Aaria Shah Ms. Chicaleski 4ACE Night Theme Analysis Essay 9th March 2023 Hope Amidst Despair: The Paradoxical Nature of Hope in Elie Wiesel’s Night Friedrich Nietzsche, an influential philosopher and culture critic who wrote on existential topics shared in his novel Human, All Too Human that “...hope,— in reality it is the worst of all evils, because it prolongs the torments of man” (Nietzsche 82). This quote exemplifies how hope isn’t necessarily good or bad, as it tortures man with the knowledge of pain to come, yet satisfies man with the extension of time until torture is due. In Elie Wiesel’s novel Night, hope is often used as a coping method to escape great difficulty and can be seen as false hope through the eyes of many, yet it brings …show more content…
By placing his faith in the possibility that he will meet them again, despite the odds against their survival, Stein demonstrates the profound impact that hope can have on an individual’s psychological and emotional well-being. Furthermore, Wiesel’s father is trying to reassure him that their mother and younger sister Tzipora are still alive and in labor camps. Regardless, Wiesel knows that this is likely not the case and that they have likely been killed. Despite this, Wiesel and his father pretend to believe that their family members are still alive in order to hold onto a glimmer of hope. Wiesel notes “‘Mother is still a young woman,’ my father once said. “She must be in a labor camp. And Tzipora, she is a big girl now. She too must be in a camp…’ How we would have liked to believe that. We pretended, for what if one of us still did believe?” (Wiesel 46). This demonstrates how having hope can get people through the hardest challenges in life. Wiesel and his father hold the belief that his mother and sister are still alive. Even though they know the unlikeliness of this being reality, they hold onto the hope that they …show more content…
Despite the atrocities he witnesses and the loss of his family and friends, Wiesel never completely loses hope. Throughout the novel, he clings to the belief that he will survive and reunite with his loved ones. This hope keeps him up during the darkest of times and helps him to persevere even when he feels like giving up. Likewise, Wiesel’s hope also serves as a unifying force, bringing together him and his fellow prisoners in a shared sense of solidarity and purpose. Amid their struggle, they turn to each other for support and comfort, forming deep bonds of friendship and togetherness. Even in the face of unimaginable evil and despair, the idea of hope provides a glimmer of light that keeps the human spirit alive and allows individuals to find significance in even the direst of circumstances. To elaborate, the prisoners often reflected on their experiences in the camp. Several men would sing and others prayed or remained silent. In the novel, the author states “Some of the men spoke of God…and the redemption to come” (Wiesel 45). This reveals the close bond prisoners formed with each other without realizing it by discussing God with one another. They collectively had hope in God and His ability to change the situation for the better. Without being aware, the community of concentration camp victims brought themselves together through
Throughout the darkest days of Night, there is still hope for Elie Wiesel. At the end of the Holocaust, over 60,000 Jews were liberated by US soldiers and more than 90,000 Jews escaped death camps. For them, there was still hope in the universe. In Elie’s memoir, he struggles with his belief in God and the intertwining existence of hope in the universe.
There have been many hard times in the world's history, some harder than others, like the Holocaust. In the book, “ Night,” by Elie Wiesel, the Jewish people went through rough times, sometimes without a break. This book is about Wiesel's experience during the Holocaust, from living in the ghettos, to almost going to the crematorium in Auschwitz (concentration camp). The struggle to maintain faith, was one of the biggest problems the Jews experienced, like when they worried about their future, families started giving up hope, and the prisoners had lost faith in themselves. This book gives a realization to how beneficial it is to maintain faith, through all times.
Hope is an important part of daily life for many people. Though in the holocaust many people were in terrible situations, some still managed to have hope. In Elie Wiesel’s novel, Night, Elie tells his tale of the time he spent in a large number of concentration camps and his novel contains many instances of hope. Hope is the most prominent theme amongst the other themes included in this novel. The theme of hope is used frequently throughout the book.
When thinking about the challenges imposed at the concentration camps, most would assume the labor, treatment, and living conditions, but Wiesel’s story unravels other elements. Throughout his story, Wiesel reveals that family and cruel treatment have a crucial effect on one’s resilience. Throughout the story Night, Wiesel displays how family has impacted the resilience of those around him. At the beginning of his and his father’s time in the concentration camps, a young Pole gives them advice crucial to their survival, stating, “And now, here is a prayer, or rather a piece of advice: let there be camaraderie among you.
Elie Wiesel, a holocaust survivor that has used his experience to write and publish a memoir, Night. In this book, Wiesel talks about the journey and hardships he and his father faced while imprisoned in the concentration camps. Night portrays numerous themes, one of which being self preservation. This is depicted in a multitude of scenarios along with Wiesel's battle with the temptations that he is faced with in regard to choosing between self preservation and altruism.
If many people from the holocaust can get back on their feet and could see/live past the terrible, scary things they experienced from the concentration camps, others can have hope
Wiesel loses his humanity and sense of purpose and finds himself constantly questioning, “Here or elsewhere, what did it matter? Die today or tomorrow, or later?” (98). Considering the dire circumstances that he was in, his loss of faith was inevitable when survival came first. The surrounding men had also lost their humanity while fighting to survive.
Food, water, and shelter are often the bare necessities to survive, but there is another factor often overlooked: hope. In the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, he details the atrocities he faced while living inside the Auschwitz concentration camp accompanied by his father, and how he survived with the concept of hope. The same principle is in the article “Hope: A Paradox” by Robert Kishaba, who explains how faith in one’s life can help or desert a person. The work “A Legacy of Hope from a Family of Holocaust Survivors” by Idit Klein has the same ideology but focuses on how family allows for happiness. These works conclude that without hope, whether through family or if it is a fallacy, the chances of survival would be close to none without it,
Wiesel's portrayal of his relationship with his sister in Night, displays the significance of family ties and the devastating impact of separation during times of hardship. Wiesel highlights the love and concern siblings can have for one another which is something I can relate to strongly. The loss of Eliezer's sister becomes another reminder of the human connections shattered by the Holocaust, and just how important having people to trust in difficult times is to a person's wellbeing. A time in my life where my views on family evolved, was the day my sister was born. The birth of a sibling is often a momentous and significant event in a person's life.
Sometimes, it is one’s purpose to be there for their loved ones. Strength can seem unattainable for someone when it is for themselves—but it can miraculously materialize when they need it for someone they care about. When it is for a loved one, they can find strength and hope when there was neither to begin with and they can fight tooth and nail to keep both while faced with horrendous troubles. In Night by Elie Wiesel, he (Elie Wiesel) was a young Jewish boy in the 1940s who (along with his father) faced terrible pain and suffering while in the various sub-camps at Auschwitz, a concentration camp from the Holocaust that is widely known as the worst camp there was. While in the concentration camps, most others abandoned all values involving
Hope is a helpful tool to push people through the hardest times in life. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, there are numerous examples of hope helping people and revitalizing their confidence. People used hope to help them through rough times. People hope that friends and family are still alive. Also hope that the Front liberates the camps and frees everyone.
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.
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.
Death is not afraid to show its face around others, especially during times of war or genocide. Both Liesel Meminger in “The Book Thief” and Elie Wiesel in “Night” can attest to this. In each story, Liesel and Elie undergo unimaginable hardships, but are able to overcome these experiences. Through these trying times, the authors of both “The Book Thief” and “Night” advance the theme of perseverance through grief.
Wiesel addresses not only his own situation, but also the effect survival had inwards other fathers and sons in the camp. The memoir