Tragedy in "Night"

Book Review # 119438

Holocaust Studies
Literature

Tragedy in "Night"

An analysis of the impact of events on the tragic life of Eli Weisel in his novel "Night".

1,015 words () | 0 sources | 2010 Canada

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how Elie Wiesel's timeless holocaust story, "Night", is a poignant and powerful work. In particular, the paper explores the tragic events of the main character's life, and how they changed the character, Numerous direct quotations from the novel are used in the paper.

From the Paper:

" The terrible events slowly had an impact on Elie's way of thinking and more abruptly changed him from an innocent boy to a worldly man. At his home, he had seemed very naive about what was happening in the world around him such as the idea of a war and the thought that Hitler simply could not annihilate all the Jews. He too, believed that 'Hitler will not be able to harm us, even if he wants to' (8). Obviously the citizens realized how terribly mistaken they were as they were led to the ghetto and then shipped to concentration camps. He lost his pacifistic nature when they were forced to leave by the Hungarian police. Elie wrote, 'that was when I began to hate them, and my hatred remains our only link today. They were our first oppressors. They were the first faces of hell and death' (19). Death and destruction always affect our outlook on our own life. As soon as we are aware of such a terrible power in the world, we begin to see and fear it. Innocence is definitely bliss for Elie. "