*THIS SECTION CONTAINS SPOILERS*
Hardly a page of this book turned that didn't evoke some sort of heartbreaking emotion that brought me closely to tears. Night is a brutally honest commentary on the holocaust from the perspective of a Jew: Elie Wiesel. All of the events in this book happened and were experienced by the author. The honesty and realism is chilling.
In his book Night Elie Wiesel takes the reader on an emotional journey through the events and experiences of his own life; from the time he was a young boy, until now, as a man still haunted by the past. There is no disguising of the cold hard facts. This holocaust happened and there's no escaping the horrifying truth of its occurrence.
His story begins as a young boy growing up in Sighet, Transylvania. He lived a fairly normal life as a young Jewish boy. Then, in 1944, when he was 15, he and his family were forced out of their home and taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Upon arriving at Auschwitz, he and his father were separated from his mother and three sisters. It was the last time he ever saw his mother and youngest sister. After spending several months at Auschwitz, Wiesel, his father and other Jewish occupants were relocated to Buchenwald. They were forced to run distances of over twenty kilometers at a time. The amount of people who died on the journey was staggering. At one point, Elie and his father were crammed with ninety-eight other Jews into a wagon. When they reached their destination, Elie and his father were two of twelve survivors. Elie remained at Buchenwald until it was liberated, but his father died just a few months before they were freed. Wiesel was 16 years old when he and the other Jews at Buchenwald were rescued. He spend a year in concentration camps, but it was a most annihilating year that changed his life forever.
One of the biggest affects this book had on me was experienced through the imagery written by the author. Elie Wiesel illustrated in great detail all that he experienced in the concentration camps. “Then the entire camp [...] filed past the hanged boy and stared at his extinguished eyes, the tongue hanging from his gaping mouth. The Kapos forced everyone to look him squarely in the face.” (Wiesel 63) In this illustration, Wiesel tells of an instance in which a boy was sentenced to hang for stealing a piece of bread. Officers required all Jews to watch and be warned that this was the punishment for anyone who disobeyed. By using words like “extinguished” and “gaping,” Wiesel paints a gory image of one of the many hangings which he experienced. It is gut wrenching that this type of event was a normality in Wiesel's day to day life in a concentration camp.
Another way in which I was affected by Elie Wiesel's writing was through tone. Wiesel makes all of his experiences appear to have been nonchalant “happenings of life.” It is unbelievable how such horrifying tragic events can turn into someone's reality. All that he witnessed became normalized. Many times I would read a sentence and just absorb the information. The authors casual tone didn't make me think twice. But, when I would go back and comprehend it, I would be overwhelmed by the horrifying event that had taken place. In example, Wiesel wrote “[...] He must have died, trampled under the feet of the thousands of men who followed us. I soon forgot him.”(Wiesel 86) In this excerpt, Wiesel tells of a Jew who he knew whose stomach had burst on the long trek from Auschwitz to Buchenwald. Wiesel's tone in describing this event is shockingly casual. Death didn't phase him any more. It was normal and accepted.
Overall, no matter how cruel and gruesome his tone and imagery appeared, I think that it was necessary for Wiesel to be so honest about the concentration camps. There is no doubt that the events of the holocaust were inhumane. The Jews were so persecuted, that they no longer feared death, but embraced it. It was no longer dreaded, but accepted. Many Jews committed suicide and wanted to die. Wiesel himself almost committed suicide in order to escape the life he would have to undergo in the camps. As I reached the end of this book, I was heartbroken, But I realized that in being so honest about the holocaust, Wiesel also exposed two things: the value of life and the beauty of death.
Questions For Discussion:
•How does the author use imagery to affect the reader emotionally?
•What types of themes did you identify within the book?
•There were many times when Wiesel was close to dying, do you think he persevered or it was just luck that he lived?
•What could the obsessions with bread symbolize?
•Wiesel took care of his father and internally willed that he wouldn't give up on him. However in the end, he neglected his father. What evidence or lack of emotional regret did Wiesel show?
•How does the author use imagery to affect the reader emotionally?
•What types of themes did you identify within the book?
•There were many times when Wiesel was close to dying, do you think he persevered or it was just luck that he lived?
•What could the obsessions with bread symbolize?
•Wiesel took care of his father and internally willed that he wouldn't give up on him. However in the end, he neglected his father. What evidence or lack of emotional regret did Wiesel show?