Night, By Elie Wiesel: An Analysis

When an evil leader comes to power you would think it would be easy to overrun this leader and stop him in his tracks, but this is not always true. Elie Wiesel, a young teenager during the Holocaust is sent to many concentration camps. He sees the horror of what an evil power can do. As Elie Wiesel writes Night, he shows that in difficult times people stay silent and do not fight back, staying obedient to a powerful leader.
An powerful leader can lead people to do many things, even when a leader is evil, men will still obey the authority figure. One example of this obedience is where the German citizens allow the Nazi soldiers to live in their homes. This example shows that the citizens are following this authority figure. The obedience is

shown not only with allowing the soldier in, but with the citizens giving in to the power of an authority. The concept is also demonstrated where the Jews get out of their homes to go into roll call (pg. 19-20). This shows that the they give in once again to this authority figure. The jewish citizens also do not see that is can snowball into more devastating actions. The obedience is shown due to this powerful leader. Elie Wiesel also explores this idea during the interview with Oprah, he states that “we had to run everywhere we went, there was no walking”. This is a great example for obedience since they had to run for their survival. This authority figure can put fear into people's lives, causing this obedience. Human nature shows that an powerful leader plus fear will equal complete obedience from citizens. This idea of obedience is shown throughout this memoir, proving that people will stay obedient to a powerful leader.
The idea of silence is demonstrated strongly in the memoir Night, the Jewish citizens stay silent during this horrible Holocaust.

For instance when the author writes about the woman it the cattle car being beaten. This is a perfect of example of human nature in shock. The horrible conditions make the Jewish in shock and leave the human nature of them to take action. That is why they beat the woman, due to the benefit for them not listening of the screaming. Also one example of silence when Elie says, “we stood stunned, petrified” (p.31). This example does not only literally mean they stayed silent, but it also shows how this fear of the authority could cause these people not to do anything and standby. This was the turning point of how the Jewish citizens were going to get through this Holocaust, and how human nature kicked in and makes life, everyman for himself. Also when Elie Wiesel is interviewing with Oprah, he talks about how women and children were sent to gassing chambers with ease. He talks about how they stood in line to face their death. This shows how the silence was present in them waiting. There was no fighting back due to the fear of them or their children being killed. So this example is perfect for showing the terror that the jews faced and how they stayed

silent.
So these examples show how when fear and evil authority are put in front of people, then the human nature of citizens will be silent, and will obey. So these ideas of human nature is a horrible combination for a genocide. It will mean that this human nature of helping everyone get through to, “everyman for himself”. So in conclusion it's easy to say, “we could have fought back”, and “I would have never let this happen to me”. Well the human nature of being silent and obeying authority figure will overcome that every time.