Theme Of Night By Elie Wiesel

People have survived many situations throughout the years. Some of the these situations have been life threatening and some have not been that bad. These situations have left people wrenched, mortified, and distressed. Elie Wiesel in Night is innocent, desperate, and numb. Overall, Wiesel is left broken. Night was written by Elie Wiesel and the book is about his personal experience about being a victim of the Holocaust.

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.

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” - George Bernard Shaw. George Shaw’s famous quote describes that to achieve, you must change yourself. On May 1944, Elie Wiesel and his family were forced out from his home in Sighet, Romania to live in Auschwitz, Germany. He and his two older sisters survived the holocaust, Elie then wrote his experience in 1960. During the span of the book, “Night” by Elie Wiesel, the novel demonstrates that traumatic events can change a person drastically. In the beginning, Elie lived with his family in Germany, his mother, his father, and his three siblings. The Germans forced the Jews to hand over their valuables, live in ghettos and finally moving them to concentration camps, including Elie’s family. He was disunited from his mother and three siblings, but managed to stay with his father. At first when he entered the camp he was pessimistic and discouraged when he saw the townspeople crying including his father. After, Elie then learned to take care of himself and his father during tragic events, he stuck to his ambitions and values which led him to go through many obstacles , despite the limitations, and be free of the camp of Auschwitz. As he set out Eliezer was an immature and carefree 15 year old who developed into a responsible young adult.

I swore never to remain silent whenever and wherever humans beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.- Elie Weisel

Robert Shapiro, an American civil litigator once said, “To me, the Holocaust stands alone as the most horrible human event in modern civilization,” The Holocaust, a genocide led by Adolf Hitler, killed six million jews, and dramatically affected the whole world. The memoir “Night,” written by Elie Wiesel describes the brutality Wiesel experienced during the Holocaust, and how life changing it was. Although some may believe the memoir written by Elie Wiesel was titled “Night” because he was forced to leave his home during the night, Wiesel illustrates Jews losing hope, faith, and happiness through the symbol of Night, to prove that the memoir was titled “Night” to symbolize the darkness the holocaust created.

In the book Night, Elie Wiesel focuses on the idea of the unknown. It is a recurring theme throughout the text. The book gives many examples of things that are unknown to Elie and the other characters. For example, on page 27, Elie writes, “‘Auschwitz.’ Nobody had ever heard that name before.” This quote tells readers that the characters had no idea about the concentration camp prior to when the person by the window read it out loud. They were unaware of the sinister things taking place in Auschwitz and the danger that was now placed upon them.

Cruelty surrounds the world constantly, and is used frequently in works of literature to reveal certain things about the theme. In the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, acts of cruelty are used to express the theme and enhance its message. One of the largest themes revealed by these acts is “man’s inhumanity to man,” which includes mistreatment of Jews by the Nazis, the common people, and other Jews. Watching the large amounts of violence, abuse, and discrimination that occur in this memoir show us the horrors of the Holocaust and how it transformed the men and women who it experienced it, as well as those who caused it.

In the novel “Night”, author, Elie Wiesel uses imagery to share his experiences as a jew during the holocaust. Wiesel’s use of imagery helps demonstrate the tone and purpose of the entire novel. Elie Wiesel’s journey starts off  subtle but in the end leaves the reader heartbroken.    Throughout the story, Wiesel describes his tragic memories during the nazi concentration camps, which establishes a dark and somber tone. His descriptions and use of imagery creates the tone and purpose of “Night”.

It was in Auschwitz during 1944, at the time of arrival about midnight when the smell of burning flesh saturated the air. There was an unimaginable nightmare of a truck unloading small children and babies thrown into the flames. However, this is only one event in this entire tragedy of events to be remembered in order to understand how deeply literal and symbolic the book entitled Night by Elie Wiesel is. The novel brings light to the reader about what the Jews faced while in the fire, hell and night; nonetheless, the author portrays each and every day during this year as a night in hell of conflagration. "Were this conflagration to be extinguished one day, nothing would be left in the sky but extinct stars and unseeing eyes." (Wiesel 20). When Wiesel arrived at the camp he counted the longest dreadful ten steps of his life; he realized that his nightmare has just become unimaginable.

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).

Can you imagine having everything stripped away from you, your friends, family, and all basic rights, all of it seeming like one long never ending night. Barely anyone today could, however this was a reality for Elie Wiesel, author of the award winning book Night. The book is a wonderful insight to the events of the holocaust. It is filled with grueling instances of survival, family, and even the inhumanity of man, however another kind of torture that is slightly less obvious is constantly referenced throughout this autobiography, and that is the loss of faith. Although this theme may seem less prevalent, it is in my opinion the most important one in all areas including importance to Elie Wiesel, prominence in the

Elie Wiesel’s book “ Night “ takes place during the crucial events of the Holocaust. Elie and his family are taken to a ghetto and later on taken to a concentration camp called Auschwitz. They were taken there for one reason and one reason only, they were jews. Elie witnessed murder and soulless acts at his stay in Auschwitz, death was in the air. Elie and his father only had each other. One theme that is seen throughout the novel is that times like this can bring two people together to build a better relationship.

“Hunger—thirst—fear—transport—selection—fire—chimney: these words all have intrinsic meaning, but in those times, they meant something else” (Wiesel ix). Years after he was liberated from the concentration camp at Buchenwald, Elie Wiesel wrote Night as a memoir of his life and experiences during the Holocaust, while a prisoner in the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Scholars often refer to the Holocaust as the “anti-world”. This anti-world is an inverted world governed by absurdity. The roles of those living in the anti-world are reversed and previous values and morals are no longer important. Elie Wiesel portrays four of the characters, in his memoir, Night, as prophetic figures, each with a new warning for the Jews. There are four main characteristics that make a person a prophetic figure. First, they always have a story or a tale they are trying to tell. Secondly, this story usually contains a warning of some kind. The perception of these individuals as mad by others in their community is the third characteristic; and isolation by their community as a result of this belief is the fourth characteristic. Throughout the story Eliezer struggles with his faith and belief in God. Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, characterizes four prophetic figures to portray the distorted nature of the anti-world and to illustrate a constant questioning of God and faith by Eliezer.

In this lesson, we will explore three of the major themes of 'Night ' and the imagery that the author, Elie Wiesel, uses to create them. The themes we will discuss are identity, silence, and night.

In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie and his family are Jewish and in turn get sent to Birkenau. They were sent to Birkenau because Adolf Hitler had come to power just before World War II. Elie gets separated from his mother and sister who had been sent to the crematory. Elie had been fortunate enough that his father was sent to the same side as him. Wiesel writes about the death of God and his own disgust with humanity, reflected in the inversion of the father son bond, as his father declines to a helpless state and Wiesel becomes his resentful teenage caregiver. The motif is night as a symbol of death. This is shown through his experience at the concentration camp and times on the train.