The Night Essay, Research Paper
The Night by Elie Weisel is a non fiction auto-biography. His special qualification for writing this is that he lived through it. He has won the Nobel Peace Prize, and he has written Dawn, The Accident, and The Town Beyond the Wall. He won the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in improving the living conditions and promoting the understanding and acceptance of Jews around the world. I am not sure if this is a recent publication or a classic, but it was copyrighted in 1960. The book is organized in chronological order, it starts at the beginning of the war and when he is leaving for the concentration camp, and it ends when he is leaving the camp and is saved. The author?s topic is the Holocaust. His main ideas are the events that occurred in his life during that year. He tells the happenings of someone living through the Holocaust as a Jew in a concentration camp.
He starts the book by giving a quick overview of his childhood. He tells of the important people in his life, and he says the tips he got about what was to come that he had ignored. His siblings were ??There were four of us children: Hilda, the eldest; then Bea; I was the third, and the only son; the baby of the family was Tzipora?? He had not gotten along so well with his father during his childhood. Someone he knew, named Moshe the Beadle, was the first one from his community who got a taste of the war. He came back to tell everyone about it and to warn them, but they ignored him. ?? ?Jews, listen to me. It?s all I ask of you. I don?t want money or pity. Only listen to me.??? he would cry out. Not even Eliezer believed him though. He would listen to be polite, and to give him a chance, but it didn?t seem realistic to him. They finally realized their mistake when Eliezer?s father got the news of deportation. ?? ?I have terrible news,? he said at last, ?Deportation.??? which began they?re terrible times and torture.
Next he tells about the trip to the concentration camp. When they got to the first place, everyone?s head got shaved and they got branded a number. They separated the men and women to begin. Eliezer felt a new connection to his father, he knew that he could not lose him. ??My hand shifted on my father?s arm. I had one thought-not to lose him. Not to be left alone??. He had lost his mother and sisters, his father was all he had left, and he would never let go.
At the concentration camps the lies began. They told them to change their ages when they got asked. ???I?m not quite fifteen yet.? ?No. Eighteen.? ?But I?m not,? I said. ?Fifteen.? ?Fool. Listen to what I say.???. Then they told his father to say that he was forty instead of fifteen. Although they were there to keep the Jews under control, many of the guards were trying to keep them alive and teach them the rules. Eliezer and everyone else saw the chimneys that were for burning the people that seemed to be of no use to them. He saw the torture that almost became immune to him as time passed and it happened more often. He began to lose his faith. ?? ?What are You, my God,? I thought angrily, ?compared to this afflicted crowd proclaiming to You their faith, their anger, their revolt? What does Your greatness mean, Lord of the universe, in the face of all this weakness, this decomposition, and this decay? Why do You still trouble their sick minds, their crippled bodies????.
Then came the time that Eliezer?s foot became frost bitten. It began to swell from the cold weather. After he was operated on, he had the choice of either staying at the hospital while the rest of his concentration camp left for a new place, or to go along with them. If he stayed at the hospital he might be rescued by the Russians, but it also had a chance of being bombed by the Germans. He decided to leave and take his chances that way. ??I learned after the war the fate of those who had stayed behind in the hospital. They were quite simply liberated by the Russians two days after the evacuation??
On April 10 they were saved when the American troops came and took charge of the camp. They had survived so much pain, but they finally got a relief. ??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.?
I definitely think that this book is good for the list. I actually feel that it teaches such a strong lesson that it should be read by everyone. It was true, which got the effect out more, but it was also descriptive enough to bring you into the story and their lives. The only problem with the book was that it was not long enough. When I got to the end, I was not ready to finish it. I wanted to know more. It is even a book that can be read over and over again and still have the same intensity as the first time. It is a must.