Night By Elie Wiesel Analysis

Sandra Lin
Mr. Hairston
10th-grade Advanced English
5 March 2023
Night Essay
In Elie Wiesel's memoir Night, he analyzes the consequences of the Holocaust: prisoners are stripped of their identities and reduced to mere numbers and objects to be exploited by Nazi officials. This raises the question of how Wiesel’s experiences during the Holocaust affected his perception of himself. As the plot progresses, Elie attains a new understanding of his religious values, how an individual’s morality diminishes during anguished times, and how the presence of hope differentiates life from death. These new values influenced his character, where he developed from a young naive boy with a promising future to a prisoner whose physical appearance and health

The sad-eyed angle was condemned to death after remaining silent during the investigation. The little pipel’s hanging served as a pivotal turning point in his religious development. During the sad-eyed angel scene, Wiesel proclaimed that God was “hanging here from this gallows…” indicating a deprivation in his religious beliefs because it was a representation of the Nazis killing God (Page 65). In the beginning, Wiesel described himself as a devout Jewish boy—when Moishe inquired why Elie prayed, he responded with “Why did I live? Why did I breathe, ” indicating that his religion was so ingrained within his life that he compared it to living and breathing (Page 4). However, this ideology started to dissipate

The father-son relationship is heavily depicted within the memoir. Wiesel and his father were fortunate to have each other during the Holocaust, when other prisoners had lost everything. At the beginning of the book, Wiesel and his father were described as having a close and love relationship. Throughout their time in the concentration camps, the father and son relied on each other for mental and physical support to endure unspeakable cruelties. However, their relationship is strained, as Wiesel’s father becomes a burden and is unable to care for himself. Wiesel often recalled moments where he felt disinclined to give his meager portion of food, but later felt guilty about his thoughts. One famous saying from the playwright Bertolt Brecht correlates to the situation between Wiesel and his father, “Grub first, then ethics.” An individual’s necessities must be met before they can be ethical to others. As the camp conditions and health started to deteriorate, it was increasingly difficult for Elie to continue caring for his father. However, their bond remained strong and served as a symbol of hope and resilience in the face of imaginable suffering. It is also a testimony of how love and the human spirit can prevail, even during the darkest