During the Holocaust, millions of victims were killed, most of them Jewish. In the memoir Night, Wiesel utilizes motifs to illustrate the development of character and plot. He uses faith, identity and silence throughout the novel.
The motif, faith is an important role in Night. When Elie was young, faith was a significant part of his life. Then, based on many occurrences that took place at Auschwitz, such as the killings and treatment of innocent Jews, his faith in God was slowly fading away. At the concentration camp, Elie notices huge flames rising from a ditch. Children and babies are unloaded from trucks and thrown into the flames. At that moment, “[Elie] felt anger rising within [him]. Why should I sanctify his name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, choose to be silent. What was there to thank him for” (Weisel 33)? His trust in God had vanished, more so he did not think there was anything to thank him for.
Another motif significant in Night is Identity. In this period of time,
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In a passage, Elie states, “Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live” (34). As a dedicated follower of God, Elie gets frustrated by God’s silence. Several Jews wonder where God is when men, women and children were exterminated within the matter of seconds. Elie wonders how God can allow such cruelty to occur. In a similar event, Mr. Wiesel gets beaten by Idek. While getting beaten, “[Elie] had watched it all happening without moving. [Elie] kept silent” (54). Before Elie had known of the concentration camp, he had lived a life with emotions. Now, he no longer had emotions.
In conclusion, the use of faith, identity and silence helped develop the character and plot in Night. Throughout the novel, it is evident Elie had changed his view on faith. Jews were seen as animals during the Holocaust. Finally, silence proved how Elie changed as a
The Holocaust will always be one of the most horrific memories that will never be suppressed. The Holocaust was when millions of Jews were thrown into concentration camps and tortured until their death. Families were being split up, not knowing they would never see each other again. It was so tragic, that the Jews eventually did not mind the deceased bodies lying beside them on the ground. Six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.
In the book Night, we the readers witness the hardships and struggles in Elie’s life during the traumatic holocaust. The events that take place in this story are unbearable and are thought to be demented in modern times. In the beginning Elie is shown as a normal teenage Jewish boy, but the events are so drastic that we the readers forget how he was like in the beginning. Changes were made to Elie during the book, whether they were minor or major. The changes generated from himself, the journey, and other people.
At the beginning of Night, Elie was someone who believed fervently in his religion. His experiences at Auschwitz and other camps, such as Birkenau and Buna have affected his faith immensely. Elie started to lose his faith when he and his father arrived at Birkenau. They saw the enormous flames rising from a ditch, with people being thrown in.
In Night. People in concentration camps tried to protect each other but struggled very hard to do so. Sometimes, they barely had a chance to begin with. For example, Elie witnessed someone kill himself because they already committed all he had left to taking care of a family member and was stuck. “A terrible thought crossed my mind: What if he had wanted to be rid of his father?
In the novel Night, Elie Wiesel shows the development of integrity and how it helped him overcome the horrors of the Holocaust, through the transitioning of innocence to knowledge, of heartbreak
At times, it appears unviable for one’s life to transform overnight in just a few hours. However, this is something various individuals experienced in soul and flesh as they were impinged by those atrocious memoirs of the Holocaust. In addition, the symbolism portrayed throughout the novel Night, written by Elie Wiesel, presents an effective fathoming of the feelings and thoughts of what it’s like to undergo such an unethical circumstance. For instance, nighttime plays a symbolic figure throughout the progression of the story as its used to symbolize death, darkness of the soul,
In the novel, “Night” Elie Wiesel communicates with the readers his thoughts and experiences during the Holocaust. Wiesel describes his fight for survival and journey questioning god’s justice, wanting an answer to why he would allow all these deaths to occur. His first time subjected into the concentration camp he felt fear, and was warned about the chimneys where the bodies were burned and turned into ashes. Despite being warned by an inmate about Auschwitz he stayed optimistic telling himself a human can’t possibly be that cruel to another human.
“You don’t understand... You cannot understand. I was saved miraculously. I succeeded in coming back. Where did I get my strength?
Wiesel isn’t thankful for God being silent and feels nothing but anger towards him. To sum up, loss of faith is another theme in Night that shows
Imagine believing so strongly in something and then being let down, or thinking that you were wrong to believe. In Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie felt as though he had lost his religion and beliefs. “I believed profoundly. During the day I studied the Talmud, and at night I ran to the synagogue to weep of the destruction of the Temple,” (Wiesel, 14). This quote shows how strongly he believed before experiencing the hardships of the Holocaust
Elie, once so faithful, is one of the first to lose faith in God due to the horrific sights he sees. After witnessing the bodies of Jewish children being burned, Wiesel writes, “Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever” (34). He quite understandably has begun to doubt that his God is with him following the sight of the supposedly chosen people’s bodies being unceremoniously burned. Elie, though, was perhaps not a member of the masses with this belief; in fact, some men were able to hold on to their beliefs despite these horrendous sights. Also near the middle of the book, Wiesel reflects on the faith of other Jews in the face of these events, saying that “some of the men spoke of God: His mysterious ways, the sins of the Jewish people, and the redemption to come.
Certain fears prevent others from causing a certain action in life, avoiding to be next to something or someone, or fear can get to a point to make someone remain silent. Meanwhile, silence is something that many people don’t consider that important. Maybe silence may not be a big deal. But in reality, silence is something that can mean a lot and can affect others in many ways over time. During the Holocaust, many of the Jews have noticed that they have changed over time.
In the novel Night the protagonist, Elie Wiesel, narrates his experiences as a young Jewish boy surviving the Holocaust. Elie 's autobiographical memoir informs the reader about how the Nazis captured the Jews and enslaved them in concentration camps, where they experienced the absolute worst forms of torture, abuse and inhumane treatment. Dehumanization is shown in the story when the Jews were stripped of their identities and belongings, making them feel worthless as people. From the start of Elie Wiesel 's journey of the death camps, his beliefs of his own religion is fragile as he starts to lose his faith. Lastly, camaraderie is present as people in the camps are all surviving together to stay alive so as a result the people in the camp shine light on other people 's darkness.
But then he experiences the hardships of the Holocaust and it abruptly changed him. In the book Night, the main theme is religious belief, shown when Elie talks about the his strong religion and belief as a boy, his disconnection from religion, and the inhumane actions the Nazis caused. Having a strong belief in something so important to who we are and then being confronted with horrors which cause us to cease to believe, is a significant life changing event. During this time, many people questioned where God truly was. Even Elie was questioning where God was.
Night Paper Assignment Night, by Elie Wiesel, is a tragic memoir that details the heinous reality that many persecuted Jews and minorities faced during the dark times of the Holocaust. Not only does Elie face physical deprivation and harsh living conditions, but also the innocence and piety that once defined him starts to change throughout the events of his imprisonment in concentration camp. From a boy yearning to study the cabbala, to witnessing the hanging of a young child at Buna, and ultimately the lack of emotion felt at the time of his father 's death, Elie 's change from his holy, sensitive personality to an agnostic and broken soul could not be more evident. This psychological change, although a personal journey for Elie, is one that illustrates the reality of the wounds and mental scars that can be gained through enduring humanity 's darkest times.