Deades Ago Still Remain Present Elie Wiesel Night Themes

Valeska Arteta Mrs. Pawloski English II Honors 19 March 2024 Themes from Decades Ago, Still Remain Present Elie Wiesel was a profound author, writing over 50 books in his lifetime, but he is most well known as a surviving prisoner of the infamous concentration camps that dominated the Holocaust, specifically Auschwitz. His Nobel Peace Prize-winning memoir, Night, reflects back to 1960 when Elie was just a 15-year-old boy who was forcibly sent to deal with concentration camps and the mental abuse that came with them. The 144-page novel’s ability to translate multiple themes into the present day with deep and striking potency highlights Wiesel’s impressive and remarkable skills. The slim but powerful novel continues to transmit the theme of both mental and physical suffering endured by people in the Holocaust

These coping methods are ways that the brain psychologically reacts to grief, but people like Elie Wiesel were forcefully placed in environments producing these “coping mechanisms” results. “Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams into ashes” (Wiesel 101). Lack of food in concentration camps, isolation from the real world, and what seemed like hopeless conditions led to severe tolls on the mental state of adults as old as 80 and children as young as newborns. On top of mental declines, physical systems in the body were affected. Dr. Malin stated in a Harvard University article, “Grieving takes a toll on the body in the form of stress. ‘That affects the whole body and all organ systems, and especially the immune system’” (Godman 4). Scientific evidence proves that the immune cell’s ability to function decreases after facing grief and inflammatory responses rise during this period of