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Elie Wiesel’s Night is a novel which describes a horrible experience of the war imprisonment during World War II. Elie Wiesel, the author and main character, explains some things that happened before the Nazis took control of his little village called ‘Sighet’ in Hungary. Wiesel begins to describe a few little things, before the horrific story, about what he did during his time as a young teenager, the people he would hang around and more. Elie has a lot of motivation in this section of the text even though the Nazi soldiers hadn’t taken control yet, his motivation is his faith as ‘By day [he] studied Talmud and by night [he] would run to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple’. Relationships play a small role in this section but it is still in there; Elie was the only male child in his family out of four children (poor kid). Elie was born into a Jewish family which gives Faith an important role in this section. Before being captured by the Nazis and taken to the ghettos, he would go and pray/weep over the Temple’s destruction; but he didn’t know why. ‘ “Why do you cry when you pray?” he asked, as though he knew me well… “why do you pray?” ‘
Page 86-87
Through this section of the book, Elie faced both physical and mental hardships. He had to run for miles and miles in the freezing snow with his injured foot. But he kept on going, fighting with his body every single step of the way and didn’t stop because he knew if he were to stop, he was going to get trampled and die. He strugged with his mind, as it was for and againsts survival. He kept repeating to himself “…Don’t think, don’t stop, run!” to make sure he made it through. But he also thought about death that it was so close to him, he ‘could touch it’ and that he actually wouldn’t mind dying. Elie had to keep on going, although because of his father, Elie had said ‘I was his sole support…’. Relationships play a significant role in survival because for Elie, the fact that he was still with his father kept him alive. His father was his motivation and hope to keep going. “My father’s presence was the only thing that stopped me…”- that stopped Elie thinking about death. He also knew that his father could not survive without him, so he did not give up.
Page 71
‘Lets stay together. It will make us stronger’
In section 24 of ‘Night’ Elie is first faced with the reality of a new year. This not only is a crucial moment in his journey throughout the concentration camp but also in his faith, as it is the moment that the pressures of his need to survive begin to overshadow his desire to believe in a God that contradicted everything he new about the life he had once devoted himself to. Through freeing himself from the ‘life [he] had been bound to for so long’, Elie was able to focus solely on his survival as he was now ‘the accuser and God the accused’. However due to Elie being separated into a new Kommando the reality of surviving with no faith and no father meant that he had to use his relationship with Tibi and Yossi as the driving force to survive selection. This is an important part of several journeys through the book as it is a clear moment where staying together and supporting each other enabled Elie, Tibi and Yossi to thrive in such a vulnerable moment.
Page 87
Through page 87 of his novel, Elie Wiesel poetically describes humanity’s ability of perseverance and the power that comes with it in his reflections during a death march. Despite the struggles he and his fellow Jews face as they are “Chilled to the bone, our throats parched, famished [and] out of breath”, it is in spite of these circumstances and the resistance of temptation to “be swept away by blind fate” where he continues to endure the death march. Through this physical perseverance, they mentally transcend the racial superiority enacted by the Nazis who are “replaced” while “no one replaced” the Jews. This power makes them “masters” over “death, fatigue…natural needs…cold and hunger, stronger than the guns and the desire to die”. Their strength comes from their ability to be stripped of nothing, be “doomed and restless” and “nothing but numbers” but can still be able to press on.
Page 63
Passage: “I remember that on that evening, the soup tasted better than ever…”
This passage is taken from after Ellie witnesses his first hanging in the camp. He describes it as “upset[ting] him deeply” regardless of the thousands who died daily in the very camps.
The passage regarding the soup that the prisoners receive after the hanging is used to show Elie’s appreciation of the life he still has. The line “the soup tasted better than ever” represents his thankfulness to still receive something that had seemed so bland before.
Also, in Elie’s eyes, this hanging was not as saddening as the hanging of pipel in the following passages of the book. Both the old man and the Polish boy had done wrongs to deserve the punishments they received whereas the pipel was an innocent boy who had done nothing wrong to deserve his fate.
In this section, Elie had just witnessed that hanging of a small boy. This, and all that had happened to him since then, became too much and he began to question the relevance and existence of God. He was in conflict within himself on whether he wanted to worship a god who has,“Chosen us to be butchered on Thine alter.”
He has no motivation to survive and no determination to worship. “Why, but why should I bless Him? In every fibre I rebelled.”
The relationship he had with the other Jews may have been the determining factor which made him keep his faith and what motivated him to survive. That relationship may have also hindered him, as seeing friends die would discourage worship and survival.
Having faith can give you motivation to survive, but having faith also gives you the chance to lose it, thus losing your chances of survival. Faith also gives a person hope and without hope, survival is near impossible.
