Summary Of Darkness By Elie Wiesel

In the memoir, Night by Elie Wiesel begins in his hometown, Transylvania. He was living life as a normal boy. Slowly everything began to change when his teacher, Moshe the Beadle was deported. Moshe returns and tells the towns people what had happened to him, the German police had took over the train they were in and lead them into the woods to murder them, but no one believed him. Soon after the Jews from Elie’s town were forced to move out of their homes and into ghettos. They were then forced onto cattle cars and shipped to concentration camps.

Setting (time and place): Early 1940s, during World War Two, Holocaust era. starting in Sighet, Transylvania, and moving throughout concentration camps in Europe.

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.

What begins and has no end, and ends all that which begins? The answer is death. Most of the time, death is a topic people tend to avoid or deviate from since it causes uncertainty and fear to surface. During the Holocaust, however, death lingered through the air as thick, black smoke does, suffocating its victims and cruelly seizing their lives. The grim reaper was a daily visitor in the ghettos, transports, and concentration camps in which about six million Jews perished. Death was not only physical for people also experienced moral, emotional, and spiritual death. Countless people lost the faith and values that they had developed throughout their whole life once they experienced or witnessed the brutality and horrors of the Holocaust. Once

The Holocaust was a horrible event, one most people hate to think of much less speak of. This event however is the base of young Elie Wiesel’s life and story. The memoir Night by Elie Wiesel is all about his personal journey and place in the telling of the Holocaust. In the book he is sent to Auschwitz as a lamb is sent to the slaughter. He reiterates his transformation during this time, a transformation where he diverts from his Jewish roots and loses his faith in a merciful and Almighty God.

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 at 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. One of the most important memoirs one can read and an inspiration, Night deserves to be read by everyone.

When the sun goes down, and the cold night-time begins, darkness spreads across the world. When the night creates its darkness, it limits your vision, leaving the atmosphere unclear, and the path ahead unknown. This ambiguity leaves people unsettled, and in some cases afraid of what might be covered up behind that dark barrier. In Night by Elie Wiesel, the darkness that the camps symbolize, influence the prisoners by leaving them with an ambiguous and frightening fate. Elie Wiesel was a young boy who was taken away to the Nazi death camps along with Shlomo (his father), his family, and the majority of the other Jews in Europe. These Jewish prisoners were put under several trials where only the strongest would survive. The ones that did survive would work in favor of the Nazi war effort. Luckily, Elie finds the strength and motivation to end up being one of the very few survivors, who lived to tell the story of the horrific acts that the Nazis put the Jews under. Upon his survival, Elie Wiesel decided to write a memoir about his experience in the death camps; he calls his book Night, which is one of the important motifs he incorporates throughout the story. In his Holocaust memoir Night, Elie Wiesel uses the motif of night to convey the idea that the suffering in the camps was interminable and horrifying, just like the darkness of the night.

Throughout one’s life, many decisions are made that impact one’s future. These challenging decisions can also impact the people within their life. Someone can lose a loved one, breakup with their partner, or have someone walk away from their live with just a few simple words or actions. With some many difficult choices, remembering the monumental impact a decision can have allows one to make more knowledgeable decisions. In times of trial, morality depends on ethical and honorable decisions.

In the memoir Night, the author, Elie Wiesel, uses vividly descriptive diction to establish the theme that one should never let go of their goals. After Elie and his family were forced to leave their home, they were loaded into a box car. Elie recalls that, “After two days of traveling [on the train], [ they] began to be tortured by thirst.” (Wiesel 21). Elie Wiesel’s choice of the word torture, instantly brings to mind a picture of people going through unbearable suffering. His vivid descriptions easily bring to mind instant images of what the text is depicting. Through Elie’s ride in the box car, he never let go of his goal of survival. His vivid description of the box car show you what Elie had to withstand while never letting go of his

“At every step, somebody fell down and ceased to suffer.” (Elie Wiesel) “Night” is about a Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, who is also the author. He wrote about his World War 2 experiences and efforts to prevent similar things from occurring anywhere else in the world. The book was published in 1956. Throughout “Night” there are three scenes that make people realize how hard life was for Jewish people during World War 2, and how cruel people were.

Night teaches how in times of suffering, ideas of morality are replaced with a drive to survive. For the prisoners, violence becomes second-nature, and even “the tall chimneys of the creamatorium’s furnace no longer impresses [them]” (104). Ellie becomes numb to violence and death and it no longer fazes him, and he discards the reality of his treatment. His reaction shows the extent of the crimes committed against him, as he just accepts the creamatorium as a way of life. His old senses of morality become obsolete and are replaced with a new code. Favors and gifts no longer exist, as it no longer benefits the prisoners, and instead they barter. Ellie barters “for a ration of bread [and is] able to exchange cots to be next to [his] father” (108).

They are at Birkenau and have to be separated by men and women. It is, however, the last time he would see his mother and sister, Tzipora. Eliezer is now with his father and the inmates are upset, asking why they are here and that they should have hanged themselves before coming because of the fate that awaits them. They also give advice, though, saying that Eliezer should say he is eighteen instead of fifteen and that his dad should be forty instead of fifty. Dr.Mengele then appears, asking for their ages and professions, and Eliezer follows the advice and says he is a student. During this process he sees a truck with children, children that are meant to be thrown in the crematorium. He is shocked and disgusted and would rather run into

1. Who is Ibrahim Bey? The king’s messenger. 2.

Elie Wiesel’s Night is an autobiography on his survival as a teenager in the Nazi torture camps. Night starts when Elie is twelve years old and living in a small town called Sighet in Transylvania (now located in modern-day Romania) with his family. Which consisted of his parents and his three sisters, which is all that mattered to him. One day, a Jewish Sighet named Moshe the Beadle, comes into town to warn everyone of the impending danger of the German army and of their ruler. Unfortunately warnings about the Germans intentions towards them was not taken seriously, and Elie’s family, and the rest of the town, missed their chance to flee the country.

An important nonfiction book that I think everyone should read is Night by Elie Wiesel. This book was published in 1960 by Hill and Wang. It has 116 pages and it is told by a man who survived the Holocaust. This was a very important moment in history that everyone needs knowledge on.