Theme Of Friendship In Night By Elie Wiesel

In this novel, there are different enemies depending on the circumstance. The people inside the concentration camp and some of the population, such as Bruno's Grandmother and His mother, look at Adolf Hitler and his soldiers as the enemy, and the people “on the other side of the fence” such as Adolf Hitler, his soldiers and some of the population, look at the prisons as the enemy . At the start of the Novel, Bruno is quite oblivious to the way that the Jewish are treated as his father is a German soldier, and does not see that his father is doing anything wrong. Later in the novel, there is a strong friendship and bond created between Bruno and Shmuel, despite their differences, those two become each other's world. Bruno and Shmuel exist

in two completely different worlds, but they share a mutual desire for friendship during a difficult and lonely time. In spite of their remarkably different backgrounds, with Bruno's father being partially responsible for Shmuel and his family being imprisoned, these two boys still find a way to become best friends and put their major differences aside.“We're not supposed to be friends, you and me.

We're meant to be enemies. Did you know that?” ( page 118) Bruno knows that this is a friendship is usually forbidden, but he continues to have a strong companionship with Shmuel. From this theme in the novel, I've learnt that you have to change your perspective to the enemy so you can change your attitude towards them. Bruno never hated the Jews, he was naive and did not get to have his own opinion as his father was a German soldier, when Bruno met Shmuel, he realised that the prisoners were not bad people and there was no reasonable explanation for why they are being treated so

terribly.

Life in the concentration camps

The people in the concentration camps are not treated like real people, instead they have numbers. When reading this book, I learnt the outline of the harsh everyday life for the imprisoned Jews, they were looked at as laborers and inhuman. They were given almost inedible food, there was an unachievable amount of work given to them, and any chances of getting out were shattered as they were guards at every corner.
“The people I see from my window.

In the huts, in the distance. They're all dressed the same.' 'Ah, those people,' said Father, nodding his head and smiling slightly. 'Those people...well, they're not people at all, Bruno.” This is an example of how the prisoners are not looked at as people. Bruno does not really understand the conditions of the concentration camp as he wishes he could live in there with Shmuel. Bruno looks at the camp as if it is one big happy village where you can play with your friends all day because he has never been exposed to the reality of it. “It's so unfair, I don't see why I have to be stuck over here on this side of the fence where there's no one to talk to and no one to play with and you get to have dozens of friends are probably playing for hours every day, I'll have to speak to Father about it .”Later in the novel, Bruno is so eager to see what is inside the camp, he finally finds out what life is really like when he sneaks in with the help of Shmuel. “ Bruno opened his eyes in wonder at the things he saw. In his imagination he had tough that all the huts were full of happy families, some of whom sat outside on rocking chairs in the evening and told stories about how things were so much better when they were children and they'd had nowadays. He thought that all the boys and girls who lived there would be in different groups, playing tennis or football, skipping and drawing out squares for hopscotch on the ground. As it turned out, all the

things he thought might be there - weren't.''