Literary Analysis – "Night"
Imagine, a world where nothing looks as it should.
The amount of hate so high, it’s practically unbearable. Everyday you wake up with this feeling that you’re going to die; sometimes you don’t even fear this happening. In the book “Night” the author Elie Wiesel takes the reader to a place in time that they wouldn‘t ever want to journey to. He gives you a picture of the real gruesomeness and terrifying circumstances that came from the Holocaust. Wiesel tells of his time spent at the Auschwitz concentration camp, and then to Buchenwald.
Though the book is only a little over one-hundred pages, you are able to realize the tragedy of a teenage boy, losing his family, as well as losing his faith, and sense of self. Going through all these truly terrible misfortunes in this book, it’s clear that there are many certain messages that come from this book. The statement that Elie Wiesel’s “Night” is one the most powerful and moving stories to ever have been told can not be argued with. The author’s words are even more powerful knowing that this is no elaborated tall tale, knowing that this is really what he experienced. At times the style of writing may seem a bit bland, not a lot of feelings. “Lying down was not an option, nor could we all sit down.
We decided to take turns sitting. There was little air. The lucky ones found themselves near a window; they could watch the blooming countryside flit by.” Though most of the writing is like this, a lot of explaining, nothing has ever been more moving. Like when he is able to describe the sight of a child being hung by the officers.
“But the third rope was still moving; the child, too light, was still breathing… And so he remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death, writhing before our eyes. And we were forced to look at him at close range. He was still alive when I passed him. His tongue was still red, his eyes not yet extinguished.” Surely, the voice in which Wiesel is speaking, the images he is able to create, this alone is able to move any human being.
It’s able to make them catch their breaths and stop thinking about their own lives for a while. Though most of the book is creating pictures for the reader, Elie Wiesel also let’s you get inside his mind; let’s you listen to the thoughts he had. “Behind me I heard a man asking: ‘For God’s sake, where is God?’ And from within me I heard a voice answer: ‘Where He is? This is where-hanging here from this gallows….” That night, the soup tasted of corpses.” “I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. But I was out of tears.
And deep inside me, if I could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience, I might have found something like: Free at last!…” Being able to know what he had to go through not just physically, but the Holocaust took a mental toll on people as well. The way Wiesel is able to identify that pain, it’s a dire beauty; and can affect any person. Thinking of such a poignant subject, you can get a lot out of it; besides a sad, sick feeling. Through out this book huge themes, such as family or friendship are expressed. It makes you realize how without the people that care about you, and without you caring about another person, hard times will seem even harder.
In the book, he tells of how if his father died than he would have no other reason to live. How when one would fall asleep, the other would keep an eye out. Messages like living every day that it’s worth, or just the thought of how immense events can change a person inside and out; are also greatly distinguished through out this book. Like how when he starts to think of his father as more of a burden, or when he gives up on God, all effects of the Holocaust. Also, all the more moving.
Never before has a book been more impacting. Elie Wiesel tells a story that needs to be heard. A story that people need to consider, that they need to think much about. All the events that went on in such a short amount of time, everything that happened in only 115 pages; it’s unimaginable. But true. People were a part of this.
The book “Night” strikes so many thoughts and feelings into the readers mind and heart. It’s a book you can feel passionate about, a book that could change the way people think instantly. And that’s way “Night” is, no doubt, one of the most moving and captivating piece of literature out there.
