The Importance Of Illusion In Night By Elie Wisel

As humanity crumbles around you, do you accept the new reality or hold on to an unrealistic dream? When you awake from the illusion of safety, how do you subsist in a harsh and treacherous reality? How does your outlook on the world and your beliefs change when you are ripped from your comfortable existence into a savage murderous surrounding? These are some of the main questions explored throughout Night by Elie Wisel. The story reflects on the author’s life and mindset during and after the atrocious genocide known as the Holocaust.

Illusion can help in sustaining hope but can also preclude you from being able to fathom the brutal truth and take action to protect yourself. Such is the case with the Jews attempting to maintain hope and a moral society in the beginning of the Holocaust. What is an illusion, and at what point is it delusional to continue believing in it when the reality you are living in contradicts it? This concept is introduced and initially explored during the first chapter of the novel as the reader sees the initial events that the Jews are forced to endure. In chapter 1, some incidents occur and rules are introduced that foreshadow the harrowing events ahead. Instead of acknowledging the potential danger around them, the Jews convinced themselves that they were safe because within their close-knit religious community this belief reflected their reality in contrast with the broader society. “People refused not only to believe his stories, but even to listen to them.” (Wiesel 4) This quote exemplifies people’s failure to accept the reality of the horrific things Moshe the beadle describes after surviving the initial killings of exported Jews. His fellow Jews called him delusional, which was ironic cons...

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... Lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank Him for?” (Wiesel 31) He continued to lose faith in not only g-d but in humanity as well. His time at the concentration camp permanently distorted his thoughts on life. “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever.” (Wiesel 32) What he endured during this time of his life permanently psychologically scarred him. As a result of Elie beginning to lose the faith and hope he has in life, an appropriate title for the chapter is Is He here in the darkness.