Analysis of the Tone in the Night

When Elie wrote his memoir, Night, he conveyed his tone of abandonment towards his morals and humanity that reinforced his ideas of people and the world around him.

Set in Nazi Germany, Night states how the Holocaust took Jews out of happy lives, took away everything that meant anything to Jewish culture and life, and forced slavery onto the abused people, under the heavy hand to Hitler and the merciless SS soldiers. The Nazis were ruthless to the Jews. “If anyone goes missing, you will all be shot” (24) one of the soldiers declared to Eliezer’s cattle car. The SS loved to show off their power to the Jews, mainly by killing or injuring, emotionally and physically, without a second thought to how the tortured bodies they attack feel. Nazis, created by one cruel man in a cruel time were able to take what little power their movement possessed, and mold this power into a horrible murderer, bent on killing Jewish people.

To the Jewish culture in the Holocaust concentration camps, it was only important to survival. Morals were only secondary, if of any importance when considering actions in a person’s life. When crusts of bread entered the seething mass of starving people, chaos ensued. Elie watched “these emancipated creatures, ready to kill for a crust of bread” (101) A son even murdered his own father, just for 2 crusts of the remarkable substance. This moment in time reminds me of the book, The Hunger Games, where children no more than 18 years of age kill each other for money and a better life. And for no reason other than that! The complete abandonment of morals by the people in the concentration camps is most perfectly stated by one of Elie’s Blockäteste, “In this place it is every man for himself” (110) in regard to the re...

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...oup has had to endure. The entire idea of using Jews, or any other human as a slave is just unethical. The Holocaust was a revolting time, started by a loathsome man, whose only goal in life was to take those who were not like him, and rip their lives apart, making them abandon their morals and humanity There is almost nothing as horrible as the Holocaust, but the emotional and physical wear on the minds of the Jews can be compared to the 9/11 attacks. These attacks shocked our nation, and nearly brought us to our knees. The same dread and shock occurred when Hitler rose to power, except, the murder was multiplied hundreds of times with the concentration camps. No wonder Elie was so annihilated after this experience! But what if Hitler had been stopped? Would the Germans be tarnished with his name, or would they be saved from the eternal contamination of his ideals?