1.) Topic: War literature
How would I describe it?
Literature flourishes from war, specifically death, loss, pain and suffering, and this is evident in Wiesel’s The Night Trilogy: Night, Dawn, Day. When reading a war text, it is pivotal for readers to realize and understand that war literature wants one to understand the true meaning of war and its atrocities, which are the following: death, violence, cruel distress and the loss of hope.
2.) Statement of Purpose (My thesis statement)
The essential goal of my paper is to critically analyze Wiesel’s depictions of suffering, death, evil, and hope. Hence, forcing one to question why bad things happen to good people, specifically God’s devotees. In this paper, I will also genuinely describe how
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Relevance to my education/goals)
While writing this paper, as well as while presenting it orally, my overall goal is to present to my audience a different perspective on war literature. In other words, I want my audience to learn that war literature serves a coping mechanism for both those who have experienced war and for those who have simply experienced a similar suffering in life that forced he or she to question their faith and purpose in life. In fact, throughout my paper, I will describe how I encountered suffering on multiple occasions, as well as from time-to-time I began to question my faith and purpose in
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Frankl (Source)
6.) Did I write anything on my topic previously?
In my previous English and Religion classes at Felician, I have written about suffering, evil, death, and hope—based on course readings and personal experiences. For that reason, my goal is to expand my knowledge regarding war literature and its atrocities and the role of religion in one’s life.
7.) New ideas to expand my research
Perhaps I can include some type of psychological research in my paper, specifically on facing human suffering can affect one’s state-of-mind. This is something for me to keep in mind.
8.) Argument
In reference to my thesis statement, my argument revolves around explaining how war literature can lead to an open debate on suffering, death, evil, hope and the role of religion in one’s life.
9.) How might I conduct new research?
For my paper, research will be on-going. For that reason, throughout the research and writing process, I will keep track of my sources, a brief annotated bibliography. In fact, the essential purpose of the bibliography is to briefly describe the importance of my sources, specifically its relevance to my topic. To conclude, research will consist of looking for relevant scholarly sources and
Hicks, Patrick. "War, Literature and the Arts." War, Literature and the Arts. An International Journal of the Humanitie, n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2013. .
The tragedies of the holocaust forever altered history. One of the most detailed accounts of the horrific events from the Nazi regime comes from Elie Wiesel’s Night. He describes his traumatic experiences in German concentration camps, mainly Buchenwald, and engages his readers from a victim’s point of view. He bravely shares the grotesque visions that are permanently ingrained in his mind. His autobiography gives readers vivid, unforgettable, and shocking images of the past. It is beneficial that Wiesel published this, if he had not the world might not have known the extent of the Nazis reign. He exposes the cruelty of man, and the misuse of power. Through a lifetime of tragedy, Elie Wiesel struggled internally to resurrect his religious beliefs as well as his hatred for the human race. He shares these emotions to the world through Night.
The significance of night throughout the novel Night by Elie Wiesel shows a poignant view into the daily life of Jews throughout the concentration camps. Eliezer describes each day as if there was not any sunshine to give them hope of a new day. He used the night to symbolize the darkness and eeriness that were brought upon every Jew who continued to survive each day in the concentration camps. However, night was used as an escape from the torture Eliezer and his father had to endure from the Kapos who controlled their barracks. Nevertheless, night plays a developmental role of Elie throughout he novel.
But in truth a true war story will stir great feelings, but may not contain a moral at all. In fact, a true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing th...
Wiesel writes of their battle for survival, and with his battle with God for a
From sunrise to sunset, day after day, war demolishes men, cities, and hope. War has an effect on soldiers like nothing else, and sticks with them for life. The damage to a generation of men on both sides of the war was inestimable. Both the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, and the poem “I Have a Rendezvous with Death,” by Alan Seeger, demonstrate the theme of a lost generation of men, mentally and physically, in war through diction, repetition, and personification.
War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, written by the talented author Chris Hedges, gives us provoking thoughts that are somewhat painful to read but at the same time are quite personal confessions. Chris Hedges, a talented journalist to say the least, brings nearly 15 years of being a foreign correspondent to this book and subjectively concludes how all of his world experiences tie together. Throughout his book, he unifies themes present in all wars he experienced first hand. The most important themes I was able to draw from this book were, war skews reality, dominates culture, seduces society with its heroic attributes, distorts memory, and supports a cause, and allures us by a constant battle between death and love.
In Elie Wiesel’s Night, he recounts his horrifying experiences as a Jewish boy under Nazi control. His words are strong and his message clear. Wiesel uses themes such as hunger and death to vividly display his days during World War II. Wiesel’s main purpose is to describe to the reader the horrifying scenes and feelings he suffered through as a repressed Jew. His tone and diction are powerful for this subject and envelope the reader. Young readers today find the actions of Nazis almost unimaginable. This book more than sufficiently portrays the era in the words of a victim himself.
War novels deal, superficially, with war. But underneath all the blood and horror and carnage lie far deeper social and human issues. The best novels of war, such as Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front and Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, as well as Bao Ninh's The Sorrow of War, also deal with the makeup and morality of a culture or a society gone wrong. The protagonist of these books, whether real or fictional, often endures a harrowing personal struggle through both a public and private hell and usually undergoes some sort of redemption, even if that redemption results in death.
When an evil leader comes to power you would think it would be easy to overrun this leader and stop him in his tracks, but this is not always true. Elie Wiesel, a young teenager during the Holocaust is sent to many concentration camps. He sees the horror of what an evil power can do. As Elie Wiesel writes Night, he shows that in difficult times people stay silent and do not fight back, staying obedient to a powerful leader.
At first glance, Night, by Eliezer Wiesel does not seem to be an example of deep or emotionally complex literature. It is a tiny book, one hundred pages at the most with a lot of dialogue and short choppy sentences. But in this memoir, Wiesel strings along the events that took him through the Holocaust until they form one of the most riveting, shocking, and grimly realistic tales ever told of history’s most famous horror story. In Night, Wiesel reveals the intense impact that concentration camps had on his life, not through grisly details but in correlation with his lost faith in God and the human conscience.
The three narratives “Home Soil” by Irene Zabytko, “Song of Napalm” by Bruce Weigl, and “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen all have the same feelings of war and memory, although not everyone experiences the same war. Zabytko, Weigl, and Owen used shifting beats, dramatic descriptions, and intense, painful images, to convince us that the horror of war far outweighs the devoted awareness of those who fantasize war and the memories that support it.
The physical effects of war overwhelm the naïve causing pain and suffering. Initially, war entangles the lives of youth, destroying the innocence that they experience as an aspect of their life. The girl “glid[ing] gracefully down the path” (1) and the boy “rid[ing] eagerly down the road” (9) have their enjoyable realities striped by the harshness of war. Likewise, war enters women’s lives creating turmoil. The woman who works “deftly in the fields” ( ) no longer is able to experience the offerings of life. The “wire cuts,” ( ) pushing her away from the normal flow of life. In addition, man undergoes tragic obstacles as a result of war. “A man walks nobly and alone” ( ) before the horrible effects of war set in on his life causing disruptions. War enters the life of man destroying the bond man shares with his beloved environment ( ).
Throughout their lives, people must deal with the horrific and violent side of humanity. The side of humanity is shown through the act of war. This is shown in Erich Remarque’s novel, “All Quiet on the Western Front”. War is by far the most horrible thing that the human race has to go through. The participants in the war suffer irreversible damage by the atrocities they witness and the things they go through.
Faith, for most people is considered an unbreakable bond that one can always fall back on. However, when someone experiences war in all of its ugly forms, their faith is almost always called into question. Whereas Marjane and Elie’s formerly strong beliefs are now a faint and distant hum, Amir’s faith is strong on after his rescue of Sohrab. Because of this, Amir is able to rediscover the faith that had driven him as a young child, whereas Marjane and Elie view their faith as a part of their childhood innocence. These characters’ experiences with faith show how experiences in war can heavily alter what people hold in high regard, in this case, their faith.