How Does Elie Wiesel Change Throughout The Book Night

Night, by Elie Wiesel: Elie’s Transformations

"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed" (34). Holocaust survivor and author of his memoir Night, Elie Wiesel, uses the word ‘night’ as a metaphor for his dark experiences. When he is 15 years old, he is forced into a ghetto by the Nazis. Later he gets forced into a concentration camp, where he spends a year until being liberated on April 11, 1945. Miraculously he survives, but not without consequence. Throughout his ordeal, Elie Wiesel undergoes drastic physical, emotional, and spiritual changes.

The first of the physical changes is Elie unwillingly receiving a tattoo. On his first day as a prisoner in Auschwitz, Elie,

One of these is Elie becoming suicidal after being depressed. While in the camps, Elie becomes so depressed to the point where he would rather be dead than alive. Elie thinks, "Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live" (34). Elie is very passionate about living happily before the Holocaust, but his experiences during it cause his thoughts to change enormously. Secondly, Elie becomes desensitized to violence. For example, when his dad gets beaten by Idek, instead of feeling sorry for him Elie is angry. Elie states, "if I felt anger at that moment, it was not directed at the Kapo but at my father. Why couldn't he have avoided Idek's wrath? That was what life in a concentration camp had made of me..." (54). This quote shows how concentration camps change a person's identity tremendously. When Eli's father is hurt at the start of his time in the camps, he cares deeply about him. But the longer he spends there, the less Elie cares about violence. Finally, Elie becomes greedy, which turns into guilt. Elie loses track of his father and starts to look for him, but he thinks about what would happen if he stopped guiding his father to survival. "If only I were relieved of this responsibility, I could use all my strength to fight for my own survival, to take care only of myself...Instantly, I felt ashamed, ashamed of myself forever", thinks Elie (106). Elie

At the beginning of the book, Elie is very spiritual. Before being forced into the concentration camps, Elie is very spiritual and has lots of faith in God. He states, "I was almost thirteen and deeply observant. By day I studied Talmud and by night I would run to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple" (3). This quote is a great example of how the Holocaust can change people, as it provides a starting point for measuring the changes Elie goes through. Next, Elie questions God. On the eve of Rosh Hashana, he and the other Jews gather, and Elie questions God about why he lets the Jews go through these horrors. Elie ponders, "What are You, my God? I thought angrily. How do You compare to this stricken mass gathered to affirm to You their faith, their anger, their defiance? What does Your grandeur mean, Master of the Universe, in the face of all this cowardice, this decay, and this misery?" (66). This change shows how greatly people change during a time of despair. Finally, Elie loses faith in God. He starts to lose faith after so many horrible things happen to him. "I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God, without man. Without love or mercy. I was nothing but ashes now" (68). After his ordeals, Elie begins to doubt God, whom he revered before the