Night

             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 to the crematory. Which was because he was so convinced of his own death that he wanted to control his own destiny, instead of destiny controlling him. The camp leaders were treacherous and they told Elie and his fellow prisoners that they would be sent to the crematory, but, right before they reached it, they were stopped. This showed that the camp leaders had simply wanted to terrorize the Jews so that they would be so deprived emotionally that they would consider even killing themselves. Elie was scarred emotionally by the terror but the Nazis could not simply use one tool, they had to have another.
             The Nazis enforced brutality so that they would stay in power. This was wh...

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Night. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 08:46, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/82984.html