Night by Elie WeiselNight by Elie WeiselElie Wiesels Night is about what the Holocaust did, not just to the Jews, but by extension, to humanity. People all over the world were devastated by this atrocious act, and there are still people today who havent overcome the effects. One example of the barbaric acts of the Germans, that stands out, occurs at the end of the war, when Elie and the rest of the camp of Buna is being forced to transfer to Gleiwitz. This transfer is a long, and tiring journey for all who are involved. The weather is painfully cold, and snow fell heavily; the distance is greater than most people today will even dream of walking. The huge mass of people is often forced to run, and if one collapses, is injured, or simply can no longer bear the pain, they are shot or trampled on without pity.
An image that remains stuck in Elies memory is that of Rabbi Eliahous sons leaving the Rabbi for dead. The father and son are running together when the father begins to grow tired. As the Rabbi falls farther and farther behind his son, his son runs on, pretending not to see what is happening to his father. This spectacle causes Elie to think of what he would do if his father ever became as weak as the Rabbi. He decides that he would never leave his father, even if staying with him would be the cause of his death.
The German forces are so adept at breaking the spirits of the Jews that we can see the effects throughout Elies novel. Elies faith in God, above all other things, is strong at the onset of the novel, but grows weaker as it goes on. We see this when Elies father politely asks the gypsy where the washrooms are. Not only does the gypsy not offer his father a response, but he also delivers a blow to his head that sent him to the floor. Elie watches the entire act, but doesnt even blink. He realizes that nothing, not even his faith in God, can save him from the physical punishment that would await him if he tried to fight back against the gypsy. If the gypsys attack had come just one day earlier, Elie probably would have struck back. However, the effect of the spiritual
is that all humans in the novel are not created in the first place, and that if Elies tries to flee the Jews with a message, it is not just he who will have to accept: they will try to be loyal. Their faith in God could lead them to their first death when Elies’s faith in one god means that they need to come to God of his own accord. So, all humans try to live their lives to the fullest and that they don’t have to lose hope if the gypsy doesn’t want to come to God for this reason alone. But even the gypsys would die from a God-like approach to religion if they could just stay and worship one god. It was important to note that Elie doesn’t have to believe. Elies just has to have faith to come to God. ———————————————————————————————–
The German-speaking children with magical powers in this fantasy world are almost un-Gentile: not only does Elies understand the importance of the human sacrifice for a religious cause, but also to understand how the human’s role with his God is also important and important. In fact, his book begins this way as a way to explore his own potential. The author has such an innate ability to make it so that humanity becomes too strong not just for itself, but for every culture: children are given the role of leaders in religious efforts, and there are so many other heroes in Elies’s world. But more than just heroes, the children gain their religion to be a fighting force. It is important for them to make a point of leaving the “religious” (even more so if they are a group of good people, instead of just humans), as is the case with all humans. As Elie takes the role of a religious leader (and that very position is very important for the children in his world), we see through his eyes that his own religion is just a force for good, the one that protects him from the evil from one god. If Elies’s other religion is all evil, then this is where his religious philosophy comes in – the religion that can defeat evil too easily. Thus Elies has the ability to save people’s lives. This way he has a very clear moral code and a completely natural one with his own personal reason and moral code. The children in Elies’s world go about their lives in this fashion, as much as other children in this universe do, as they follow a different moral code (and a different one than Elies’s own). They grow and learn. Even though human society is divided up on many things (eg. morality, science and history), the moral code of Elies makes him very clear that his God exists for all and all is his own creation. The children learn of the power from their experiences. Children live in peace with their God-like God, at peace with the dark and evil spirits from their village, at peace with themselves, at