The novel is a fast read, but it takes a while to analyze the overall message the author is trying to show to the reader with the Holocaust. A reader can notice throughout the reading of the book that Elie Wiesel has an interesting character filled with emotions and thought provoking questions having to do with the camps. In the beginning of the novel Elie was a religious Jew even more than his father and probably had more faith than the rest of the residents of his little community in Romania. He meets a man named Moshe the Beadle who starts to question his religion and his answer shows that religion is the foundation of Elie. This young man responds by saying "Why did I pray?...Why did I live? Why did I breathe?” (Wiesel 2). It shows the reader that he cares so much about praying that he compares it to breathing. This is kind of saying that it would be impossible for him to live he were not able to pray or study the Talmud. If a person were to finish the book this quote leaves the reader thinking on how much young Elie has changed in 1 year from 1944 to 1945 in the camps. These three phrases can have a huge impact and it's surprising that this quote would help carry out the theme of Night. In the book the first section focuses on the life of Elie Wiesel before the camps made their way to his everyday routine and we can easily tell that he was in some way unique amongst the other Jews. He continues to have faith throughout the ride to their location it is the separation of his family that leaves him alone in Birkenau.
The main focus is religion and how Elie's experiences in the numerous camps not only changed his views on his religion, but also his overall personality especially in Buna. He first arrives in Birkeanu in which Elie first sees the treatment of Jews in the camps. He notices that prisoners around him are reciting something called the Kaddish, but Elie has a feeling of anger within him having to deal with the faith he had in God and the impact it had on his people which were Jewish. Elie says to himself "for the first time I felt anger rising within me. The Almighty...Master of the Universe chose to be silent What was there to thank?" (Wiesel 33). We can start to see that he is starting to lose his devotion to his religion and that he is no longer a typical religious Jew. These thoughts were in his mind because he saw what the soldiers had done to his people the overall treatment that the Jewish people received from the camps. We can tell that his faith is starting to fade away and now it seems that his beliefs were something left behind in Romania.
The second major thing that Elie experiences is inhumanity towards other humans which can also be known as silence a huge topic in Night. There is one event that changes Wiesel's personality, but also his feelings towards his father in Buna. He witnesses the other side of human nature by looking at his fellow prisoners heading to Buchenwald. In order to be specific he sees a man with a small ration of bread, but his son tries to take it away from him while they are heading to the camp. The man says "Meir. Meir, my boy! Don’t you recognize me?... His son searched him, took the bread, and began to devour it. He was not able to get very far...Others joined in" (Wiesel 97). In one page of the book Elie mentions that he was spoiled before he arrived in Auschwitz. There were other thing that changed him, but witnessing this event it changed his personality in Buchenwald. Elie's father is having trouble with the treatment of the German soldiers. Wiesel starts to put his own life at risk by giving his ration of bread to his father in the camp. He is no longer the spoiled kid back in Sighet, he is now almost a full grown young adult who has learned how to put others before himself especially in the Holocaust.
The picture above shows a few Jewish prisoners eating their ration of food inside the concentration camp. I put this image because it represents how much Elie cared about his father in which he was able to avoid the advice given by the soldiers. It seems that towards the end of the book Elie did have faith that his father was going to live past the liberation of the camps. Wiesel has now grown up to face the adversities of life and to also teach others to never repeat the Holocaust.
Abdiel, you did a great job explaining the different important focuses in "Night." Did you like the book? Have you heard about the conspiracy that Elie Wiesel had never been in the Holocaust to begin with? I though that might interest you; knowing how much you like history and stuff. Great blog! :)
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