Elie Wiesel's "Night"
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Elie Wiesel's autobiographical account of his life through the period of the Holocaust, Night, is a terrifying account of the horrors of that period through the eyes of a child who sees his family killed and whose own spirit is sorely tested even these many years later as he looks back on these events. The book is powerful and affecting, and it also serves as a very strong portrayal of the entire era of which the Holocaust is a part. This book presents the real effects of history, not the changes in leadership and the movements of armies but the changes in the lives of real individuals who become the victims of other people's hatreds an ambitions. The book can also be seen as an exploration of personal identity and an attempt for one man to come to grips with the fact that he has survived while so many did not. The book first appeared in 1958 in France, and it was neither the first book on the Holocaust to reach the French public nor the first book written by a very young person on the subject: But La Nuit was altogether different, as was immediately apparent to anyone who read it. It did not dwell on physical details and horror alone. It was primarily the story of one family's fate, the relationship between a son and his father, and the impact of a devastating historical event upon the soul of a young person (Stern 138). The boy is faced with a situation no young person should have to face, and his ordeal comes precisely at the ag when he is discovering who he is in
. . .
of my being, in the recesses of my weakened conscience, could I have searched it, I might perhaps have found something like--free at last! (Wiesel 106).
The world has been turned upside down, and the boy feels free when left alone to face his imprisonment alone. For some time, he has been resigned to his fate. He is young, but he has had to grow up rapidly. He has indeed had to take the role of protector of his elders, and he is free now to die on his own, or so he believes.
The first source of identity for the boy is his father, which is why he is so surprised at his own reaction when the father dies. Ted L. Estess points out how important the father is to the boy:
The tenacity with which Eliezer clings to his father reflects an effort to draw back from the abyss that opens up with the loss of all human ties. The relationship functions as a touchstone to which Eliezer (and the entire narrative) returns again and again. He measures what is happening within himself in terms of what is happening in his relationship with his father (Estess 25).
For the boy, God has broken faith with His people, and Eliezer determines to counter this with absolute loyalty to his father.
Wiesel has called Night the foundation of all his wo
. . .
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Approximate Word count = 1710
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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