Themes In Night By Elie Wiesel

“I shall never forgive the world for having pushed me against the wall, for having turned me into a stranger, for having awakened in me the basest, most primitive instincts (xii).” For Elie Wiesel, a Jewish boy from Sighet, this was his reality, as well as the reality of many others involved in the Holocaust. The lives of every man and woman victimized in the Holocaust were drastically changed. (remember...a theme is universal; it can apply to anyone, anywhere. a main idea is text specific. this may be too close to a main idea.) Many Jewish people who had to endure the Holocaust questioned or lost their faith. Elie, towards the beginning of Night, was very faithful to his religion, as an aspiring Kabbalist. However, Elie first begins to

Elie’s father is described by Elie, before the Wiesel family is taken to the camps, as “a cultured man, rather unsentimental (4).” However, as his father proves, even strong, seemingly unemotional people can be weak, and first shows weakness as they are packing up their belongings. (don't forget to embed your quotes...make them a part of a bigger sentence.) “My father was crying. It was the first time I saw him cry. I had never thought it possible (19).” Again, his father shows weakness and desperation moments before dying. “My father groaned once more, I heard: ‘Eliezer…’ I could see that he was still breathing--in gasps (111).” The Holocaust forced him to change and become someone entirely

On the first night arriving at Auschwitz, after seeing just the first of many terrors, a Pole says to the prisoners: “Don’t lose hope. You have already eluded the worst danger: the selection. Therefore, muster your strength and keep your faith. We have faith in life, a thousand times faith (41).” Elie says that these were “the first human words (41).” On multiple occasions throughout Night, people would do or trade anything for a piece of bread. For example, when Elie’s father was spending his last moments in his cot, he complained that the other prisoners had beaten him and taken his ration of bread. Or when bread was thrown into the wagon: “…where the bread had landed, a battle had ensued. Men were hurling themselves at each other, trampling, tearing at and mauling each other (101).” Even Elie found himself thinking only of his own survival, even feeling almost relieved of the burden of being responsible for another human life. “I stood petrified. What has happened to me? My father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked (39).” After his father dies, he says: “I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. But I was out of tears. And deep inside me, if I could’ve searched the recesses of my feeble conscience, I might’ve found something like: Free at last…!” (112). Victims of the Holocaust were made to