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Graham Fenn

Ms. Vitello

11th Adv. Comp

11hiwelcometochilis December, 2017

Creating a Vaccine Against Tyranny

Few works hold a more personal view of history than Elie Wiesel's Night. This memoir

goes in graphic detail of the unlivable conditions of below freezing nights without blankets,

carting bodies by the hundreds out of barracks because of hypothermia, the abusive nature of the

Nazi overseers, and the twisted things that affected the mental state of the prisoners. Out of

desperation, the prisoners eventually take on the demeanor of the Nazis who run the camps. They

murder others for food and fathers are beaten or abandoned by their sons because they are

dragging them down. Even young Elie began to resent his father because of his growing

weakness. The graphic nature of Night makes it hotly debated within the education community,

with the main question being whether it should be used as a resource for teaching because the

student mind possibly cannot handle the imagery, while other educators believe it might

desensitize them. Night should be used as a learning tool because it gives students a first-person

view of terrible circumstances, where morale can mean the difference between life and death;

students utilize knowledge of these atrocities, so they will possibly prevent them in the future.

There is certainly no shortage of disturbing imagery in Night. Moishe the Beadle and

young Elie became very close. This relationship is felt more intimately by the readers because of

the first-person language Wiesel uses, and it is made more painful when Moishe comes back,

describing scenes of Jews digging trenches (their own graves) and infants [being] tossed in to

the air and used as targets for the machine guns (6). This image by itself is enough to make a
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reader sick, which is the exact reaction it is meant to invoke. While there are issues with the

graphic nature of this text from an academic standpoint because it is either too gruesome or if it

desensitizes the reader, the main goal is to show what terrible things transpire. The

characterization of Moishe makes the reader care for him even more. His wide, dreamy eyes

(3) no longer hold their life, extinguished by his trauma, nobody even acknowledging his

warnings, the sense of dramatic irony is nearly unbearable, which further adds to the idea of

empathy.

Night teaches that a single person can incite determination, or break a groups already

waning resolve. The boy who is executed for drinking the unattended soup during the air raid

was made a martyr by sacrificing himself. His demeanor is that of a hero. No panic, no dread,

just a stone face of solemn determination. The cries of [his] curse to Germany! (62) echo

through the appelplatz. Wiesel claims the soup is more delicious than ever before, this is

symbolic of what the boy sacrificed himself for. An opposite, but equally powerful effect is seen

in the execution of a pipel. Upon his execution, there is a universal pain in the air. Not because

anyone would miss him, but because he is the only thing of beauty in the camps. Even the

Lagercapo couldn't stand to act as executioner. The pleas for God are unanswered, for he is

hanging [there] from [the] gallows (65).

Night is a horrifyingly potent book, and it is understandable that it is so heavily debated

in education. Even the most fortified students shudder at the emotion and imagery Night has to

offer. Thinking about it this way; educators should not subject students to such a crushing

memoir, but the message is not the violence itself; the message is learning to stand up for what

you believe in. Wiesel challenges each reader to always take sides. Neutrality helps the

oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." (Nobel
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peace prize acceptance speech, 1986). This is all encompassing, neutrality and silence is what

stopped the Jews in Elies town from listening to Moishes life-saving advice. The opposite is

seen in the nameless boys execution, where he took initiative by drinking the unattended soup

and becoming a martyr for the Jewish people and bringing hope to the survivors. It is crushed

soon after by the pipels execution, showing peril can spread just as quickly as hope. The

concepts of taking moral sides and inspiring others cannot be taught with academic learning

alone, it must be taught through immersion in the form of sports or after school clubs. Night is

there for the kids who are uninterested in such activities or may learn from reading better than

other activities. Teachers, to give students a more complete learning experience, should have

Night in their syllabus.

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Works Cited

Elie Wiesel - Acceptance Speech. Nobelprize.org,

www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1986/wiesel-acceptance_en.html.

Wiesel, Elie, and Marion Wiesel. Night. Hill and Wang, a Division of Farrar, Straus and

Giroux, 2017.