Elie Wiesel Reflection

As the story progressed, so did Elie as a character. For example, On page 54 Wiesel states, “What’s more, if I felt anger at that moment, it was not directed at the Kapo but at my father. Why couldn’t he have avoided Idek’s wrath? That was life in a concentration camp had made me…” Instead of pointing the finger at the Kapo, who is truly at fault, Elie lames his father for getting beat up. He knows that the anger should be flipped around, but can’t help but to feel this way because of what the camp has made of him. This is surprising because earlier in the book he had always showed a caring tone to his father. However, as life gets harder, his anger/resentment towards his dad grows. This trait is noticeable from the fact that Elie was constantly angry and blaming someone for something. This piece of evidence helps show that the concentration camp has turned Elie into an angry person. As times get ever worse Elie begins to questions why he would bless God

In the past many horrific events have happened that many people choose not to believe. One of those events was the Holocaust. Millions of innocent people died during this tragedy, but what about the people who survived? How did this affect them? A survivor, Elie Wiesel, wrote about his experience during the Holocaust, and how it changed him as a person. In his book “Night”, the main character Elie went to the concentration camp Auschwitz. Throughout the story, he gained new character traits that he carried for the rest of his life.

The Holocaust began around 1933 when Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany and leader of the Nazi Party. During that time, the first concentration camp, Dachau, was established to torture and kill Jewish people. Soon after, in 1935, Nuremberg Race Laws against Jews were decreed and depriving Jews of German citizenship. Germany then invaded Poland, starting World War II in Europe. With the start of World War II came many more concentration camps, and millions of deaths. Six million European Jews lost their lives during this horrific time. Many survivors shared their stories after they were freed, so that the world would know of the horrors they experienced. Elie Wiesel, a survivor of the Holocaust, told his story in his book, Night. Elie Wiesel was a teenager during the Holocaust, but lived on into his eighties and continued to speak out against what the Nazi’s did to his family.

Before Elie went to Auschwitz, he exhibited many positive character traits. (Such as Compassion, Depressed, and Friendly. An example of compassion that Elie showed before was on page 5 that said, “And Moishe the Beadle, the poorest of the poor of Sighet, spoke to me for hours on end about the Kabbalah’s revelations and its mysteries. Thus began my initiation. Together we would read, over and over against, the same page of the Zohar. Not to learn it by heart but to discover within the very essence of divinity”(Wiesel). How he shows compassion is, Elie treats a man of lower social status with kindness, and the man repays him with studies of the Zohar. So a random act of kindness, could pay off someday, you never know. The next example of how Elie showed traits before Auschwitz was depression on page 10, “The Bible commands us to rejoice during the eight days of Passover, but our hearts were not in it. We wished the holiday would end so as not to have to pretend”(Wiesel 10). Elie was so depressed and scared, that

Night by Elie Wiesel focuses on 15 year old Elie’s experiences during the Holocaust. Elie endures circumstances which are so extreme to the point they are almost unbelievable. Elie’s account of his experiences during his life in the concentration camps has taught readers around the world about how to appreciate everything they take for granted, how desperation can make people do crazy things, and the importance of motivation in tough times.

Before Elie’s experience in the Auschwitz concentration camp, he had many character traits such as being unwise, innocent, and impatient. When Elie first arrives at Auschwitz and receives his first meal, his father warns him to ration his food. For example, “I was terribly hungry and swallowed my ration on the spot” (Wiesel 44). During Elie’s first meal in Auschwitz, he gobbles it down and does not think about what might happen later. When his father starts to give him some advice, he is already finished with his meal. Elie acts unwisely and does not think ahead to what might happen in the later days. Earlier in the story, Elie and his family are waiting their turn to be put onto a train that will be sent to a concentration camp. Before they enter the train Elie asks, “ ‘When will it be our turn, father?’ I asked my father” (Wiesel 18). This quote shows that Elie really has no idea what is happening and what will happen to him. Elie has no idea that “his turn” will end up with him in a concentration camp. He is innocent and does not think about what bad might happen to him. Upon entering Auschwitz, Elie sees people being thrown into the fire and decides to die a quick death rather than suffer. Wiesel states, “ ‘If that is true, then I don’t want to wait. I’ll run into the electrified wire. . .’” (33). Elie is afraid of what is to come upon him arriving in the concentration camp. Because of this fear, his thoughts become driven by fear and cause him to think impulsive thoughts. Elie would rather die in the fence, than be worked or starved to death. Elie acts very unwisely in his reactions to seeing people killed. To sum up, before Elie changed as a person, he had traits such as being impatient, unwise, and innocent.

“ It is obvious that the war which Hitler and his accomplices waged was a war not only against Jewish men, women, and children, but also against Jewish religion, Jewish culture, Jewish tradition, therefore Jewish memory” (Weisel viii). In the book Night (1958), the author Elie Wiesel experiences the terrible life of a prisoner in concentration camps. Throughout the war, Elie starts to question God’s reason and is trying to survive until the battle is over. The Jews are treated with inhuman acts by the leaders of the concentration camps, but Eliezer continues to persevere through his strenuous time as a prisoner.

Elie Wiesel published the memoir “Night”, in 2006, which extrapolated on his terrifying experiences in the Nazi extermination camps during the World War ll. Elie, a sixteen-year-old Jewish boy, is projected as a dynamic character who experiences overpowering conflicts in his emotions. One of his greatest struggles is the sense of helplessness that he feels when all his beliefs and rights as a human are reduced to silence. During the time spent in the concentration camp, Elie is engulfed by an uninterrupted roar of pain and despair. However, what remains uninterrupted is the sheer torture and dehumanization of Elie’s nation, the Jews. Throughout this horrific experience, Elie’s soul perishes repeatedly as he faces constant psychological abuse, inhuman living conditions, and brutal negation of his humanity.

In the beginning of the book, before the start of all the torture and the departure to the camps, Elie portrays different traits from after the camp’s scar. One of the earliest traits we see Elie exhibit is being a religious and inquisitive young man. Wiesel said “By day I studied Talmud and by night I would run to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple.” (3) Through his words, you can see that he talks about studying the Talmud, which is a religious text of Judaism. Elie was extremely curious to venture into the mystic world of Kabbalah. Where he could learn about the “Shekinah in Exile” (God.) Only, at that time young boys were not allowed to be so curious in such topics, but Elie persevered through for his faith. Eventually, once everyone heard the one word they all dreaded, “Transports”, Elie showed his responsible side. “Get up, sir, get up! You must ready yourself for the journey. Tomorrow you will be expelled, you and your family, you and all the other Jews.” (Wiesel, 15) Even with his family to take care of, he went around his block to help other families get up and pack for the long journey ahead, to save the other’s lives. Elie wasn’t sure what was coming for him, but he knew he had to stay together. Also, the camp left a mental and physical scar on many of its survivors, during the time of departure to the camps,

World War II, one of the largest conflicts in human history took the lives of approximately six million Jews. Those who were fortunate enough to survive walked away as changed human beings. They walked away questioning their very being and struggling with the memories of what they had experienced. Elie Wiesel, the narrator and author of the novel Night, was one of few Jews who survived the war; however, the atmosphere and the horrors of the concentration camps make Elie question his religious teachings, and slowly deteriorated his belief in god. In time this conflict slowly undermines everything Elie has learned from his community which in result causes him to ask questions and more importantly ask the right questions.

Its 1944 and young Elie Wiesel is taken from his home in Sighet, Transylvania. After a 12 hour boxcar ride, Elie and the other jew from the town arrive in Oswiecim, Poland. All these innocent people will soon be loaded into the death camp “Auschwitz- Birkenau.” Throughout the Holocaust young Elie has changed from waiting for god to intervene in these horrible times to denying any and all hope from God. Elie says “It was nothing more than chance” (viii) that he survived.

From 1941 to 1945, Hitler was responsible for 3 million Jewish deaths, Elie Wiesel, a prisoner of war at the Auschwitz concentration camp escaped the ironic chances of death. Auschwitz was a death factory, with survival being highly unlikely, any traces of survival would be ironic. Elie’s story is a pure example of this irony. Elie began to escape death the moment he gets to the camp, with help and guidance from fellow prisoners. Escaping death selection, harsh weather and starvation are all ironic features of Elies stay at Auschwitz. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie uses this ironic twist of fate to show the minor difference between life and death in his Holocaust experience.

Change is inevitable. Actions, feelings, personalities even, are shaped through experiences and events that take place in our lives. Elie Wiesel’s Night expressed the different circumstances in which Eliezer Wiesel was placed in that impacted his perception of everyone and everything, including his own God. His faith diminished with every daunting obstacle he was forced to face and is the main change seen in Elie during the course of the book.

Family first.This is what Elie Wiesel might be thinking every time he dodges being freed from the terrible Holocaust just for his father. Every single time he could be free from the pain, struggle, and atrocity of the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel is a Holocaust survivor that sees hundreds of people killed per day and is labored vigorously, and is starved until he is only skin and bone. He survives the Holocaust but not before going through hard labor and seeing many unseeable things. Elie Wiesel survives the Holocaust and leaves a different person than before, going through physical, emotional and spiritual changes.

Elie Wiesel changed in many ways throughout the story. He changed spiritually, physically, and emotionally. The experiences he had to live through were extremely difficult to deal with as an impressionable teenager. The holocaust was gruesome enough for an adult with a strong body and ample understanding of the world but for a child the horrors were only amplified. The pain Wiesel endured changed his views on the things he held sacred, it changed his physical body, and his mental state.