Summary
The novel entitled Night, written by Elie Wiesel, is a witness’ first-hand account of the horrific experiences of the Jewish people during the Holocaust initiated by Nazi Germany during World War II. The protagonist, the narrator, starts his story by telling about his early childhood in Transylvania and his teenage years’ friendship with Moishe the Beadle, his religious mentor, who is teaching him Kabbalah. Moishe was expelled from Transylvania and shot with other Jews in 1941, but he survived and returned to Transylvania to warn others.
In 1944, the government of the state was overruled by the Nazis, and Jews started to be treated with restrictions until all Jews of the city were gathered in cattle train cars and transported to a labor camp in inhumane conditions. They are then placed in a concentration camp where Jews are burned and killed in chambers, while others who work are deprived of food, water, and sanitary conditions. The main character’s mother and sister are killed in the gas chambers. While some pray while watching these horrific events, Elie, the protagonist, starts doubting faith and God. His disbelief grows as he witnesses more tortures and deaths, as well as his father’s suffering.
In 1945, due to the approaching of the Russian troops, the camp was evacuated, and the inmates were forced to travel by foot in the cold on long distances, while those unable to walk were killed. Elie and his father are among the few survivors. Once in a new camp, Elie tries to help his father heal but fails since his father dies of dysentery. The main character is liberated once the American troops fight the Nazis.
Critical Analysis
Main Themes of the Novel
While Night presents a realistic experience of one of the most traumatic historical events for humanity in general and the Jewish heritage in particular, several themes reach beyond life and death. Indeed, the author describes the horrible and cold-blooded inhumane actions of the Nazis against the whole Jewish people to try to illustrate the elusiveness of humanity and religion. Thus, one of the main themes in the book is the elusiveness of humanity jeopardized by politics. The acute form of antisemitism that led to the Holocaust is the result of the political regime of fascists in Germany, which is illustrated in the book as madness that cannot be stopped.
Another critical theme correlated with the one on humanity is the loss of faith in God. Indeed, the readers are presented with the protagonist’s spiritual journey, from his deep belief and fascination with God’s teachings to his utter doubt about the overall existence of God. The atrocities and terror the main character experienced showed him that mercy does not exist, which is why he doubts the overall relevance of religion if it is unable to provide comfort and safety to those particularly in need.
The Book’s Strengths
The novel’s strengths are related to the effective creation of the narrative, where readers comprehend the individual experience of a witness via the first-person perspective. Since it is written from the viewpoint of a teenager, the horrific deeds of the Nazis are even more evident, which supports the theme of the decay of humanity and the loss of faith.
Indeed, a child must not be near any of such experiences, and yet the protagonist questions the reasons for his survival and states it is not a miracle but a chance. In the introduction, the author states that if his survival were a miracle, “why not for others more deserving than myself?” (Weisel, p. x). Therefore, the author’s first-hand experience translated to the pages of the novel strengthen the theme of the loss of faith by opposing an innocent child trying to understand the world and the inhumane cruelty of the Nazi regime.
Moreover, the book consistently uses questions as both a plot driver and a spiritual discovery of the main character. Indeed, at the story’s beginning, Elie tells the readers that Moishe taught him to ask the right questions to obtain the correct answers. Consistently, throughout the novel, the rhetorical questions asked by Elie mirror his cognitive challenges and moral shock experienced during the Holocaust.
For example, Elie’s father’s reaction to labeling all Jews with yellow stars was, “The yellow star? So what? It’s not l e t h a l…” (Weisel, p. 11). In response to this recalled utterance, the main character states rhetorically, “Poor Father! Of what then did you die?” (Weisel, p. 11). Such use of questions demonstrates the main character’s attempt to comprehend the events he is bound to witness and survive and his struggles to obtain reasonable answers.
In the context of such a complicated spiritual journey, the title of the book, Night, is another strength of the novel. The title implies the lack of light represented by God’s presence. It shows the desperation and the lack of hope for the end of the suffering the Jewish people, including women, children, men, and older adults, had to face while dying because of their ethnicity. For example, in the fourth chapter of the book, the main character describes the hangings that he witnessed and states that none of the victims cried because they merely forgot the taste of tears (Weisel, p. 63).
This detail supports the idea of the night as a symbol of desperation and hopelessness, where people lose their faith and humanity. When the terror reaches its peak, the main character asks another question, asking where God is; the answer in his head is, “This is where—hanging here from these gallows…” (Weisel, p. 65). There is no God; he is murdered in the concentration camp, and this idea instills a sense of hopelessness for humanity in the book.
The Book’s Weaknesses
One of the weaker aspects of the novel might be attributed to its emphasis on cruel scenes, which might be challenging for readers to observe. However, it is difficult to label this characteristic of the book as a weakness because it is an inevitable part of literature devoted to the Holocaust. The author tries to document all the events as they happened without decreasing the fault of the criminals who committed the genocide of the whole people.
Thus, these seeming weaknesses might rather be regarded as strengths in the context of historical documentation of the period. In addition, the linear narrative might be considered overly simplistic for a novel with so few events described. At the same time, the content and the themes portrayed in the book justify its focus not on the plot twists but on the moral and religious dilemmas behind the story. Thus, one might conclude that the author accomplishes his goal of supporting the arguments with narrative, symbols, and truthful descriptions of events, which helps carve the horrific legacy of the Holocaust not to be forgotten.
Work Cited
Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006.
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