Elie was one of the millions of people who had to go through that and deal with the post-traumatic stress. By the end of his story, his diction and tone expressed true emptiness and sorrow. This is displayed by Wiesel saying “I wanted to see myself hanging on the opposite wall. I had not seen myself in the ghetto. From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me.
Night Prompt #2 Many know of the victims of the Holocaust and how fragile they were, but not many know how the few that survived did so. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor who was only fourteen when he arrived at Auschwitz, he talks about his life alongside his father who was the only family member he did not get separated from in the concentration camp. Eliezer explains how he overcomes the horrors he witnessed in order to survive and be freed. Through cautious behavior, selflessness between himself and his father, and having physical advantages due to his age, Wiesel is able to survive the harsh conditions while millions of others perish. Elie’s cautious behavior while in the camp is one of the main reasons he is able to survive.
Many books have the same themes and even some books have the same setting, ideas, or characters. In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and Night by Elie Wiesel, both Liesel from The Book Thief and Elie for Night both share a common theme: suffering. Both Liesel and Elie suffer from the loss of their family. It is very hard on them since they have almost no one to depend on; they are by themselves essentially. Suffering is a major problem that both Liesel and Elie have to endure with in order to survive.
Elie Wiesel changes a lot over the course of the novel Night. In the beginning, he is readily accepting of the Jewish religion and ideals and wants to learn as much as he can. However as we progress through the story, his feelings about religion and faith shift to the point where he rejects them and God entirely. He feels God has abandoned him and his fellow prisoners. This is demonstrated many times within the novel Night.
Though Elie never fully escapes his fate, he comes close. Wiesel shows his struggle to maintain his morality whenever he cares more about his daily rations rather than the man who is hanged, he thinks
Elie says to his father, “Come, Father...I’ll watch over you and you’ll watch over me...we’ll look after each other(pg.89).” This quote shows that Elie has never said this to his father. Now that they are in a possibility of death, they need to take care of each other. Also, the story of Rabbi Eliahou's son leaving him because he was too weak made his son leave his father. Elie prays to God that, God “will [him] the strength to never do what Rabbi Eliahou's son(pg.91).” Elie actually saw that the Rabbi’s son left him. He felt bad because Rabbi Eliahou’s son left him because he was weak.
Elie Wiesel is the protagonist in the book, “Night.” Throughout the book, Elie’s mentality and physical condition are constantly changing because of the horror thrust upon him at the concentration camps. For example, his views on religion change and he suddenly begins to question God and the concepts of religion itself (Wiesel 31). Elie Wiesel describes his father as a “cultured man, rather unsentimental. He rarely displayed his feelings, not even with family, and was more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin” (Wiesel 4). Despite describing his father as cold, Elie and his father stick together through it all, to his father 's last breath.
“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed.” (Wiesel, 34) This was the turning point for Eliezer in many ways. The warm blanket of delusion that had once been wrapped securely around Eliezer had long been discarded. Faith and hope were also gone for the moment. “And from within me, I heard a voice answer: "Where He is? This is where—hanging here from this gallows…” (Wiesel, 65) Eliezer’s struggle for identity is shown again in the above quote.
Throughout Wiesel’s childhood, his father never played a large role in his life and was described as a “rather unsentimental man” (Wiesel 2). The relationship between Elie Wiesel and his father, before they know the horror that awaits them, is very dull and in no way meaningful. Wiesel’s father does not only have a distant relationship with Weisel, but also with the rest of the family, which Wiesel realizes when he notes, “He [Wiesel’s father] was more concerned with others than with his own family”(2). In a way, Wiesel’s father even acts somewhat selfish when he does not allow young Wiesel to study the cabbala, which
These adversities made Elie Wiesel become the man he is today; he is truly a humanitarian. He had to keep his hope and faith in god so he will live and not go crazy. “ I’ve got to keep my faith in god.” He kept his faith in god. He prayed and kept praying and praying he kept his sanity and faith in god. He prayed for all the people that had been killed or died.