The degree of anti-semitism that occurred during the Holocaust affected many people, and even caused some to question their belief in God. The setting of Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, details the tragic events that occurred during this time. The setting of the memoir provides an account of a young Jewish boy’s experience as he survived the horrific Nazi death camps, where he witnessed the death of his family and many others. Wiesel uses the setting, mood, and tone to illustrate the emotional and tragic journey of a young Jewish boy during the Holocaust.
To begin with, the setting of the town of Sighet creates a mood of uncertainty and anticipation. As time passed in the story without Nazi intervention, the reader feels some relief, “Several
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Wiesel provides the reader with grisly details of the Nazis’ unimaginable method of executing the Jews. “In front of us, flames. In the air that smell of burning flesh”(27). Although such events do not occur in everyday life, for the Jews, it had become almost normal. Wiesel uses directness throughout the story to provide the reader a clear vision of the crematories used to execute the Jews. Wiesel also takes on a serious attitude as he describes the execution of a well liked young servant boy, who refused to give the SS names of people involved in the incident at Buna. “To hang a young boy in front of thousands of spectators was no light matter”(61). The reader further struggles to understand the realization that age mattered little to the Nazis. Jews of all ages were targeted and killed, even a young boy “loved by all”(61). Wiesel and many others mourn the loss of the young servant boy. His serious demeanor continues as he rhetorically questions the murderous methodology of the Nazis, “ How was it possible that men, women, and children were being burned and the world kept silent?”(30). This causes the reader to reflect, and ask, how could humanity have allowed such a tragedy to
Wiesel pinpoints the indifference of humans as the real enemy, causing further suffering and lost to those already in peril. Wiesel commenced the speech with an interesting attention getter: a story about a young Jewish from a small town that was at the end of war liberated from Nazi rule by American soldiers. This young boy was in fact himself. The first-hand experience of cruelty gave him credibility in discussing the dangers of indifference; he was a victim himself.
In the memoir, Night, Elie’s description about his arrival and selection in Auschwitz relates to the survivors in the videos because they all mentioned how as soon as they exited the train they were immediately separated from their families. In the very beginning Elie was separated from his mother and sister and he didn’t know it would be the last time he would ever see them. “Men to the left! Women to the right”(Wiesel 28). Just those eight words changed Elie’s life forever.
One phenomenon, one dictator, and one country would change the life of a fifteen year old Jew forever. Stripped of his home in Transylvania and forced on copious deportation trains traveling to multiple concentration camps, Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night explores the treacherous and horrific life of a Jew during the Holocaust. Through the traumatizing punishments and lifestyle of concentration camps, a faithful and loyal boy metamorphosed into a selfish and unfaithful man. Early on in his childhood, Elie was immensely devoted to his faith, so far as “...finding a master... in the person of Moishe the Beadle”(Wiesel 4). To have a master meant that he would have a religious mentor to help him study Kabbalah, thus allowing him to interpret the Bible for himself.
In the book Night the author uses repetition to create a tone in the passage, and that tone the author is trying to create is sadness. Elie shows sadness/disbelief in the book when he realizes that he might lose his life in the concentration camp. In the book we realize the author is using a phrase over and over again(repetition)to show a tone in the book, and the phrase he uses to show the tone is “Never shall I forget”. He uses the phrase and thinks back to things he would never forget because he realizes he might die in the concentration camps and this starts to create the tone of sadness. On page 34 it said “I thought: This is what the antechamber of hell must look like.
Throughout the memoir Night there many instances where many of the people in the concentration camps were treated inhumanly, cruel, or degrading or were subjected to torture. When Eli finds Idek and a young Polish girl together together intimately, he starts to laugh and this angers Idek to where he promises to get him back for not minding his business (Wiesel 57). Later on in the same page of the book, Wiesel goes on to say that “They brought a crate” (Wiesel 57) and he was then forced to lie down on the crate while he felt “the lashes of the whip”(Wiesel 57). This is incontrovertible a violation of article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which states that No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman
The novel, Night by Elie Wiesel, was a tragic story about a young Jewish boy, who was thrown into a concentration camp. Throughout the duration of World War 2, Elie, the boy, faced many struggles and felt the worst pain imaginable. This book serves as a memoir of what really happened to the Jews during the war. However, Elie’s story does not start from the very beginning. It all started when Adolf Hitler first came into power in 1933.
AJ The book Night by Elie Wiesel is a monumental novel that impacts the lives and minds of all those that read it, but there is more to Wiesel’s story than is on the pages that he wrote, which the readers will have to look deeper into the words to truly find the emotion behind them. This book recounts factual events that occurred during the horrific time of the Holocaust. Wiesel tells his readers about the tragic events of the Holocaust from his life as a fifteen-year-old. The Holocaust was filled with dehumanization that is revealed through this book which quite literally reaches into your soul and makes you feel the anger, fear, sadness, and defeat that Wiesel and all the other victims of the Holocaust felt.
Elie Wiesel’s “Night” has shone an entirely different light in regards to the Holocaust and concentration camps. By means of doing so, this lets the audience see the emotional trauma that went on during these times. Elie Wiesel, the author of the nobel winning book “Night”, was born and raised in Sighet, Romania. He was tended for, alongside his three sisters. Once the age of 12 had dawned of him, he was relocated in order to live in his local concentration camp.
Night Elie Wiesel’s story of his experience in the holocaust. The author is Elie Wiesel, his story takes place in the concentration camp, a theme word from this story is strength. In night, Elie Wiesel demonstrates everyone has the strength to push through trying situations even though they might not think it’s there through the separation of his family, seeing his dad struggle, and his injured foot. Elie Wiesel showed a lot of strength when his family was separated. “Men to the left!, women to the right!
In Auschwitz where thousands of Jews were slaughtered daily is the witness to the emptiness that remains when man abandons all morality. It is a sight of apocalyptic proportions: grotesque block chimneys point their sad fingers to the heavens, while all that remains of the majority of the wooden barracks are their ruined foundations. The agony of the past is still snagged on the hurtful barbed wires, and a dreadful gloom stagnates over the camp, its spores infiltrating the hearts of people in the 21st century. The misery is irresistible. Wiesel writes with a power aimed at never letting people forget all that had happened in the Holocaust.
After reading page four this passage immediately stood out to me as peculiar. I have never heard of, or witnessed, someone crying during prayer, and it presents itself as an extremely unorthodox response to the situation. Although, I can only wonder if he cries because he feels such a deep connection to God in those moments, or because God has yet to answer his many questions and it’s frustration that is causing the tears. (74 words) This moment truly marks the end of Elie’s childhood as he must now take the role of an adult to help himself and his family through these tragic times.
The characterization of Moshie and Mrs. Shachter shows the indifference and denial of the Jews of Sighet. The chilling juxtaposition of a beautiful landscape containing a camp of death illustrates how the world not only was indifferent to the inhumane suffering, but also continued to shine brightly as if nothing really mattered. This timeless theme of denial and its consequences during the Holocaust echoes the struggles of those in our time who are persecuted solely due to their beliefs. The reader takes away the important lesson of never turning away from those who need it greatest, each time one reads Elie Wiesel’s memoir,
In the novel, “Night” Elie Wiesel communicates with the readers his thoughts and experiences during the Holocaust. Wiesel describes his fight for survival and journey questioning god’s justice, wanting an answer to why he would allow all these deaths to occur. His first time subjected into the concentration camp he felt fear, and was warned about the chimneys where the bodies were burned and turned into ashes. Despite being warned by an inmate about Auschwitz he stayed optimistic telling himself a human can’t possibly be that cruel to another human.
It is a common assumption among numerous people in the world that the Holocaust never existed. In fact, almost fifty percent of the world population never even heard of the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel helped people around the world learn about the Holocaust through his book “Night.” He wanted people to see the bravery, courage, and guilt of the Jews through his book. “Night” shows the horrific and malicious acts in the German concentration camps during the Holocaust.
Wiesel’s survival has ensured that his experiences would be passed onto future generations so history would not repeat itself. Ten years after his liberation, Wiesel was convinced by Mauriac, a French Catholic writer, to write about his time in Auschwitz during the Holocaust after being haunted by his experiences long after it was over. He feels that he was still suffering from the events that he had been forced to witnessed that he “made a vow: not to speak, not to touch upon the essential for at least ten years. Long enough to see clearly. Long enough to learn to listen to the voices crying inside [his] own,” (Seidman 2).