The year was 1943, young Elie Wiesel began to slowly realise the danger of the German Army and its leader; Adolf Hitler. Elie was one of the millions of the Jewish faith that was sent to concentration camps during the period known to all as the Holocaust. Throughout the journey to the camp, Elie and all others were promised that they would not be separated from their families; however, they soon learned the cold, hard truth that they were to be separated, “Men to the left, women to the right.” (Wiesel, 2006, pg. 29) Throughout the entire recap of Mr. Wiesel's experiences, everyone looked for something to give them the strength to survive, or the will to die. Night, by Elie Wiesel, shows the reader examples of objects taking on more than their
literal meanings, which is shown through darkness, food, and utensils. Night was the time that everyone feared the most; it meant death, or the tunnel to another grueling day. For Elie, night was a realm in which he could escape from the horrors of concentration camps. “From time to time, I would dream. But only about soup, an extra ration of soup.” (Wiesel, 2006, pg. 112) Along with the escape from reality, it also brought a sense of uncertainty; would he ever wake up again, or will the next day be even worse than the previous. Elie, and all others, never knew the answer to that question, until the next day finally came; for most, the answer was death. Bread and soup; the only food that the prisoners in concentration camps ever received. Although the food was not enough to keep them in a good condition, it was enough to give them hope to keep going. “He reached the cauldron… jealously devoured us… we jumped at the sound of the shot,” this quote depicts the scene of a man crawling towards a cauldron of soup, and all of the onlookers holding in their temptations to do the same. (Wiesel, 2006, pg 59) The man of the quote, and many others, were willing to risk their lives to get more rations in ways similar to this, or even more daring ways, because the amount of food they got was only enough to give them the strength they needed to work until the next feeding. Succeeding in getting more rations of either bread or soup, gave the prisoners more than enough strength to do what they normally did, and more, which would be more opportunity to acquire more food. Utensils; the things used to help in everyday tasks. For Elie and his father, the only utensils they had for themselves were a spoon and knife. “Take this knife… also this spoon… go ahead, take what I’m giving you!” (Wiesel, 2006, pg 75) The spoon and knife were all that they had to connect them to their past life. The spoon was also significant because one of the food that they got often was watery soup; it gave them the chance to eat the soup with dignity. Nighttime was very uncertain for those in concentration camps; it either meant death, the entrance to another gruesome day, and even an escape from the harsh conditions. Bread and soup also were a large part of what kept the prisoners, who were basically slaves, going; it meant life. To Elie's father, the spoon and knife was a connection to the Wiesel family before anything bad had happened. Night; bread and soup; and a knife and spoon, are only a few of the objects, from Night, that take on a more than literal meaning.
This is the summary of the book Night, by Elie Wiesel. The subject matter of the book takes place during World War II. In this summary you, the reader, will be given a brief overview of the memoir and it will be discussed why the piece is so effective. Secondly, there will be a brief discussion about the power of one voice versus the listing of statistics. The impact of reading about individuals struggling to survive with the barest of means, will be the third and final point covered in this summary, with the authors feelings as commentary. The author’s own experience with the book is recommending you to read this summary of Night, and hopefully convince you to read the book itself.
An estimated 11 million people died in the Holocaust. 6 million were Jews. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel tells his story as a Holocaust survivor. Throughout his book he describes the tremendous obstacles he overcame, not only himself, but with his father as well. The starvation and cruel treatment did not help while he was there. Elie makes many choices that works to his advantage. Choice plays a greater factor in surviving Auschwitz.
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.
In Elie Wiesel’s Night, he recounts his horrifying experiences as a Jewish boy under Nazi control. His words are strong and his message clear. Wiesel uses themes such as hunger and death to vividly display his days during World War II. Wiesel’s main purpose is to describe to the reader the horrifying scenes and feelings he suffered through as a repressed Jew. His tone and diction are powerful for this subject and envelope the reader. Young readers today find the actions of Nazis almost unimaginable. This book more than sufficiently portrays the era in the words of a victim himself.
Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night, is an account about his experience through concentration camps and death marches during WWII. In 1944, fifteen year old Wiesel was one of the many Jews forced onto cattle cars and sent to death and labor camps. Their personal rights were taken from them, as they were treated like animals. Millions of men, women, children, Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, disabled people, and Slavic people had to face the horrors the Nazi’s had planned for them. Many people witnessed and lived through beatings, murders, and humiliations. Throughout the memoir, Wiesel demonstrates how oppression and dehumanization can affect one’s identity by describing the actions of the Nazis and how it changed the Jewish
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.
The significance of night throughout the novel Night by Elie Wiesel shows a poignant view into the daily life of Jews throughout the concentration camps. Eliezer describes each day as if there was not any sunshine to give them hope of a new day. He used the night to symbolize the darkness and eeriness that were brought upon every Jew who continued to survive each day in the concentration camps. However, night was used as an escape from the torture Eliezer and his father had to endure from the Kapos who controlled their barracks. Nevertheless, night plays a developmental role of Elie throughout he novel.
Many themes exist in Night, Elie Wiesel’s nightmarish story of his Holocaust experience. From normal life in a small town to physical abuse in concentration camps, Night chronicles the journey of Wiesel’s teenage years. Neither Wiesel nor any of the Jews in Sighet could have imagined the horrors that would befall them as their lives changed under the Nazi regime. The Jews all lived peaceful, civilized lives before the German occupation. Eliezer Wiesel was concerned with mysticism and his father was “more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin” (4).
Inked on the pages of Elie Wiesel’s Night is the recounting of him, a young Jewish boy, living through the mass genocide that was the Holocaust. The words written so eloquently are full of raw emotions depict his journey from a simple Jewish boy to a man who was forced to see the horrors of the world. Within this time period, between beatings and deaths, Wiesel finds himself questioning his all loving and powerful God. If his God loved His people, then why would He allow such a terrible thing to happen? Perhaps Wiesel felt abandoned by his God, helpless against the will of the Nazis as they took everything from him.
It is so strenuous to be faithful when you are a walking cadaver and all you can think of is God. You devote your whole life to Him and he does not even have the mercy set you free. At the concentration camp, many people were losing faith. Not just in God, but in themselves too. Elie Wiesel uses many literary devices, including tone, repetition and irony to express the theme, loss of faith. He uses tone by quoting men at the camp and how they are craving for God to set them free. He also uses repetition. He starts sentences with the same opening, so that it stays in the reader’s head. Finally, he uses irony to allude to loss of faith. Elie understands how ironic it is to praise someone so highly, only to realize they will not have mercy on you. In Night, Elie Wiesel uses tone, repetition and irony illustrate the loss of faith the prisoners were going through.
The ground is frozen, parents sob over their children, stomachs growl, stiff bodies huddle together to stay slightly warm. This was a recurrent scene during World War II. Night is a literary memoir of Elie Wiesel’s tenure in the Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel created a character reminiscent of himself with Eliezer. Eliezer experienced cruelty, stress, fear, and inhumanity at a very young age, fifteen. Through this, he struggled to maintain his Jewish faith, survive with his father, and endure the hardships placed on his body and mind.
Book Report on Elie Wiesel's Night. Elie tells of his hometown, Sighet, and of Moshe the Beadle. He tells of his family and his three sisters, Hilda, Béa, and the baby of the family, Tzipora. Elie is taught the cabala by Moshe the Beadle.
As humans, we require basic necessities, such as food, water, and shelter to survive. But we also need a reason to live. The reason could be the thought of a person, achieving some goal, or a connection with a higher being. Humans need something that drives them to stay alive. This becomes more evident when people are placed in horrific situations. In Elie Wiesel's memoir Night, he reminisces about his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust. There the men witness horrific scenes of violence and death. As time goes on they begin to lose hope in the very things that keep them alive: their faith in God, each other, and above all, themselves.
In the memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel remembers his time at Auschwitz during the Holocaust. Elie begins to lose his faith in God after his faith is tested many times while at the concentration camp. Elie conveys to us how horrific events have changed the way he looks at his faith and God. Through comments such as, “Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God, my soul, and turned my dreams into dust,” he reveals the toll that the Holocaust has taken on him. The novel begins during the years of 1942-1944 in Sighet, Transylvannia, Romania. Elie Wiesel and his family are deported and Elie is forced to live through many horrific events. Several events such as deportation, seeing dead bodies while at Auschwitz, and separation from his mother and sisters, make Elie start to question his absolute faith in God.
This is the scene where Elie is in the hospital part of the camp because of the operation that he has just had done to his foot. After Elie and his father decide to stay, leave the hospital, and be evacuated with the rest of the camp, he explains how he found out that the Russians liberated the rest of the people in the hospital two days after the evacuation. This part absolutely floored me because I couldn’t imagine first, making that big a decision, and secondly, finding out that the decision changed the course of your life forever was a huge shocker. I couldn’t even imagine finding that out and not being frustrated with myself.