can see hope, having his vision clouded by cruelty and hate. Elie’s father is eventually overwhelmed by despair; he, “would not get up. He knew that it was useless” (113). The Nazis crushed his soul, killed his family, stole his home, and eventually took his life; this treatment destroyed the person inside the body. He could no longer summon the strength to stay alive, so he gave up, and collapsed.

The one person in Elie’s life that means everything to him is his father. During his time in the concentration camps, Elie’s bond with his father

Good triumphs over evil because the prisoners never think to get revenge on the Nazis. In the last few pages of the book, Elie’s camp, Buchenwald, is liberated by the Americans. He explains what everyone does immediately following liberation and how no one speaks of violence towards the Nazi regime. “And even when we were no longer hungry, not one of us thought of revenge. The next day, a few of the young men ran into Weimar to to bring back potatoes and clothes… But still no trace of revenge” (Wiesel 115).

When Elie and his father first entered the camps, his father was struck and Elie did nothing to help his father: "What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked. Only yesterday, I would have dug my nails in this criminal's flesh" (39). This shows that, although Elie did not share a close relationship with his father, he still feels that he should stand up for his fahter for the fact that they are father and son. Elie is very violent in that he would have "dug his nails in the criminals' flesh." Evidently, Elie is furious towards the offender. Unfortunately, Elie does not do anything when his father is struck because he does not want to draw attention to himself. Nevertheless, the bond between Elie and his father does strengthen: "And what if he were dead, as well? He was not moving. Suddenly the evidence overwhelmed me: there is no longer any reason to live, any reason to fight" (98-99). Elie reveals that he truly depends on his father for survival. Because he believes his father is no longer alive, he loses all hope for surviavl. Although Elie expresses anger towards his father from time to time because he is being a burden, he still feels that his survival is meaningless without his father. The strong bond that the two developed once they entered the concentration camps proves that nothing can come between them so easily.

As an additional component of my dissertation, I have selected three quotes from Elie Wiesel’s Night which deeply resonated with me.

“Fire! I see a fire! I see a fire” (Wiesel 24)! Mrs. Schächter yelled to the other people on the train, warning them about what was going to happen. In the book Night Elie describes the life that he had during the Holocaust. This book is about how a twelve year old boy puts his old life behind and illustrates the many hardships that Hitler caused the Jewish people.

Elie mentions several times throughout the novel that he overcame trials by having his father by his side. When separated from his mother and

There have been tons of events recorded over the years, but nothing has ever reached the scale of the Holocaust. During the events of the Holocaust, the most deadly time in recorded history, many people, specifically people that practiced the Jewish religion, went into work camps and never came out. In the award winning novel entitled “Night” by Elie Wiesel, the main character and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Elie, changes from before his stay in the most infamous camp, Auschwitz, and after he got out alive.

Reading Elie Wiesel’s Night, has moved me deeply; for the first time in my life to read such horror, pain, and numbness my mind could not digest everything. To think that our own men killed, abused, and tortured their own people is heart wrenching. On page 33, a sentence stuck out to me most that I believe summarizes the whole message of the book. A fifteen year old boy, living day by day, confesses to his father, “I'll run into the electrified barbed wire. That would be easier than a slow death in the flames." Just reading these words, I could imagine this helpless young boy quickly losing faith. He had no desire to live, no motivation to continue, and absolutely no faith in God. A boy that age or anyone should have to think about an easier

In the beginning of the book, before experiencing life threatening difficulties, Elie was much more determined to stay with his family (in order to survive). Eliezer thought that his father was what kept him going and gave him strength, he was certain that the right thing to do was to stay with his dad. In chapter 3 Wiesel states, “My hand tightened its grip on my father. All I could think of was not to lose him. Not to remain alone” (30). In these sentences, Elie explains that he and his father needed to stay together. This quote also shows what Elie’s emotions were; he was scared to suffer through the concentration camp alone. Elie also shows his need for family when he says, “Franek, the foreman, assigned me to a corner... ‘Please, sir ... I’d like to be near

But further on in the novel, they drift further and further apart. At some point in the novel, Elie starts to feel that his father is a bit of a burden. Elie and his father experience a reversal in roles, where Elie takes on the fatherly role and his father takes on the child role. After their run to Gleiwitz, Elie noticed how his father had changed from the time they arrived at the camps, “He had become childlike, weak, frightened, vulnerable” page 105. When they are finally at Buchenwald, Elie and his father spend an entire night apart. When Elie wakes the next morning, he frantically goes looking for him, as a father would look for his lost son. When he locates his father, he notices that his father was just sitting their like a lost child, waiting to be found. Elie says, “Father! I’ve been looking for so long….where were you? Did you sleep? How are you feeling?” pg.106.

Elie Wiesel's father did not want to leave because he was too old to start a new life. Elie Wiesel's father didn't leave because he couldn’t start from scratch all over again:”I’m too old to start a new life”(Wiesel 9)This quote demonstrates that Elie Wiesel's father didn't think he could provide for his family anymore. Elie Wiesel's father also had a good reputation in Sighet , and “the Jewish community of Sighet held him to the highest esteem”(Wiesel 11) This quote exemplifies that he was too old and didn't want to lose everything. He had accomplished.

This tragic event in history created many famous quotes and poems, such as “night” and “at first they came for the communist”

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

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” (Winston Churchill,) In the memoir, “Night,” by Elie Wiesel, Elie who is very profound of his Jewish religion and Heritage. He is a Jewish boy who was sent to a concentration camp during the time of the Holocaust and is a survivor of it. He wrote the book “Night” after the events that happened during the Holocaust. In the book, the reader would think Elie Wiesel and Moishe the Beadle would agree with the quote from Winston Churchill.