ipl-logo

Examples Of Oppression In Night By Elie Wiesel

807 Words4 Pages

Elie Wiesel’s harrowing memoir of his personal accounts during the Holocaust recounts the dehumanization and brutality endured by those persecuted within the camps. Despite this, Wiesel reflects on the moments of compassion and consideration of other individuals even whilst enduring atrocities and how these instances of altruism can serve as a form of resistance against the Nazi regime. Ultimately, Wiesel exhibits throughout his novel that individuals who were once unified can turn into savage and immoral beings within places of brutality. Wiesel demonstrates that humans can still be sympathetic and exhibit decency towards others even whilst enduring atrocities. After Eliezer endured public humiliation and punishment by Kapo Idek, a French …show more content…

During the Jewish New Year, an assembly of Jews in the concentration camp, Buna, had gathered to solemnly pray in God’s name, with “thousands of lips repeat[ing] [a] benediction” within the camps. Through the collective action of the imprisoned Jews, Wiesel explores the concept of spiritual resistance as the practice of Judaism was prohibited within concentration camps. Religious rituals within a place of brutality insinuate that those within the camps still preserved their strong sense of faith and hope. Furthermore, as Elie was left with an ultimatum from a violent prisoner to either “let [him] have [Eliezer’s] crown”, or else it will “cost much more”, being the exploitation and torment of Elie’s father. Ultimately, Elie decides to surrender his golden tooth at the expense of his father’s well-being. Through such acts of altruism, Wiesel affirms that humanity is the consideration of others' welfare, as he was resistant and opposed violence especially targeted towards his father to the detriment of his only luxury within the concentration camp. Thus, Wiesel affirms that the preservation of one’s sense of hope and the consideration of other individuals can be a form of defiance against

Show More
Related
1228 Words | 5 Pages

Annotated Bibliography Estess, Ted L. “The Holocaust Poisoned Eliezer’s Relationships.” Readings on Night, compiled by The Greenhaven Press, San Diego, Greenhaven Press Inc, 2000, pp. 94-97. Excerpt originally published in Elie Wiesel, Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1980. “The Holocaust Poisoned Eliezer’s Relationships” primarily focuses on one of the main points of Night, the destruction of Wiesel’s primary relationships due to life in the concentration camps.

Read More
331 Words | 2 Pages

At first glance, Weisel, along with the other Jews are presented as inhuman to the Germans. When the Jews are first transported to the concentration camps in cattle cars, the Germans lay out a few ground rules. The Germans expect the Jews to stay in their designated places and that “if anyone is missing” they “would be shot like dogs” (22). The Germans compare the Jewish to animals. They transport the Jews in cattle cars, and call them dogs, bringing them down to the level of animals rather than human beings.

Read More
892 Words | 4 Pages

David Tejada Mrs. Jass 4/5 CHELA 17 April 2023 Despair “It’s over. God is no longer with us.” (Wiesel 76). Elie Wiesel said this in the book Night to signify the true despair he was experiencing.

Read More
423 Words | 2 Pages

Plot: Elie Wiesel lived with his younger sister and parents in a small town during the period of World War Two. Where they were Jewish their fear of the German reaching them grew steadily until the German tanks rolled through their streets. Where the officers were nice, that did not stop them from setting up the ghetto’s in town square: “The ghetto was ruled by neither German nor Jew; it was ruled by delusion” (12). Soon Wiesel found himself on a train to Auschwitz, where he was separated from his mother and sister, forced along with his father to join the other men at their camp. To work or to be burned, Elie and his father struggled to stay alive, on their rations of bread, but keeping fit enough to survive the test the leaders put on them.

Read More
590 Words | 3 Pages

A quarrel is better than a cold war, and we better remind ourselves the situations that we choose to be indifference toward our friends and families. Elie Wiesel urges people to face their own indifference, addressing that indifference denies the humanity of victims. This whole speech is based on the ethos of Wiesel, conveying the message that he himself symbolizes humanity. Wiesel refers to his own experience during the Holocaust, the most infamous and evil event in history.

Read More
890 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout the history of the world, there have always been violations of human rights where people are stripped of land, prosecuted, killed, and so many more unthinkable acts of torture. How can a human being cause such harm to another human being? Could it be out of hatred of religion, race, and/or gender? The Holocaust is an example of this. Millions of Jews were placed in concentration camps during World War II, and among them was a young boy named Elie Wiesel.

Read More
912 Words | 4 Pages

World War II and, more specifically, the Holocaust, were two devastating events in human history which changed the world forever. Those who were directly persecuted and placed in camps faced many horrific things, but the effects those events had on their psyche were perhaps more traumatizing than the events themselves. Elie Wiesel is a real Holocaust survivor and the author of the memoir Night, which details his experiences throughout various concentration camps as a Jewish individual. There are many events throughout the memoir that demonstrate the determination of people to stay alive by any means necessary, even if it means abandoning all morals and humane actions. In this essay, it will be shown that in dire circumstances, the innate human

Read More
934 Words | 4 Pages

It becomes clear that Elie Wiesel`s commentary on human nature is that, during extreme circumstances, people are selfish and would achieve anything for their own survival. Furthermore, In Wiesel’s novel people strived to survive this injustice. For example, the Holocaust caused countless amount of

Read More
626 Words | 3 Pages

Wiesel describes the tragedies that occurred over the past century, all of the bloodshed that stained human hands. He wove his lexicon beautifully as he spoke of his own pain and misery in the concentration camps and how his liberation by the American troops gave him renewed hope, tearing the hearts of all those listening in; surely Elie

Read More
786 Words | 4 Pages

As an adolescent, Elie is forced to bear witness and experience unspeakable horrors; things that no child should ever have to go through. Seemingly overnight, Elie and over six million other Jews are stripped of their identity, faith, and humanity. Starting at his arrival in Auschwitz, Elie realizes the world’s capability of cruelty as he helplessly watches hundreds of men, women, and children alike being thrown into pits of flame. Left in utter horror, Elie questions “how it [is] possible that men, women, and children [are] being burned and the world [keeps] silent” (Wiesel 32). Years in malicious concentration camps, such as Auschwitz, Buna, and Buchenwald, result in detrimental physical and mental repercussions as prisoners are deprived of the most basic human rights.

Read More
1129 Words | 5 Pages

Wiesel pinpoints the indifference of humans as the real enemy, causing further suffering and lost to those already in peril. Wiesel commenced the speech with an interesting attention getter: a story about a young Jewish from a small town that was at the end of war liberated from Nazi rule by American soldiers. This young boy was in fact himself. The first-hand experience of cruelty gave him credibility in discussing the dangers of indifference; he was a victim himself.

Read More
809 Words | 4 Pages

The Holocaust was one of the most important and tragic events of the last century, leaving a lasting effect on the victims. Elie Wiesel, a Jewish teenager who survived the Holocaust tells his story in his memoir, Night He describes his experience at the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps revealing the physical and emotional pain he underwent as well as his changing perspective on faith and identity. Throughout the memoir Wiesel goes through significant changes in his faith, identity and religious views. A pivotal moment in Elie’s journey is when he and his father arrive at Birkenau, and witness the persecution of the Jews.

Read More
744 Words | 3 Pages

In which millions of Jews were innocently killed and persecuted because of their religion. As a student who is familiar with the years of the holocaust that will forever live in infamy, Wiesel’s memoir has undoubtedly changed my perspective. Throughout the text, I have been emotionally touched by the topics of dehumanization, the young life of Elie Wiesel, and gained a better understanding of the Holocaust. With how dehumanization was portrayed through words, pondering my mind the most.

Read More
264 Words | 2 Pages

Cruelty is something that no human being deserves especially in awful inhumane ways. In Elie Wiesel's memoir Night his writing shows what great evil humans are capable of during the holocaust. In situations of power humans are capable of limitless cruelty. The camp workers brutally killed, stripped them of all their identities and tortured the Jews. At the concentration camp the innocent Jews were killed for invalid reasons and treated like cattle.

Read More
945 Words | 4 Pages

His story displays how, though experiences affect decisions, it is the individual who chooses to either find purpose when there does not seem to be a clear objective, or allow one’s anguish to be fruitless. This concept is further explored with psychiatrist Viktor Frankl’s idea of logotherapy, and discussed in Elie’s interview with talk show host Oprah Winfrey decades after the Holocaust. In Night, Elie is overwhelmed by his suffering, as he experiences a deprivation of individuality, degradation of faith, and drainage of emotion, but he manages to find a way to channel this affliction into productivity and become a survivor rather than a victim. It is easy to misunderstand how devastating life in a concentration camp was, but through Elie’s loss of identity and distrust in God, the reader can discern the

Read More

More about Examples Of Oppression In Night By Elie Wiesel

Related Topics

Open Document