Night, by Elie Wiesel, is an epic portrayal of the Holocaust. The novel depicts the true-life story of Elie and his father, Cholmo, as they and their friends, family members and fellow Jews experience the true horrors of the Nazi death camps. As he and his father travel along the timeline of the Nazi oppression, they meet others like them who are also under persecution. The terror and brutality enforced by the German soldiers, kapos and the SS officers is unimaginable today, but it brought back to life in this inspiring and sometimes disturbing novel. Terror can destroy people emotionally while brutality can destroy physically which might lead someone (like Elie Wiesel) to lose hope in their beliefs, salvation and in life itself.
Terror, tool Nazis use, nearly destroyed people, such as Elie’s life. Elie faced the SS officers, the kapos of the death camps as they continued to terrorize and wage psychological warfare. Elie, after hearing the camp a leader say “Poor devils, you’re going to the crematory.” (30) said that he would rather “throw himself upon the barbed wire” (30) to bring about his own death. This shows that he was so afraid of the pain of being burned alive he would rather kill himself instead of having to go through
. . .
Because He had had thousands of children burned in His pits? Because He kept six crematories working night and day, on Sunday and feast days? Because in His great might he had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna and so many factories if death?” (p. He had to endure brutality at its extreme to himself and his fellow Jews. Elie was scarred emotionally by the terror but the Nazis could not simply use one tool, they had to have another. This shows that Elie and others are so disturbed and angry at the Nazis that they blame it on God! Moreover, this implies that they have lost much faith in him because of his apparent lack of servitude towards them. This shows just how “mean” the camp leaders were to their prisoners. Obviously, the camp leaders wanted to show the Jews what would happen if they tried to defy their “masters.
A person, after being exposed to terror and brutality could find himself deprived of his emotional and physical self. The lose of faith in life and goodwill is so strong that someone like Juliek said “I’m afraid . ” This showed that even though Elie and the others had strong faith before, they had succumbed to paranoia and pessimism. Elie Wiesel faced the true terror of the Nazi regime when he stepped into the grounds of the death camps.
During the entire time Elie Wiesel was in the death camps he was fighting for his will to survive. At the end he fought himself to keep his will to live and to keep his faith in goodness.
Approximate Word count =
813
Approximate Pages =
3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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