Night By Eli Wiesel: Literary Analysis

Mankind has evolved from the era of cavemen, through centuries humans have developed new technology to the point that mankind has been on the moon. Historical evidence further proves that mankind has evolved through time with many hardships, from the time era of the great depression in the United States to the infamous jewish holocaust in Germany. There is a great line that differentiates the selection of the truth and the fabricated truth. Although the facts are what make humankind notorious for striving forward, fiction plays a role of capturing the real emotions of mankind. Fiction is what makes the reader actually comprehend the emotions and discrimination felt during the world’s most darkest journeys. Through many works of literature

like memoirs,plays, and fictional stories; the emotions of mankind’s tragedies are captured through fiction.
Fiction plays an important role in filling in the gaps of the cold truth, fiction fabricates the truth in a way that makes the reader actually feel as if the reader was alive during this time.

Eli Wiesel, the author of the memoir Night, truly makes the reader comprehend what it was like to a jew during the time of hitler’s dictatorship. Of course there are facts on how the jewish holocaust begun, but through fiction the reader is able to feel the emotions felt by young Eli Wiesel as he recalls his memories in hitler’s concentration camps. Eli recalls the tortures of starvation, dehydration, countless beatings, gas chambers, crematoriums and so much more. There is something that the truth does not capture and that is emotion, through fiction the reader is able to feel what Eli felt being a jewish teen during the holocaust. Fiction allows for the reader to understand human experience and that life does go on as Eli survives hitler’s concentration camps without his father, without a God he once worshiped to, but he survives a hell like experience which is felt by all through

fiction.
Fiction helps understand a time era through fictional characters who struggle to survive through this time frame. In Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, two ranchers struggle to survive through the great depression. The fictional story of these two ranchers, one suffering from a mental disability helps the reader understand how people with mental disabilities were treated during the great depression. Lennie, who was mentally challenged, was often treated as though he was less than the rest of the ranchers because of his slow brain. The fictional story created by the author for Lennie shows the reader that the great depression was a time where every man was for himself. George, Lennie’s companion, accompanied Lennie throughout the book to find a ranch where they could make money to have their own little ranch and live away from the despair. It was certainly uncommon to see a pair travel together during this time frame because every man was for himself, through the fictional story of these two, the reader understands the time frame of the great depression.
Human experience comes with decisions and consequences for choices made, fiction helps the reader understand lessons and themes the author makes of human experience. In August Wilson’s play fences, protagonist Troy Maxson, makes many choices that lead to his family tearing apart. The time frame of the play is set to the time of discrimination against African Americans in the United States, and Troy is a victim of discrimination. The history of the United States is set to remember the times of slavery and discrimination against African Americans, and through fiction the reader comes to understand the theme of every decision has a consequence. Troy makes a choice to have an affair with another woman, and as a result his marriage is destroyed and he is now distant from his family. The fictional plot of this story is based on the author’s own experiences which shows that fiction makes a more surreal experience for the reader to understand. Human experience is also portrayed in Tim O’Brien’s fictional book Things they carried, here the author shares his own experience with the war of Vietnam. The reader learns themes through fictional stories of American troops in Vietnam like the physical and emotional scarring soldiers felt while being in war. With these fictional stories, readers are able to grasp themes of human experience filling in the gaps historical facts would not explain.
Without fiction, everything would be just plain facts with no emotions, life lessons, and comprehension of works of literature.

There is a limit on what history can contribute to the reader, although it may enlighten them on the truth, there is no emotional depth when reading facts of human experience. Fiction helps the reader almost feel as if the reader was apart of the lesson being taught. Through various works of literature, like the memoir Night, Eli’s experience helps the reader feel sympathy for the tragedies of the holocaust. Fiction is a filler for the things history does not capture, like the life lessons of human experience. This is greatly portrayed in multiple works of literature like Fences and Things They Carried, as important themes are made for the reader to comprehend the themes that can be applicable to life. Some of those themes include the consequences that come from making certain choices, and the emotions of post traumatic stress after war. Not only is fiction entertaining, but it captures settings in works of literature so that the entertainment is greatly understood. In Of Mice and Men, the time frame of the great depression is greatly captured to exemplify the plot of the book to give the reader a sense of what it was like to be living in that time era. Fiction gives an overall sense of what it is like to live, by falling and rising again, giving a genuine human experience, that historic facts imply cannot

portray.