How Does Elie Wiesel Change Throughout The Book Night

Night, by Elie Wiesel: Summer Camp

One of the most horrific genocides in the history of mankind, the Holocaust is an event where over eleven million people are murdered, and countless lives are changed. When the Nazis took power in 1933, Jews constituted less than 1% of the German population. Several countries, including Germany, France, and Austria, prohibit denying the Holocaust occurred. In the memoir Night Elie undergoes drastic physical, emotional, and spiritual changes throughout his ordeal as a prisoner during the Holocaust.

First, Elie experiences many physical changes. Elie unwillingly receives a tattoo on the first day as a prisoner in Auschwitz, and he and the others are branded. Elie declares, “The three ‘veteran’ prisoners, needles

To no longer exit. To no longer feel the excruciating pain of my foot. To no longer feel anything, neither fatigue nor cold, nothing. To break rank, to let myself slide to the side of the road” (86). Elie has given up on life due to how he is treated and all the hard labor he is forced to do, and thinks about letting himself be murdered by the guards gunshut. Elie’s father is dying and Elie began to think selfishly about it. Elie is tending to his sick father and someone tells him to take advantage of him and take his food rations for himself. Elie ponderes, “He was right, I thought deep down, not daring to admit it to myself. Too late to save your old father..You could have two rations of bread, two rations of soup…It was only a fraction of a second, but it left me feeling guilty” (111). Elie starts to hope his father dies so he can focus on himself and not have to deal with the old man who was getting abused and was too weak to do

Elie felt anger rise within him towards god who does nothing to help the Jews. The inmates were being sorted and Elie and his father were on their way to the crematorium, people started reciting the kaddish at the sight but Elie has a change of heart. Elie raged ,“For the first time I felt anger rise inside me. Why should I sanctify his name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank him for” (33)? This was the first time Elie questioned God and had anger for him. Why would god put these people through this, if he was even there. Elie and the male inmates got bossed around and were humiliated. The men were chased around to go take quick hot showers and get new clothes, but Elie’s father looks different and Elie changes too. Elie, fumed “I too had become a different person. The student of the Talmud, the child I was, had been consumed by the flames. All that was left was a shape that resembled me. My soul had been invaded-and devoured-by a black flame” (37). Elie has started completely losing all faith in God and his place in Elie’s soul was now a black flame. On the Eve of Rosh Hashana Elie becomes angry with the people praying to God. The inmates gathered as a group to participate in a solemn service, which was attended by ten thousand men, including the Blockälteste, and the Kapos. Elie hisses “Blessed be God’s name? Why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled”