Examples Of Silence In The Book Night

To be human is to be compassionate and caring for one another; however, in the book, Night, Elie begins to resemble an existence that is not human, due to his environment where one has to live for only themselves.

Before becoming fully integrated into the brutal life of the camp, as a human being, Elie still cares for the wellbeing of others. After arriving at Birkenau, Elie witnesses the burning of children, women, and men alike. He questions the reality of this situation and "How was it possible... that the world kept silent?" (32). For Elie, silence is unthinkable. Although speaking words that will not come becomes tough, Elie himself managed to do that in the creation of this book, Night. At this point in time, Elie has not lost his faith in the power that people hold; there is still hope for the world to save these people, but only if the silence breaks. Combining that with his tone of disbelief, Elie exemplifies one of humanity’s many ingrained emotions: compassion. However, in a camp

Two lambs without a shepherd, free for the taking. But who would dare?" (59). In this metaphor, Elie shows the extent of the hunger of the people in the camp. He acknowledges that they have become animals; he acknowledges that the camp has made them who they are at that point. But who is to blame for changing, when this is life around them? In nature, there is a type of learning called habituation. In a normal situation, once a subject is exposed to a stimulus, the subject reacts to said stimulus. However, once the subject is exposed to the stimulus enough, the subject ceases to react; the subject has gotten used to the stimulus. The subject then begins to perceive that stimulus as normal. In here, Elie is the subject and the nature of the camp is the stimulus. Over time, Elie has adjusted his meaning of normal and habituated to how people act in the camp. He stops questioning why and begins to accept things as