Night By Elie Wiesel Research Paper

Night: A Purposeful and Inspirational Memoir

Holocaust is defined as a destruction or slaughter on a mass scale, especially caused by fire or nuclear war. What Elie Wiesel endured cannot be explained by this short definition. Wiesel depicts his horrifying experiences during the Holocaust in his famous memoir Night. He begins his memoir by talking about what his life was like before the Holocaust in his hometown Sighet. Elie’s placid life changes quickly as the Germans begin to persecute Jews in other towns around his hometown. Many people around Elie continue to deny that these horrific events are reality, which certainly leads to confusion and shock when German officers appear in town and begin to organize the formation and construction of

When Elie first arrives at Birkenau, he goes through the initial selection and walks in line with many other prisoners. After making it through with his father, they begin to march towards a pit of fire which happens to be near an electric fence. Elie then states to himself, “If I wanted to bring my own death, now was the moment...My heart was bursting, the moment had come. I was face to face with the Angel of Death.” (Wiesel 31) Elie luckily doesn’t end up killing himself in this moment, however, the thoughts that occur in his head are relevant. He plans to resist the Nazis by attempting to determine his own fate instead of being gassed or burned alive. The internal conflict of this situation causes great emotion from Elie as he goes from shocked to panicked as his heart begins to race because he is about to face death at age fifteen. The sharp contrast from where he was in his home days ago to his current situation causes Elie to mature greatly. This situation is relevant today because suicide is a large part of society as mental diseases like depression and anxiety become more prominent each year. People can learn that there is more to life; by not killing himself here, Elie learned many important life lessons throughout his journey, and in the end survives the Holocaust, an incomprehensible

A significant example of this occurs when Elie watches Rabbi Eliahou’s son leave him behind during the forty-two mile “death march.” Elie lies to Rabbi Eliahou and said that that he had not seen his son, he soon comes a to a realization and states to himself, “A terrible thought looked up in my mind: he had wanted to get rid of his father! He had felt that his father was growing weak…” (87). Elie is appalled by what Rabbi Eliahou’s son has done, he ran away from his father thinking that he would not make it and that he would be trampled most likely. This deeply affects Elie as he and his father have a strong relationship and it physically hurts him to see something like this happen. His son had put himself first instead of his family, knowing that he would probably never see him again. A truly terrifying example of what not to do when faced with adversity. Another example of negative resistance occurs during Elie’s time in the cattle car. A father says to his son while he is beating him over a piece of bread, “Meir. Meir, my boy! Don’t you recognize me? I’m your father….you’re hurting me…” (96) Yet another example of a broken father-son relationship, the son ultimately kills his father over the piece of bread, however the son is then killed by other men. Elie is mentally affected by this as he and his father’s relationship is