Dystopia In Elie Wiesel's Night

In most cases, the quest to forming a utopia often ends in the creation of a dystopia. This observation can be seen in effect during the Holocaust. Adolf Hitler, in his efforts to create a superior Aryan race, initiated a mass “cleansing” where anyone who did not meet his standards was sent to a concentration camp. Christians, gypsies, homosexuals, disabled, and Jewish people were sent to these camps where they worked until death or liberation. Stripped of identity, dignity, and all humanity, they were given small rations of food and were often beaten and experimented on. Those who survived until liberation were often left physically and emotionally scarred such as Elie Wiesel, whose first-hand account of the Holocaust was published in a novel, “Night”. The acts of cruelty performed during the Holocaust have no equal, but the dystopia that Adolf Hitler created has several similarities to our own modern-day society. Religious beliefs, for example, still struggle with some

of the same problems as it did back then, but topics like government and punishments have taken a totally different meaning. In a way, we have some aspects of a dystopia.
As mentioned, religion poses as a common similarity between our society and the dystopia that “Night” has illustrated. Religion is commonly regarded as a bit of a private subject. Everyone is entitled to his/her own beliefs and is not incorporated into a government or public education. This is the case in our society anyways. We live in a place where we are free to worship whom we please because it is a natural right that is protected by our government. They cannot force us to follow any certain religion and in addition, they cannot punish us for following the said religion. In Elie Wiesel’s novel, he wrote that “Anti- Semitic acts take place every day…”.The Jewish community in the 1940’s was subject to religious persecution. Adolf Hitler believed them as “vermin” and so he threw Jews (as well as certain Christian groups and gypsies) into the concentration camps in hopes that they will be exterminated. Over 5 million Jews, Christians, and Gypsies killed solely for believing in their faith. Religious persecution is not a problem in our society today, but unfortunately is still a large problem in some areas of the world.
Another example of a common trait between societies is punishment.

Punishment describes the infliction of a penalty as retribution for an offense. Both the dystopia in the novel and our modern-day society are no strangers to punishment, but in the dystopia, punishments were harsher and more physical. There was a scene written in the book: “He took his time between lashes.” In this scene, the author, Elie Wiesel, was being flogged as punishment for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was used as an example to the other prisoners so that they will not act out of place. This is wildly different from today’s standards of punishment, especially because of the eighth amendment of the constitution. Today, punishments rarely include violence and include things like jail time, paying fines, restitution, and probation. In the book however, punishments included public lashings and beatings, which according to the novel seemed to be given to the prisoners frequently, regardless of their

age.
One last example of a common similarity is government. The government is what controls and makes decisions for a country. Our modern-day society is a democracy, which, in short, is a government that is ruled by its citizens. This is different from the dystopia in Wiesel’s novel, in which it states that the government is a “… fascist party …” A fascist government describes a government that is headed by a dictator, in which the citizens are not allowed to disagree with the leader. All economic, social, and military power is granted upon the head of the country who, in this case, was Adolf Hitler. This surplus of power allowed Hitler to create and enforce any law as he pleased, as shown in the book: “…a new decree: every Jew had to wear the yellow star” in addition to this, he also made laws that prevented the Jews “...to frequent restaurants or cafes, to travel by rail, to attend synagogue…” This restricted the freedoms of the Jewish people and were heavily enforced by the SS. This power to govern with unconditional authority allowed him to successfully launch a large scale genocide. Hitler most likely obtained this power through force, while in a representative democracy, like ours, the leader (president) is elected by the citizens.
To conclude, the Holocaust was a prime example of a utopia turned dystopia but still shares many similarities and differences with our modern-day society. As explained, religion is free now, but is still subject to persecution. Punishments have different standards today and are still given out to those who require retribution, but are not as harsh as they were in the concentration camps. Governments as well, are still around and fascism is still alive, but our government is a democracy and not a dictatorship. The world that Elie Wiesel described in “Night” may have been a dystopian society, vastly different from ours, but we have to be wary for the day when the differences disappear, and the similarities align, allowing history to repeat itself.