Examples Of Blinders In Night By Elie Wiesel

Blinders are small, black rectangular squares strapped on each side of a race horse's eyes in order to block the scene around it. In a way, this is what people around the world do when a tragic event happens. Whether it is the forced containment of “impure” races or the genocide of millions of people, people tend to put their own blinders on as a sort of blockade against the event. They cannot fathom how humans can be so cruel to one another. People also put these blinders on because they believe that they, a singular human, cannot possibly make a dent in the proverbial metal of a situation like the Holocaust. They choose to ignore the problem or no one tells what they experienced because they know their story will not be accepted. These blinders

A prime example would be the various reactions of the characters to Moishe's lament in Night. “People not only refused to believe his tales, they refused to listen. Some even insinuated that he wanted their pity, that he was imagining things. Others flatly said he had gone mad.” (Wiesel 7) Townspeople told Moishe to stop playing jokes, but the irony is that Moishe is not known for that. In fact, he is known to have “mastered the art of rendering oneself insignificant,” which is a perfect reason to pay attention. (Wiesel 3) Some would blame their lack of action on not being told. They chose to put on their blinders and not take them off in time to hear. Shut up, you moron, or I’ll tear you to pieces! You should have hanged yourself rather than come here. You didn’t know? True. We didn’t know. No one had told us.”(Wiesel 30) Not even the inmates chose to hear experiences, and that negative action did not prepare them for the nightmare. This eventually led to the people not seeing the problem. Some chose to stay in oblivion rather than look outside to the world. “Small faces of children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky.” (Wiesel XIX) Bystanders cannot understand the pain the victims went through, so they choose to ignore the problem. They showed a preference to the comfort of blindness and