Analysis of Themes in Night by Elie Wiesel

Analysis of Themes in Night by Elie Wiesel

‘Night,’ a book by Elie Wiesel, is a comprehensive memoir denoting the experiences of the author during the holocaust. Wiesel was barely eighteen at the time. The story, which is a word by word manuscript, details the inhumanity that the officials in the Nazi displayed towards the Jewish people during the holocaust. It also denoted their struggle to triumph over these challenges. The book embraces an inspirational approach by prodding audiences to aim to learn from their past in their effort to enhance their future experiences. This situation is imminent through the denotation of the author’s triumphs over his adversities. Overall, Wiesel’s memoir denotes mostly the pain and horror of his past, which help to bring out themes such as inhumanity, violence, and death that transcended the period. On the upside, however, it also conveys the message of hope through themes such as religion and faith. Finally, it embraces the theme of family and friends to denote the relevance of the human social engagements, in enhancing their living experience. This paper aims to explore the themes in ‘Night’ and analyze their importance in conveying the messages intended by the author.

Religion – The possession and loss of belief in God

It is impossible not to notice the theme of faith and religion spread throughout the entire text. It manifests through the character’s engagement in religious practices, including prayer and the recitation of scripture. On the same wavelength, they also displayed a loss of their faith. It resulted from their perception of the failure of God to save them from the atrocities met against them by the Nazis.

In the book, Wiesel reveals that when he was a boy, he was always conscious of the spiritual world. Mainly, he yearned to understand the inner workings of mysticism. Hence, the author developed a relationship with Moshe the Beadle, who displayed a little knowledge of Kabbalism. Wiesel explained that he felt attracted to the knowledge of God. As he continued to grow older, Wiesel began to see sense in the words of Moshe in which he learned that he could only find answers by examining his soul (Wiesel 10). These denotations signaled his belief in the existing God and his yearning to practice religion, hence affirming the theme of religion.

Religion also manifests in the text through the depiction of the prayerfulness of Wiesel’s father. For instance, while in captivity, the SS officers told Wiesel and his father that they, too, would meet their death. However, his father remained resilient and continued to pray for the blessings and mercy of God (Wiesel, 70). This endeavor denoted their practice of religion. Other prisoners, such as Akiba, also held such stances. Mainly, they too would engage in continual prayer while in captivity, hoping that God would intervene and rescue them from their misery. This stance conveyed his strong belief in the existence of a Supreme being who he hoped could free them from their suffering. It signaled their knowledge and engagement with religion.

The text also explored the loss of faith among both Wiesel and the other captives. It emerged due to the suffering they endured at the camp. For instance, Wiesel’s relationship with his religion and God hit the rocks when he witnessed the plight of the Jewish people of Sighet. This incident profoundly challenged his belief. Mainly, Wiesel could not comprehend how God, who he always perceived as Supreme and all-powerful could permit the ambush and killing of his people during the holocaust (Wiesel 7). This situation signaled his loss of faith. As the conditions in the camp grew worse, the more that Wiesel’s faith in God continued to wane. In the text, Wiesel questioned how he could revere and speak praise to God when he stood and witnessed “children burned in his pits” (Wiesel 55). He denoted how such events made every inch in him rebel the idea of the existence of God, which further indicated his loss of faith.

The theme of the loss of religion also manifests through the display of the same among the masses. In the text, Wiesel attests to how he noted the despair of the people led their faith to wane. For instance, he told the story of Akiba, who, in the beginning, could go on unceasingly with his conversations with God. Mostly, Akiba would recite pages of Talmud and implore God to bless him with his presence that would help him see sense in all that was happening. However, when God met all his imploring with silence, he slowly and painfully confessed to Wiesel that “it’s the end. God is no longer with us (Wiesel, 62).” This despair afflicted the entire camp. For instance, the author remembered how he once heard a captive crying out loud asking, “where is God?” (Wiesel, 7). This declaration further signaled the loss of faith among the masses. It arose from the cruelty that they suffered in the hands of the Nazi soldiers during the holocaust.

In the end, however, Wiesel turned back to religion. This situation was evident in their rush to freedom when he prayed to God to give him the strength to hold onto his father. In the moments before, Wiesel mostly took God’s silence to mean that God abandoned the people of Sighel at their time of critical need. However, when an opportune moment came for them to be free, he could not think of anyone else that could give him and his father the strength to move quickly towards their freedom aside from God. This situation further attested to his religious belief in God, hence displaying the manifestation of the theme in the text.

Dehumanization, Violence, and Death

The theme of dehumanization, violence, and death are also impossible to miss in this book. Right from the minute Wiesel and his father entered Auschwitz, the air, the people, and the environment seemed horrific. The author denoted in the text how they met the stench of burnt human flesh while in captivity nearly every dawn. Mainly, their captors set them ablaze in crematories if they failed to deliver their work as expected. In one incidence, the author denoted an SS officer reminding them that in Auschwitz, they had to work or burn in a crematory (Wiesel 22). This denotation conveyed the lack of humanity among the soldiers. It depicted how the captors had to embrace the reality of death since they remained indispensable if they failed to deliver as expected.

In further exploring the theme of dehumanization and death, the text also denoted how the SS officers conducted selections periodically to single out captives that they believed were burdensome. After that, they prepared them for burning in the crematories. These incidences displayed how they viewed human life as valueless. It also revealed how death was an everyday occurrence which the captives struggled to contend. Mainly, their environment greeted them each day with the stench of burned human flesh, which signaled to death as imminent.

Dehumanization, violence, and death also manifested through the decision by the SS officers to subject innocent babies to imminent torture and death. For instance, upon his escape and return to Sighel, Moshe, the Beadle, narrated how he once witnessed the soldiers flinging babies into the air and gunning them down with their machines (Wiesel 11). This tale seems too horrific that Moshe’s audience begins to doubt him. The audience even began to denote Moshe as mad every time he recounted the incident. It led most to wonder at the cruelty of the soldiers, which led them to engage babies in such violent and torturous deaths without a shred of care or emotion. This situation further denoted their inclination to dehumanization humans, which led them to find no fault in subjecting them to needless violence and death.

As Wiesel moved from camp and camp, he attested in the text that the air smelled the same in all camps. Wiesel attested that their environment smelt of the same wretchedness and death. In the piece, the author denoted that dying became a blessing, which helped to rid one of the sufferings they had to go through every day. This situation further displayed the normalization of death in this society during the holocaust, hence denoting to the theme.

The theme of violence and dehumanization also manifested in the authors’ recount of how they received more blows than food (Wiesel 63). Wiesel attested that in living at the Nazi concentration camps where they only took soup and black coffee and committed to a hard day’s work, a day seldom ended without an escalation of insults from the officers, which culminated in violence. Also, the officials stripped them of their dignity when they employed Dr. Mengel to brand them like animals to foster their identity among the officers. This situation denoted to dehumanization.

Friendship and Family

The theme of love between friends and family also covers a significant part of the text. Right from the beginning, the villagers lived in harmony and consulted together about their welfare, especially with the imminent danger. During the mayhem in transporting these people to Auschwitz, people only drew consolation in holding on to fellow members of their families. However, families also became broken when the officials of the Nazis separated them by moving members to different camps. Through the pain and suffering, the Jewish found relief in their friendships, which encouraged them to help out one another where possible. Their endeavors signaled the existence of the theme in the text.

The theme of family was also evident in the relationship between Wiesel and his father. Although the duo tried to suppress their emotions in the camp to avoid further separation and punishment, the relationship between son and father stood their trials. The pair learned to rely on one another for strength and encouragement. For instance, when Wiesel’s father realizes his time might be near, he offers a token of inheritance to his son, which included a spoon and a knife. His father deemed them as suitable weapons of self-defense that Wiesel could use if needed (Wiesel 62). This gesture further denoted the love between the father and his son. In the moments before their freedom, fate tested the relationship between Wiesel and his father when it led him to contemplate leaving him behind to save himself. Mainly, Wiesel thought his father was burdensome and would only slow him down. However, he opted instead to return to God and pray for strength as he does not want to turn his back on his dad like the son of Rabbi Eliahou. This gesture further denoted the relevance that the Jewish attached to their family relations during the period.

Conclusion

The book, ‘Night,’ by Elie Wiesel, employs several themes that ensure the author delivers his message to the reader. Chief among them is religion. It permeates a significant part of the text. In conveying the theme, Wiesel touches on both the display and loss of faith by the Jewish. It resulted due to their perception of the failure of God to respond to their plight. This situation was because they suffered violence, dehumanization, and death while at the camp without any hope of restitution. The atrocities pushed them to despair and begin to doubt the existence of God, which denoted their loss of faith. In spite of these outcomes, the Jewish relished in the closeness they found in family and friends. These relationships helped them to display hope in their ability to triumph over these trials in the end.

Work Cited

Wiesel, Elie. “Night.” Internet Archive, N.d. Accessed. November 25, 2019.

https://archive.org/stream/night_by_elie_wiesel_/night_by_elie_wiesel__djvu.txt 62/91