Examples Of Innocence In Night By Elie Wiesel

Children are considered as Gods, pure and innocent. Children are new in this vicious world and have yet to discover the world and witness life and this is what makes children innocent. Children have done no wrong as they barely have entered the world. The novel ‘Night’ by Elie Wiesel displays how a child can be rapped of their innocence. ‘Night” is about a young boy named Eliezer and his eye awakening life in World War 2. Being a Jewish teen, Elie lost his innocence for a chance of survival due to the major traumatizing events Elie witnessed. It took a great toll on him, not only physically, but emotionally and mentally. Through what Elie has seen he was undoubtedly stripped of his purity.

Everyone possesses an innocence, however as they are

introduced to the real world, that innocence is slowly out-grown. From a young age Elie had to cope with being disconnected from more than half his family since the Hungarian officers ordered gender separation. “All I can think of was not to lose him. Not to be alone.”(Wiesel. 30) Mr. Wiesel was all Elie had left; Elie was constantly terrified that he might lose all he has left. Little did Elie know that in the end he would be left alone. Elie’s father became greatly sick and despite Elie’s attempts to save him, he dies, taking Elie’s hope with him. Life without his father was a life Elie felt didn’t need to be describe.(Wiesel.113) Becoming an orphan at the feet of a cruel world truly demonstrated to Elie that he no longer had a childhood. The faith that Elie once held strong, had disappeared. Once he comprehended what was happening in the world around him, he was no longer the same boy he once was. “When had we left our homes? And the ghetto? And the train? Only a week ago? One night? One single night?”(Wiesel.37) He was introduced to the Holocaust along with dehumanization at the same time, he was stripped of everything, including his innocence caused Elie to mentally grow stronger overnight. Elie has seen babies being burned, innocents Jewish being tortured, imbrute behaviour and starvation. The drape of innocence Elie had been living behind had finally been removed. Elie’s now understood how cruel the world can be.
Elie had suffered not only physically, but emotionally and mentally from the acts during World War 2. Elie was forcefully separated from his family, bared the death of the only motivation he had and was left to live with the nightmares of the atrocious doing of Hitler and his Nazis. Elie’s purity was taken alongside everything else he had. Instead of remembering his childhood and laughing, he prays one day he’ll forget what he was forced to see and what was taken from him. Elie had undergone an immense amount of pain, albeit the fact that many think of WW2, but don’t mind much of its events. Elie’s only crime was that he believed in a religion which was down looked upon, a culture which was insulted; his crime was that he was Jewish. Honestly, if this is the case, is anybody really safe?