Book Review: Night by Elie Wiesel
The book under consideration entitled Night written by Elie Wiesel is an example of autobiographical writing, as it renders the core historical facts about the witness of the Holocaust tragedy in the anthropological context. The reading reveals the changes in the relationship, as well as in the mindset of the oppressed people who are unfairly treated. The horror of terror depicted in the story makes the readers think of the history, as well as prevents the humankind of making the same mistakes in the future. Although Elie Wiesel does not recognize the Holocaust literature as a genre itself, the memoir Night is anthropologically relevant, as it conveys the reasons of the irreversible changes in the human character, as well as assists the readers in understanding the concepts of human universalism, adaptation, culture, and cross-cultural comparisons.
Book Overview
The book Night is about the Nazi regime that resulted in the Holocaust and ended the lives of many Jewish people. Elizer, one of the main characters, is brought up in a very strict and traditional orthodox Jewish family. The tutor Moshe the Beadle, a handyman at the synagogue, helps the boy to study Talmud and Cabbala. Once, Moshe is captured by the Hungarian police and handed over to the secret police in Germany. Fortunately, he manages to escape and tells everyone in the city of the horrors he faced in Gestapo. Neither Wiesel nor anyone in the community believes him though be the spring of 1944 all of them are forced to realize that it was truth. Next day all of the Jewish citizens, including the Wiesel’s family, are deported to Auschwitz.
After the arrival to the concentration camp called Birkenau, the core beliefs and principles recognized by Elizer before become blurred. Such changes are evoked by the inhuman conditions that he faced, and the endless number of deaths that he saw. First, their family is separated, as the women and the man had to walk in the different directions after the arrival, so he never saw his mother and sister again. After Elizer watches as the babies are thrown into a fiery pit, his faith becomes weak and the boy questions the existence of God. Buna is the next concentration camp Elizer and his father are handed over. At this point, the boy notices that he does not perceive the things around him in the way he used to, “I watched and kept silent. Only yesterday, I would have dug my nails into this criminal’s flesh. Had I changed that much?” (Wiesel 23). Such alternations start to aggravate and the Elizer comes to the conclusion that if such cruelty and suffering exist in the world, the God must have been murdered himself. Therefore, the main character rebels when the majority of the Jewish people come to bless God at the end of summer in 1944.
On the way to Buchenwald, another concentration camp Elizer and his father are moved into, the relationship between the members of the family …
