ipl-logo

Mental Illness In Night By Elie Wiesel

1577 Words7 Pages

The transport of Jews from ghettos to concentration camps during the Holocaust traumatized each victim on a personal level. Elie Wiesel’s autobiography, Night, perfectly captures the chaos of these events in the excerpt: The fire! The furnace! Look, over there! Waking with a start, we rushed to the window. Yet again we had believed her, even if only for a moment. But there was nothing outside save the darkness of the night. With shame in our souls, we went back to our places, gnawed by fear, in spite of ourselves. As she continued to scream, they began to hit her again, and it was with the greatest difficulty that they silenced her. (Night, pg 27). This is Wiesel’s description of one of the many terrors he faced while on a transport to the …show more content…

The prisoners on the transport with her blamed her madness on the recent separation of her family and conditions in the railcar (Night, pg. 25). However, many others on the transport had endured the same conditions and also been taken from their loved ones, yet none of them displayed similar behaviors nor knew of the terror that lay ahead. Although they had all heard stories from neighbors, Madame Schachter was the only individual who knew anything of the furnaces in Auschwitz. This evidence proves that Madame Schachter was not simply a madwoman, but a prophet sent to warn the Jews. She tried in vain to gain their attention numerous times, shouting “Jews, listen to me!” (Night, pg. 25). She was intent on getting them, the Jews to hear her warnings; not just ordinary civilians. This is why she waited until they were all together on the transport. Additionally, Wiesel mentions how each time she wailed of fire, they rushed to the window, believing her (Night, pg. 27). This demonstrates the unnatural power within her words; even though they could not see the flames, they found a bit of truth within them. Madame Schachter was different from the others; she could see their future. While she did exhibit the signs and symptoms of a victim of mental psychosis, her ability to see the Jew’s fate and attempts to warn them prove that Madame Schachter was not simply a madwoman, but a

Show More
Related
537 Words | 3 Pages

Elie Wiesel and his family were deported from the town Sighet to camp Auschwitz. Elie and his town were gathered into train carts vigorously. The German SS officers shouting ”if anyone goes missing, you will all be shot, like dogs” (24). While on the train carts there were an average of eighty Jews in one cart, Elie saying “there was little air, thirst became intolerable, as did the heat” (23). Although the Jews of Sighet were warned they did not listen.

Read More
681 Words | 3 Pages

Elie Wiesel’s “Night” depicts death, obliteration, and anguish while directly depicting the suffering he witnessed during his time at Auschwitz, a concentration camp for Jews during World War II. Within the story, there is an overwhelming amount of times the Jews had been in distress. Many children had been separated from their parents and all of the Jews were taken from their homes. Their suffering seemed endless. They were no longer teachers, homeowners, or priests.

Read More
753 Words | 4 Pages

No mercy In the book, Night, Elie wiesel tells the story of his many months in the concentration camps. At the young age of fifteen were he saw, his fellow jews get burned alive, shot, beaten, Starved and even hung. There was so much physical pain that was caused and some of it could be fixed over time. But the one thing that can 't be fixed is the emotional damage him and every other person that was in those camps experienced.

Read More
153 Words | 1 Pages

In the novel, “Night” Elie Wiesel communicates with the readers his thoughts and experiences during the Holocaust. Wiesel describes his fight for survival and journey questioning god’s justice, wanting an answer to why he would allow all these deaths to occur. His first time subjected into the concentration camp he felt fear, and was warned about the chimneys where the bodies were burned and turned into ashes. Despite being warned by an inmate about Auschwitz he stayed optimistic telling himself a human can’t possibly be that cruel to another human.

Read More
343 Words | 2 Pages

The condition inside of the train is awful. There are a hundred confused and scared people packed into one cattle car, unable to breathe, hot from being squished together, hungry, thirsty, and wondering what fate has in store for them. After crossing the Czechloslovakian border, the soldiers start to become extremely demanding, putting more fear into everyone on the train. They threaten to shoot anyone who tries to escape and they even go as far as nailing the doors shut. Some become delusional like Madame Schächter in Elie Wiesel’s novel, Night.

Read More
181 Words | 1 Pages

Within Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, there are many important quotes. Although that is true, there is one that sticks out the most. On page 115 of the book, Wiesel states, “From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me” (Wiesel 115). This quote truly displays the theme of dehumanization portrayed by Wiesel.

Read More
610 Words | 3 Pages

When placed in particular situations, humans rank which cultural or personal values they found the most essential. Consequently, certain ideals are not considered. During the infamous incident known as the Holocaust, this occurred frequently. As a result, the people that underwent these horrible situations nominated particular personal or cultural values over others. This selection determined the difference between life and death for several individuals.

Read More
487 Words | 2 Pages

The Holocaust was one of the most tragic events in history. It just so happened to be the cause of six million deaths. While there are countless beings who experienced such trauma, it is impossible to hear everyone's side of the story. However, one man, in particular, allowed himself to speak of the tragedies. Elie Wiesel addressed the transformation he underwent during the Holocaust in his memoir, Night.

Read More
124 Words | 1 Pages

Night has revealed to me the immensity of the suffering and ruthlessness that Jews were subjected to on daily basis during the holocaust in an emotional and moving first-hand experience. I choose a train, symbol of oppression, to represent the initial separation from a normal life in which everyone inside the crowded train car received, along with a taste of the pain and suffering that was soon to be forced upon them. I choose this quote to show how shocking mentally and physically the transition phase was from a normal life to that of the oppressed and to emphasize how easily he gave up in the beginning. Despite this, he managed to persevere and overcome the enormous challenges of surviving in a concentration camp.

Read More
286 Words | 2 Pages

In the book Night, Elie Wiesel describes his struggles as a Jew in a concentration camp using a depressing and serious tone, meant to reflect the horrific conditions the Jews were forced to face and the theme that adversity can cause a loss in faith. From the time Elie first arrived at the camp and heard everyone saying prayers, to when the young pipel was hung, and even when the Jews had to make the long, arduous, trek to the other camp, the reader could see his faith dwindling as he continued to question where his God was and why he wasn’t helping the Jews. Not only was a lack of faith evident in Elie himself, but the other Jews around him, even the priests, were having trouble believing in their God. Elie’s disheartened and somber tone

Read More
682 Words | 3 Pages

Traumatic experiences often lead to a decimation of humanity around people. This causes people to distrust everything, sometimes even themselves. In the beginning of the story, Elie explains his general mindset about himself during the time of his depression. The Holocaust, which is such a negative turning point in his life, causes him to lose the will to live as more people were quickly dying around him as well. He recalls the events, and tries to determine the purpose of his survival.

Read More
990 Words | 4 Pages

When death runs rampant, fear ultimately takes over. In the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, he recounts the daunting experiences with his father as prisoners in the Nazi concentration camps. Given the extensively harsh conditions that define the nature of the camps, the means of surviving prove to be exceedingly difficult. For instance, miniscule rations of food and strenuous forced labor lead to an immense prospect of death. As prisoners deemed unfit to work are relegated to the crematoria, the ability to persevere is crucial.

Read More
1152 Words | 5 Pages

Effects of Trauma in Night How can extreme suffering change a person? Going through a German concentration camp causes many people to have life changing differences in their lives. Elie Wiesel tells his personal experience of going through a concentration camp in his book Night. He shares the horrific events that he, his father, and others had to experience.

Read More
978 Words | 4 Pages

The human condition is a very malleable idea that is constantly changing due to the current state of mankind. In the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, the concept of the human condition is displayed in the worst sense of the concept, during the Holocaust of WWII. During this time, multiple groups of people, most notably European Jews, were persecuted against and sent to horrible hard labor and killing centers such as Auschwitz. In this memoir, Wiesel uses complex figurative language such as similes and metaphors to display the theme that a person’s state as a human, both at a physical and emotional level, can be altered to extreme lengths, and even taken away from them, under the most extreme conditions.

Read More
684 Words | 3 Pages

Expository Report “We must do something, we can’t let them kill us like that, like cattle in the slaughterhouse, we must revolt”. These are the words from many men surrounding Elie Wiesel as he entered Auschwitz, calling out for rebellious toward the Germans harsh conditions. Of course they had no idea what they were getting themselves into, many thought that there was nothing wrong until boarding the cattle train that would send them off to their final resting place. Life during the holocaust was torturous to say the least, so much so that some 6,000,000 lives were taken during this time in Jewish descent alone. People of the Jewish descent did not have it easy; they either were forced out of their homes into concentration camps, or they would hide out only to be found and killed of they remained in their settlements.

Read More

More about Mental Illness In Night By Elie Wiesel

Related Topics

Open Document