Analyzing ‘Night’ By Elie Wiesel

Using eyes to describe a person, at the beginning of the book, Elie describes how he likes Moishe the Beadles wide, dreamy eyes that gaze off into the distance. These eyes show that Moishe the Beadle has great wisdom, hope, and is a very great being. He seems to be a very humble and modest man. His eyes might also suggest his strong belief in God and hope to get past the holocaust, pain, death, and suffering. But in contrast, when Moishe De Beadle returns from his horrible experience and his witnessing of death and the killing of infants, his eyes are empty and hollow. His eyes no longer show joy, dreaminess, and the “hope.” Moishe De Beadle no longer even mentions God. His eyes show that he is overwhelmed by fear and horror and that he might have lost all hope.

The reason I think Elie Wiesel decided to wait a decade before attempting to express his experience in words was because that he was too afraid to speak out at the time. But I believe that even if Elie Wiesel tried to speak out, his voice would have been silenced along with millions of others. To this day, “voices” such as Elie Wiesel and Anne Frank are some of the not-so-many and preserved voices we can hear. Even if Elie tried to speak out, there would be no one to listen to him. He could have been killed, beaten, and hurt in the concentration camps just for expressing his thoughts. But I still believe that what he did was wrong. The silence and the victim�s lack of resistance of what was happening was what allowed the holocaust to continue. Even it meant being killed or beaten, Elie should have tried loudly and boldly to speak of the horrors of the holocaust. It would be a very hard thing to do but it was the right thing to do. Elie had been controlled by fear and kept silent until the incident was all over. Unable to go back, Elie now speaks out. After his experience in the holocaust, Elie Wiesel lived on and spoke about it so that people could learn from the past to prevent history to repeat itself. He speaks of his memories and experiences so that the world can learn from its past mistakes.

Two examples of the theme, emotional death in the story is the way Mrs. Schachter behaves when her husband and two older sons were deported and when Moishe De Beadle escapes from the Galician forest, witnessing the deaths of many. Emotional death can easily allow the reader to understand how terrible the holocaust was and its horrors. Mrs. Schachter had lost her mind, crying and screaming hysterically. Moishe De Beadle’s eyes had become hollow and he had lost the will to live. Both were not dead yet but something inside them had died and they have lost hope of themselves.

The prisoner’s recitation of the Kaddish prayer as they walk through Auschwitz conveys the theme of struggle to maintain faith by showing that the prisoners are beginning to realize the cruelty and evil of the holocaust. Recitation of the prayer may bring comfort for those who still believe in God. But the prisoners begin to doubt their faith. They wonder if God notices their pain or even cares. Reciting the prayer allows the prisoners to realize that the pain, suffering, and death has yet to be prevented by God.

2. The motif of night is used to explain Eliezer’s experiences in the camp because Elie Wiesel’s life could be easily compared to nighttime. At night, it is dark and frightening, just like Wiesel’s experiences in the camp. At night, there is no sunshine, no “light.” There is only darkness, just like the way life passed on for Elie Wiesel in those concentration camps. Elie Wiesel explained how he had lost track of time. Nighttime would come every day and the Jews would be afraid if they would live to go through the night and what would happen to them in the next hour.

3. A work of literature that I know that conveys a theme found in Night is a book I read called, “The Hunger Games.” It is a book about a teenage girl who is thrown into a game where she has to fight to the death against dozens of other teenagers, a “show” for the whole nation to watch. They both have themes of survival, self preservation, humanity, and hope. In Night, Elie Wiesel witnessed people fighting and beating one another over crumbs of bread and Jews beating and fighting each other for food. In the “Hunger Games”, contestants have to fight and kill each other until only one remains standing. Both books show the character’s struggle against if they should go against humanity in order to save their own lives. Both books show how humans can be some cruel.

Part 3

1. The statement, �Man raises himself towards God by the questions he asks Him.� Demonstrates the narrator�s struggle with faith of Rosh Hashanah by showing that Eliezer doubts God�s justice and power, seeing that God does nothing to relieve the suffering in the Holocaust. On Rosh Hashanah, Elie refuses to pray, for he feels that God either does not care or cannot do anything about the horrors of the holocaust. Elie also begins to think that man is very strong, even greater than god. This behavior is entirely in contrast to Elie�s past interest in his Judaism faith. Elie has witnessed so much torture and death that he beings to question God.

2. An example of the theme, self preservation vs. family commitment, is when Mier, a boy killed his father on a train for a small piece of bread. He then found out that his father had saved a piece for him. Mier had lost sight of what was important of him and only cared about saving himself, killing his own father for food. He had become a person without a sense of humanity.

An example of the theme, emotional death, is how Elie feels after his father�s death. Nothing matters to him anymore since his father�s death. Elie no longer thinks of anything but the desire to eat. He lives on, but really, he is no longer himself. His father�s death gives him great guilt and depression. He had ignored his father�s call when he was dying and thirsty, guilty how he had felt his father as a burden. He realized that he had lost what he had loved most.

An example of the theme, struggling to maintain faith, is the day of Rosh Hashanah where Elie Wiesel is full of anger towards God, refusing to pray for he blames that God has been cruel and uncaring, allowing the suffering and pain to continue.

An example of the theme, dignity in the face of inhuman cruelty, is when Juliek was surrounded by hundreds of dead and dying bodies, yet he still played his violin, something he loved. An SS officer had not allowed Juliek to play what he had wanted, Beethoven. The day of his death, although not allowed, he played Beethoven, showing his dignity.

3. Elie Wiesel struggles to live, but also having to care for his father where survival is unbearably difficult. Elie did love his father but to continuously help and care for his father made it harder for him to ensure his own survival. He tried his best not to lose sight of what was important to him, family. But in the end, Elie’s self preservation behavior took over his commitment to his father. Elie was afraid to get another blow to the head by the officer and ignored his father who was desperately calling out his name, thirsty and dying. With the death of his father, Elie felt that he was finally free at last, seeing his father as nothing but a burden. He feels that his father is better off dead than having to suffer.

4. Based on what I know about history and what Wiesel writes in �Night� about human nature is that we are all scared and frightened beings. We can be so selfish, greedy, and we desire so many things because we are human. Humans are so imperfect by nature. Humans have also done the most evil things possible, to such an extent that humans would kill one another. But I think by nature, humans are individual social beings. All humans have lied, been greedy, and have been frightened but humans are able to learn from their past mistakes. Compared to the times of the holocaust, human behavior has gradually improved.

4. I think it was an effective way how Wiesel devoted only a few lines to the events after his liberation. After his liberation, Elie wrote little but what he wrote had very great meanings. He wrote how when he looked into the mirror, a corpse was looking back at him. Elie Wiesel could never forget the look in his eyes as they gazed back at him. This short phrase made me, the reader, have to analyze and comprehend what I had just read. The words spoke for themselves, showing Elie�s great pain and sadness. I thought the ending was just enough to describe Elie Wiesel�s feelings. Something else that Wiesel might have done was explain how