Night

807 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Symbolism at night by elie wiesel

"A prolonged whistle split the air. The wheels began to grind. We were on our way" (Wiesel 38). Eliezer has no idea what he is up for, neither does the other 79 people crammed in the cattle car with him. In the unbearable heat of the suffocating air, the poor citizens of Sighet try to calm their thirst and hunger (Wiesel 39-40), unaware of the danger that awaits for them. When they arrive in Birkenau, a concentration camp, the feared selection separates Eliezer and his father from his mother and sister. The struggle begins. Elie and his father endeavor to stick together while enduring through excruciating labor, malnourishment, and pain in concentration camps. From beatings to never-ending threats to such fatigue that Eliezer would rather die than live, World War II turns Elie's world into a living nightmare. However, the Holocaust's tough blade brought Elie's affection, faithlessness, and perseverance to light in Night by Elie Wiesel himself.
After separation from his mother and sister in Birkenau, Eliezer and his father only have each other. Therefore, they develop a mindset to never let the Holocaust separate them, which is where their affection shines through. For example, on page 56, Elie will run to his father if the SS guards place his father in a different group. Eliezer's mass amount of endearment towards his father allows him to gain enought courage to disobey the taunting SS guards and their pointing guns. Eventually, Eliezer's affection leads to protectiveness over his father. "You'll be able to lie down. We'll take turns. I'll watch over you and you'll watch over me. We won't let each other fall asleep. We'll look after each other" (Wiesel 161). By this time, Elie's relationship with his father changes into a peer ...

... middle of paper ...

... his soul. He believes that he, or anyone in his camp, are not humans anymore. "The student of Talmud, the child I was, had been consumed by the flames. All that was left was a shape that resembled me. My soul had been invaded--and devoured--by a black flame" (Wiesel 66) Faith abandons him, leaving him in a void of pure evil darkness.
In fact, the void of pure evil makes up for the title of Night. Nighttime reflects the Holocaust. Eliezer views this type of night as the lack of faith and humanity. Night, or in this case, the Holocaust, turns into a dark, scary place that forbids any hopes of sunlight. The darkness of the night allows evil to attack a victim without them ever noticing. Eliezer, through surviving the extremities of the obscure darkness, pulls out a more rebellious, enduring, and affectionate person within himself, which his novel Night exemplifies.

Show More
Related

  • Similarities Between Night And Daniel

    1028 Words  | 3 Pages

    In his first account in the story, he is a young boy of 13 years, in the small town of Sighet, Transylvania; In Hungary. He is very religious and is ready to learn more about his faith. It is 1941, when some Jews are taken from Sighet. Years pass until Elie is 15 years old now; Hitler is hovering above European Jewish citizens with a iron fist. With the laws passed in Germany, the Holocaust begins, and The Germans invade foreign land in an attempt to purify the Aryan race. Germans appear in Sighet, and are polite and kind and take residence in multiple families homes. Slowly overtime Jews were labeled, then segregated into ghettos. Soon after Elie and his family learns of the transports to the labor camps. They are then transported; through this misfortune and grief, Elie loses his faith in god, and loses hope. This is where the story truly begins, in the labor camp of Birkenau. Elie and his father were stripped of all their possessions and given painful haircuts, as well as clothes equivalent by those of rags; Here the people are worked like dogs and Elie now endures the pain of the labor camps, both emotionally and physically. He loses sight of his mother and sister who are

    Read More

  • Elie Wiesel's Horrifying Holocaust Experience

    624 Words  | 2 Pages

    Six million Jews died during World War II by the Nazi army under Hitler who wanted to exterminate all Jews. In Night, Elie Wiesel, the author, recalls his horrifying journey through Auschwitz in the concentration camp. This memoir is based off of Elie’s first-hand experience in the camp as a fifteen year old boy from Sighet survives and lives to tell his story. The theme of this memoir is man's inhumanity to man. The cruel events that occurred to Elie and others during the Holocaust turned families and others against each other as they struggled to survive Hitler's and the Nazi Army’s inhumane treatment.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Father Son Relationship In Night By Elezer Wiesel

    691 Words  | 2 Pages

    Upon entering the concentration camps, Eliezer and his father demonstrate a normal father and son relationship. In a normal father son relation, the father protects and gives advice to the son, and the son is dependent and reliant on the father. Eliezer and his father demonstrate this relationship to extremes throughout the beginning of their time in the camp. Eliezer reveals his childlike dependency upon entering the camp. Eliezer displays this dependency during first selection by stating, “The baton pointed to the left. I first wanted to see where they would send my father. Were he to have gone to the right, I would have run after him (Night 26-32) ” . Eliezer’s determination to stay with his father was constantly present. Eliezer reflects on a time in the camp which is all that he could think about was not to lose his father in the camp. Eliezer also requires his father’s protection during their stay in the concentration camps. Unintentionally demanding this protection, Eliezer remembers, “I kept walking, my father holding my hand” (Night 29). Eliezer continues to show his need for his father’s presence. Eliezer’s actions and thoughts reflect his

    Read More

  • Adversity In Night By Elie Wiesel

    986 Words  | 2 Pages

    Eliezer thinks of his own father and prays, “Oh God, Master of the Universe, give me the strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahu’s son has done” (Wiesel 91). He didn’t want to admit it but he could already feel his father falling behind. He feared that there may come a time when he would have to choose between his father and his own survival, and that was a choice he didn’t want to make. That choice came one night after being transferred by train to another camp. Once off the train they waited in the snow and freezing wind to be shown to their quarters.

    Read More

  • Eliezer Separation From His Father

    415 Words  | 1 Pages

    His father’s love towards him does not change a bit. His father once bought a present for him: a half rations of bread, bartered for something he had found at the depot, a piece of rubber that could be used to repair a shoe. They both shared whatever was given to them. Eliezer too used to send a piece of bread he got to his father. His father gives his last possession he had with him to Eliezer, A knife and a spoon telling him not to sell it quickly and to use it when in need. Eliezer did not fear death as much as he feared separation from his father. “I was thinking not about death but about not wanting to be separated from my father.”(82 )

    Read More

  • Eliezer Wiesel and His Father in The Holocaust

    831 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...was almost no relationship. The father is a busy, well respected member of the Jewish community who has almost no interaction with his family. Eliezer recalls that his father was “cultured, rather unsentimental man. There was never any display of emotion, even at home. He was more concerned with others than with his own family” (2, Wiesel). When the two arrived at the camp we notice a switch in their relationship. The horrible experiences they encounter together at Auschwitz bring them closer to each other. Eliezer’s father becomes more affectionate and shows emotions toward his son who starts feeling this love. This is clear when Eliezer states “my father was crying, it was the first time I saw him cry, I had never thought it was possible” (19, Wiesel). It is clear that their relationship transforms from obedience and respect to love and caring about each other.

    Read More

  • Inhumanity in Night

    793 Words  | 2 Pages

    Elie Wiesel, a Jewish boy, lives in Sighet during World War II with his mother, father, and two sisters, and he is very religious and wanted to study Judaism. However, there were warnings by some people that Jewish people were being deported and killed. Although no one believes these warnings, Elie and his family are taken to a ghetto where they have no food. After being in the ghetto Elie and his father are separated from Elie’s mother and sister because of selection and were placed in cattle cars where they had no room. They are taken to Auschwitz where they suffer from hunger, beatings, and humiliation from the guards which causes Elie’s father to become weak. By now Elie loses his faith in God because of all he has been through. Lastly, Elie’s father dies just before the Jews are liberated and Elie sees his reflection in the mirror but does not recognize himself because he looks like a skeleton.

    Read More

  • Significant Changes in Eliezer’s Relationship With His Father

    849 Words  | 2 Pages

    At the beginning of the story, Eliezer and his father are very distant, and there is no close relationship between them. They are never intimate or dependent on each other, before the deportation. After living through death, despair and starvation every day in the concentration camps, Eliezer not only becomes sad, melancholy, also undergoes powerful changes in the relationship, he shares with his father. Their relationship used to be distant, but their bond becomes strong, and filled with trust over time. Works Cited Hazel, M. "Change is crucial in a person’s life.

    Read More

  • Father and Son Relationship in Elie Wiesel´s Night

    798 Words  | 2 Pages

    Before Elie Wiesel and his father are deported, they do not have a significant relationship. They simply acknowledge each other’s existence and that is all. Wiesel recalls how his father rarely shows emotion while he was living in Sighet, Transylvania. When they are deported, Wiesel is not sure what to expect. He explains, “My hand shifted on my father’s arm. I had one thought-not to lose him. Not to be left alone” (Wiesel 27). Once he and his father arrive at Auschwitz, the boy who has never felt a close connection with his father abruptly realizes that he cannot lose him, no matter what. This realization is something that will impact Wiesel for the rest of his time at the camp.

    Read More

  • Night Elie Wiesel Quotes

    1135 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Even in darkness, it is possible to create light”(Wiesel). In Night, a memoir by Elie Wiesel, the author, as a young boy who profoundly believed in his religion, experiences the life of a prisoner in the Holocaust. He struggles to stay with his father while trying to survive. Through his experience, he witnesses the changes in his people as they fight each other for themselves. He himself also notices the change within himself. In Night, it is discovered that atrocities and cruel treatment can make decent people into brutes. Elie himself also shows signs of becoming a brute for his survival, but escapes this fate, which is shown through his interactions with his father.

    Read More

  • Loss of Faith and Religion in Ellie Wiesel’s Night

    1731 Words  | 4 Pages

    This is Wiesel’s “dark time of life” and through his journey into night he can’t see the “light” at the end of the tunnel, only continuous dread and darkness. Night is a memoir that is written in the style of a bildungsroman, a loss of innocence and a sad coming of age. This memoir reveals how Eliezer (Elie Wiesel) gradually loses faith and relationships with both his father (dad), and his Father (God). Sickened by the torment he must endure, Wiesel questions if God really exists, “Why, but why should I bless him? Because he, in his great might, had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many other factories of death?

    Read More

  • Elie Wiesel Night Reflection

    1034 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the novel Night, Elie Wiesel faces the horrors of the Holocaust, where he loses many friends and family, and almost his life. He starts as a kind young boy, however, his environment influences many of the decisions he makes. Throughout the novel, Elie Wiesel changes into a selfish boy, thinks of his father as a liability and loses his faith in God as an outcome his surroundings.

    Read More

  • Night

    598 Words  | 2 Pages

    Elie is more concerned about his own safety but does everything g to help his father with out endangering himself. In the book Night, he was telling about when the SS guard were trying to throw his father out of the carriage and Elie says" I set to work slapping him as hard as I could.

    Read More

  • Response To Night By Elie Wiesel

    962 Words  | 2 Pages

    In this tiny novel, you will get to walk right into a gruesome nightmare. If only then, it was just a dream. You would witness and feel for yourself of what it is like to go through the unforgettable journey that young Eliezer Wiesel and his father had endured in the greatest concentration camp that shook the history of the entire world. With only one voice, Eliezer Wiesel’s, this novel has been told no better. Elie's voice will have you emotionally torn apart. The story has me questioning my own wonders of how humanity could be mistreated in such great depths and with no help offered.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Change In Night By Elie Wiesel

    780 Words  | 2 Pages

    When people are placed in difficult, desolate situations, they often change in a substantial way. In Night by Elie Wiesel, the protagonist, Elie, is sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp where he undergoes many devastating experiences. Due to these traumatic events, Elie changes drastically, losing his passion in God, becoming disconnected with his father, and maturing when it matters most.

    Read More

More about Night

Open Document