In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, Eliezer Wiesel narrates the legendary tale of what happened to him and his father during the Holocaust. In the introduction, Wiesel talks about how his village in Seghet was never worried about the war until it was too late. Wiesel’s village received advanced notice of the Germans, but the whole village ignored it. Throughout the entire account, Wiesel has many traits that are key to his survival in the concertation camps. Eliezer’s best traits come out and allow him to survive his terrible ordeal, which are adaptability, determination, patience, and perseverance. Elie uses his father as his reason to persevere and keep on going through.
One reoccurring theme that is present in the Holocaust is a change of identity with everyone involved. The incidents people confronted, especially the Jews, during this harsh time was life changing and traumatic. The identity of many in the concentration camps changed; young and innocent children developed into mature men. Elie Wiesel in the novella, Night, faces a change of identity within himself and the surrounding people, the Jews, through a variety of events that he encounters.
World War II had been raging for two years and was bout to enter Sighet. The Germans attempted to commit genocide on the 'lesser ' races, particularly Jews. Through the brutality witnessed, acts of selfishness, the death of his father, and the loss of his faith, Elie changed. Elie became a young man with a strong sense of mortality through it all. By the end of the war, Elie claimed to see himself as "A corpse contemplating me." (Night, 115).
‘Isnt it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back. Everything is different’ Quote by C.S Lewis
In the book Night, we the readers witness the hardships and struggles in Elie’s life during the traumatic holocaust. The events that take place in this story are unbearable and are thought to be demented in modern times. In the beginning Elie is shown as a normal teenage Jewish boy, but the events are so drastic that we the readers forget how he was like in the beginning. Changes were made to Elie during the book, whether they were minor or major. The changes generated from himself, the journey, and other people. The holocaust makes physical and mental alterations to Elie’s life, and this tells the reader that the people who did this are effective and impacting, also it shows that Elie’s mind is controlled by what he was experiencing.
Distractions are used to overcome traumatic events, to motivate survival. The story of Night by Elie Wiesel depicts his journey, beginning from a free life in Sighet, Transylvania during World War II. He, along with his family and the other Jews of Sighet are placed in ghettos then transported to concentration camps. Separated from his mother and sister, Elie strives to find a way to survive alongside his father. He recounts his experiences under Nazi German oppression from his imprisonment in Auschwitz to his liberation in Buchenwald. Elie survives the Holocaust through a battle of conscience – first believing in God, then resisting his faith in God, and ultimately replacing his faith with obligation to his father.
Johann Schiller once said “It is not flesh and blood, but the heart which makes us fathers and sons”. But what happens when the night darkens our hearts our hearts? The Holocaust memoir Night does a phenomenal job of portraying possibly the most horrifying outcomes in such a situation. Through subtle and effective language, Wiesel is able to put into words the fearsome experiences he and his father went through in Auschwitz during the Holocaust. In his holocaust memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel utilizes imagery to show the effect that self-preservation can have on father son relationships. Wiesel addresses not only his own situation, but also the effect survival had inwards other fathers and sons in the camp. The memoir
Ever since humans came to be, they have done many things to ensure their survival. It’s the reason why we humans have evolved as much as we have. Humans have invented devices, accomplished many challenges, and have even relied on nothing but willpower to survive.
Themes in a story help to describe what the book is about. It does this in the book Night by helping describe what World War 2 was like for the Jews. It also helps to see what the people in the camps went through. My two themes from night are imprisonment and survival. The first one I will talk about is imprisonment, then i’ll talk about survival.
Night, written by Elie Wiesel, is a memoir about his life as he goes through the Holocaust. Eliezer goes through many situations that cause him, and other Jews, to be dehumanized by the Nazis. The three levels of dehumanization are physical, mental, and emotional. Eliezer was affected by all three. Never in his whole life did he imagine that this would happen to him or his family.
Loaded into cattle trains on their way to an uncertain destination it's so crammed that it's impossible to sit down so they must take turns. Two days pass and they have crossed the hungarian border and are now in Germany. A German officer has informed them that their were 80 people in the car and if anybody goes missing they will all be shot like dogs. In the dead of night a woman named Mrs.Schächter begins to scream and throw a fit because she was separated from her husband and all of a sudden begins to scream that she sees fire an awful fire. The Jews in the car try to help Mrs.Schächter by explaining that the visions are not real and then they are fed up and begins to beat her with hits strong enough to kill her. However the next night she begins again screaming that she sees a terrible fire. The train stops for a bit and there is news that they are at Auschwitz where life is supposed to be better. But again that night Mrs.Schächter starts to scream again and again she it beaten she is finally silent. As the train moves on Mrs.Schächter abruptly begins to scream again however this time through the windows everyone can watch as they pass
“I realized that he did not want to see what they were going to do to me. He did not want to see the burning of his only son”(42). When Eliezer arrives at Auschwitz, the separation of his family puts an emotional toll on his father since he realizes that only him and Eliezer are still alive. This will be a catalyst to their relationship becoming stronger as they endure more together. Elie Wiesel, the author of the novel Night writes his own personal accounts of experiencing the Holocaust through the character Eliezer. Eliezer and his father rely on one another to survive through the Holocaust. Together they encounter the cruelty of the Nazis, the lack of compassion from the prisoners, as well as the difficulty of simply surviving. They remain strong together unlike other father-son relationships seen in the novel. A majority of the prisoners gravitate towards self preservation while Eliezer chooses to remain with his father. Eliezer does exhibit ambivalence in continuing to help his father because the conditions of the Holocaust continually make it harder to make others a priority than oneself. Eliezer’s relationship with his father contrast with other father-son relationships because they
“The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.” (Bob Marley) Throughout history there are few people remembered for their integrity, for their tyranny, dishonesty, selfishness, yes, but integrity is such a rare true thing that is untouchable by those around those who possess it. It shines through the darkness. For instance, William Wilberforce, born and raised in a wealthy traditional family was involved in abolitionism,promoting education for the underprivileged, Christianity, strict uprightness and health and wellbeing of animals. Wilberforce worked from the age of 27 till his death he worked in parliament to outlaw the slave trade. Or Winston
“Just as man cannot live without dreams, he cannot live without hope. If dreams reflect the past, hope summons the future.” This was written by Elie Wiesel. He published a book describing life during World War 2. During the holocaust, Elie is a young boy who is taken to the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp.Throughout NIght, the main character, Elie experienced horrible events causing his loss of faith, emotional changes, and desire of death.
The novel Night by Elie Wiesel, which was first published in 1958, tells a great first-hand account of a terrible event named the Holocaust. In this story, it gives a detailed memoir of a young kid named Eliezar who has to endure this appalling crisis. As the Holocaust continues to go on around them, he and his family remain optimistic about their future. Even though they were optimistic, the Holocaust finally closes in on them. Once this occurs they were pulled away from their homeland and relocated to their designated site where they were split by gender. All throughout the novel, Eliezar and his father stay together through the unfortunate events occurring around them. For this father and son duo to stay together it takes an insurmountable amount of faith to pull through this tragedy together.