Monday, March 13, 2017

Night by Elie Wiesel


Night

It is no secret that the memoir Night, published in 1960, is abundant in themes that the reader can empathize with and even learn from. From Elie struggling to maintain his faith, to his relationship between himself and his father, it is apparent that we as readers are easily able to take into consideration Elie's issues and compare them to ours and potentially improve our current situations that pertain to this. But there is one other person who becomes a new soul after experiencing these situations. Elie. Throughout the memoir, Wiesel expresses ideas in which could be attributed to lessons he has learned. He following is a list of events that have shaped Eliezer for the better.

One event that Eliezer experiences that has shaped him tremendously throughout Night is him realizing how close knit he should remain to his father. There are a variety of different quotes that support this, but one of which I found to be a rather phenomenal example of this. After the passing of his Father, Elie states the extent of how much it affected him, stating that "nothing could touch me anymore" (107).  This quote demonstrates Elie’s emotional change due to his depiction of how terribly he felt towards his Father’s passing, which he had expressed very rarely prior. It can be inferred that because of this, Elie has faced the realization of how crucial their bond was.

This hadn't been the only instance of Eliezer expressing the importance of building tight-knit relationships. Another quote that illustrates this is one found later in the memoir, yet it rings very meaningful to most. Dealing with feelings of fear and hopelessness, Elie grasps for the one person he loves most. His father stating that "I tightened my grip on my father's hand. The old, familiar fear: not to lose him." (104). This quote illustrates Elie’s development due to his clear dependence on his father. In the past, Elie has been shown to be a very strong boy, but due to his close contact with his Father, we can infer that he has strengthened his bond with him due to their horrifying situation.

The second realization that Elie had come to with development is the value of sharing your experiences with others, despite social norms. One quote that exhibits this was one found in a rather early part of the memoir. After Josef Mengele’s selection, the Bockalteste was confronted by someone who disagreed with his words, infuriating him, which is demonstrated by the quote “The Blockalteste vented his anger. Someone refused to take his word?” (73). This quote demonstrates Elie’s objection to Silence due to his immense sarcasm when depicting the Blockalteste’s anger. Because of his attitude, it is apparent that he finds his anger overly exaggerated, and possibly wrong. We can also infer that he finds the prisoner’s lack of silence to be rather endearing.

Much like our last lesson, lack of Silence is not only supported by one sole quote. Our last quote that supports this statement is one that can be found in Chapter 6 of Night.
In this section of the book, Eliezer states that "We could again hear the cannons very close by. But we no longer had the strength or the courage to think that Germans would run out of time, that the Russians would reach us before we could be evacuated.” (95). This quote demonstrates Elie’s lack of silence not towards his fellow prisoners in this situation, but more so his lack of silence towards the reader. Due to Elie sharing such intimate details of the prisoners thoughts and feelings that he would not of shared otherwise, it is apparent that he has developed into a much more courageous and fearless man since this experience.

Wiesel, Elie. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

No comments:

Post a Comment