Setting Of The Book Night By Elie Wiesel

The setting and time period affects the main character in different ways throughout the book, like how he has to live with Nazis and how he is forced to indulge with what Nazis do, like burning books. In this time period, it is 1943. Michael O’Shaunessey, the son of the Irish Ambassador to Berlin, is a spy in the Hitler Youth, and eventually the SS. He is currently trying to find the plans for the Messerschmitt Me 262 A-1a Schwalbe, but is very skittish and hates the Nazis. For example, on page two, he had a thought about Nazis, and how evil they were and how he hated them. “I hated pretending to like these people, hated pretending to agree with their awful hatred of the Jews, hated pretending I wanted them to win the war and conquer the world” (Gratz 2).

He is also forced to do things like burn books in order to gain the plans for the Me 262. It shows how he has to make sacrifices, like burning books, in order to help a greater cause, like finding the plans and winning the war. “I tossed one book onto the fire at a time, slowly, so Horst wouldn’t see me standing around doing nothing. My skin crawled, as if I was consigning little bits of my soul to the fire with each book I threw in. But like smiling at a Nazi dinner party or memorizing facts about the Nazis for tests in school, it was all about the bigger mission. It was all part of the game. If it meant them letting me stick around to steal their secrets so the Allies could win the war, I’d burn every last book in Berlin” (Gratz 36). This shows how the time period affects Michael because he doesn’t like burning books, as he says it feels like it is burning away a part of his soul, but he would do anything to help the Allies win the war. Furthermore, Michael has a fear of heights, which bites back at him multiple