Analysis Of Elise Wiesel's Night

Night, originally published in 1956, written by Nobel Peace Prize author and activist Holocaust survivor Elise Wiesel and translated by his wife, Marion Wiesel, is the first book of a trilogy – Night, Dawn, and Day – revealing the terrifyingly tragic personal account of Wiesel’s experiences in the Nazi German concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Alongside its counterpart Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl, Wiesel’s Night reflects a deeper and much more emotional description of the Holocaust, as only a victim who’s witnessed and confronted by absolute evil could think of doing. Night was written to keep history from repeating itself. Wiesel rouses the devastatingly painful memories of his past that he’s previously vowed to remain silent, detailing the death of his own family, loss of his childhood innocence, and forfeit of his hope for humanity and faith in God, candidly depicting the atrocity of what can never be forgiven nor forgot.

Although Night is an entire collection of memoirs from Wiesel, he’s not the novel’s main protagonist. In fact, he’s not even mentioned in the novel at all. The pain would probably be too unbearable if Wiesel had to write about himself, so instead, he created an alter ego. Night is narrated from the limited, first-person point of view of Eliezer “Elie” Wiesel, a highly observant, introspective 15-year-old Jewish boy. Wiesel vicariously lives through this slightly fictional character, relating his own experiences to that of Eliezer’s.

Elie lives in the peaceful and quiet town of Sighet, located in Hungraian Transylvania. Moshe the Beadle, the synagogue’s caretaker and Elie’s friend, was deported months ago but recently returned to forewarn the Jews about Hitler and the Nazis. No one believ...

... middle of paper ...

...larly. He raises the question about the evil of humanity, but never answers it. Instead, he lets his story, or method, speaks for itself. No one after reading Night can be uncertain of the negative influences of genocide, or ever doubt the importance of the Holocaust, which is his purpose.

In conclusion, Night is a novel everyone should read at least once in their lives. In just over 100 pages, Wiesel vividly illustrates his horrific experiences of one of the most awful tragedies of the 20th century. Wiesel can never bring himself to forget what unimaginable cruelty he witnessed in the concentration camps, so instead, he reminds. He reminds us of what never can happen again. Wiesel shares the tremendous weight of his burden, giving so much of himself for the benefit of others. The words he presses to paper will forever live in the hearts of those that read them.