78 years ago, an event that killed millions occurred, known as the Holocaust. It involved German Nazis torturing and mass murdering European Jews over the span of about 12 years. Although there are many stories and novels about the Holocaust, one stands apart from the others. The title of this book is “Night”, by Elie Wiesel. In this short novel, Wisiel tells the story of his life as a teen boy living in fear of the Nazis and his traumatizing experiences. Some of the main topics he explores are faith, survival, and dehumanization, which were all a big part in his novel. It is important for readers to understand these topics as they go throughout the book because it gives an insight on just how cruel the Holocaust was to people.
One topic Wiesel addresses in Night is Survival. The theme he develops around this topic is that people will do anything to survive in times of fear. This is seen when the reader learns that Rabbi Elihu’s son abandoned his father because he felt that he was making him weaker and dragging him down, so he left him in order to survive. On pg. 91, Elizer realizes why Rabbi Eliahu's son abandoned him ¨What
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There are many examples of dehumanization in Night as Elizer and other Jews are treated atrociaously in the camps. One example of dehumanization in Night can be found on pg. 37, where Elizer states “In a few seconds, we had ceased to be men.” This quote shows how sudden and drastic the Nazis treated them, and how they viewed them as animals, livestock, instead of humans. Another example of dehumanization can be found on pg. 41 where Elizer says “Those were the first human words.”, after the Nazis told them to go to sleep. This quote implies that every other time the Naizs spoke to them, they spoke to them like they were not human or equal to them. These themes both show that the Nazis treated them not as humans, but rather as lesser beings in order to make torturing them