Taylor Davis

AP English 5th hour

December 12th, 2014
Night by Elie Wiesel
Watching grown men shoot target practice at new born babies
and witnessing the murder of your father all right in front of your eyes
at the age of 15 is exactly how Id want to spend my life. Getting
tortured everyday, losing everything youve ever had - your clothes,
your friends, your family, your hair, your name- all because your
religion is different than whos would destroy many peoples innocent
faith. Basically, the killers come to kill and the victims come to die. This
event would be known as the Holocaust, which is the killing of six
million Jews by the Nazis during World War II. Elie Wiesel was a 15 yearold Jewish boy that was tortured through the majority of his teenage
years in concentration camps. However, through his agonizing
experience, he never lost his faith in his religion, he was always a
believer in humanity, and he always showed such strength. Due to
these important characteristics, Elie was able to become the incredible
man he is today.
Elie Wiesel was born and raised in Sighet, Transylvania. He was a
very strong believer in the Jewish religion. When put through such an
excruciating experience, the young boys mind became very disturbed
and lost. When Elie, or as hes referred to in his memoir Eliezer, gets

taken by the Nazis, he loses every possession hes ever owned other
than what he is wearing and the gold tooth in his mouth. Then, at the
concentration camp, he is split up from his mother and sister, never to
see them again. Later, his clothes are removed from him, his head is
shaved, and he no longer has a name, but a number. Elie was no
longer Eliezer, but he was A-7713. Later on in the memoir, He watches
the Nazis beat his father to death right in front of his very own two
eyes. Elie just watches, doesnt say a word, and doesnt move a
muscle; he just watches. However, in all these moments where hes
watching everything he has ever had get taken from him, he prays.
Elie hopes. He questions, Where is God in all this? but thats almost
what makes him keep his faith. By questioning where God is, means he
still believes that there is a God and that he is somewhere out there.
He even says, I have not lost faith in God. I have moments of anger
and protest. Sometimes I've been closer to him for that reason. Even
after going through hell and back, he never loses his faith in religion.
As well as never losing faith in his religion, Wiesel also never lost
his faith in humanity. People all over the world were devastated by the
atrocious holocaust, and there are still people today who havent
overcome the terrible effects. The Jews were all seeing their parents,
siblings, cousins, neighbors, even strangers tortured until they could
no longer continue their life. The bond of a father and son is unlike
anyone else. They almost seem to understand each other without even

having to say a word. In Night, the prisoners are all forced to transfer
to another camp, Gleiwitz. This long and painful journey takes place in
the middle of winter. The large mass of people is often forced to run
and if they stop, they are trampled or shot. While running, Elie Wiesel
notices a father and son running together, but the father begins to
grow tired and lose his endurance. The son continues to run, ignoring
his father fall further and further behind, causing Elie to think what he
would do if his father ever became as weak as the Rabbi did.
Eventually, he decides that he would never leave his father, even if
staying with him would be the cause of his death. Ironically, in the
memoir, Elie witnesses his father take several blows by the Nazis and
doesnt even blink. This causes readers to think that he has lost his
humanity. Unfortunately, not even faith in God can save anyone from
the physical attacks. However, he is always having hope that one day
humanity will be able to bring them out of this crazed world theyre all
trapped in. A father and son bond is so incredibly special that nothing
should ever be able to break it, not even concentration camps and
little men with big guns. Remembering humanity helped Elie realize
what was really important, and that was keeping him and his father
together as long as possible.
Strength is a relative concept. Some people are physically strong,
some are emotionally strong, some are mentally strong, and others are
weak. Elie watches a young boy with an innocent face get hanged

because he was said to be involved in the destroying of a German

building. Unlike the other victims who were hanged, the boys neck
doesnt break right away, and he is left to suffer for a half-hour until he
is suffocated. This boy shows physical strength. He had been fighting
for his life while dangling from his death. This is very similar to the
strength of the Jews. They fought until the final moment of their life.
From beginning to end, they fought for everything they had. Elie keeps
fighting for his life through the entire camps and then even after that.
After the Holocaust, most survivors cant even think about those
memories or they go insane. He shows strength by just being able to
survive the death camps. It is absolutely incredible the strength he had
in him to create such a horribly touching memoir that described every
little detail of his experience even when readers didnt want to think
people could be that cruel.
Elie Wiesel has incorporated a language to help his readers feel
exactly what he felt and see exactly what he saw. Imagery was used by
Wiesel to explain the pain and torture that was seen through his eyes.
For example, Wiesel writes, Babies were thrown into the air and
machine gunners used them as targets. The purpose of this particular
quote was to try to reach the emotion of the reader on a sympathetic
yet disgusting level. Throughout the book, he often uses descriptions
that make the reader feel uncomfortable and often question why they
decided to read this memoir. A perfect example would have to be when

his father was beaten by his neighbors and then later by the guards.
Elie saw his father get beaten to death. He says, I stayed gazing at
him for over an hour, engraving into myself the picture of his bloodstained face, his shattered skull. He was talking about his own father. I
think that Elies main purpose of including this description was to really
make you understand how hard it was to just think straight. If anyone
saw their father getting beat in front of them, theyd step in. However,
the Nazis and the whole situation put you in a such a fragile and blank
state of mind that you couldnt realize what was happening right in
front of you. Another rhetorical device used would be foreshadowing. In
the memoir, Madame Schchter cried out saying, Jews, listen to me! I
can see a fire! There are huge flames! It is a furnace. This was
foreshadowing the furnace that held thousands of burning bodies.
There was also a very important simile later on in the book. It stated,
The days were like nights. The whole meaning behind Night is that
when the sun goes down and darkness fills the sky, there would be
suffering and a world without God. The darkness often caused Wiesels
questioning of faith and tried to understand where God was in all of
this.
One day I was able to get up, after gathering all my strength. I
wanted to see myself in the mirror hanging on the opposite wall. I had
not seen myself since the ghetto. From the depths of the mirror, a
corpse gazed back at me. The look in his eyes, as they stared into

mine, has never left me. This way the final statement about the
Holocaust that Elie makes in Night. His corpse is just his body, for he
has been robbed of his soul. He was still physically alive but he was
robbed of his mind and spirit a long time ago. Even though he has lost
most of his faith in God and the rest of humanity, the little bit remains
really shows his strength and eventually he overcomes those
obstacles.