The novel Night by Elie Wiesel is a very powerful book in many ways. A recurring main theme throughout the book is the use of manipulation. As Elie jumped right in the story my heart sank. I took me a few minutes after I read the sections to realize that something that horrible actually happened: “We were told that he was a charming man, calm, likable, and polite. Three days after he moved in he brought Mrs. Kahn a box of chocolates… Germans arrested the leaders of the Jewish community. From that moment on, everything happened very quickly. The race toward death had begun. First edict: Jews were prohibited from leaving their residence for three days, under penalty of death”(10). Before people were arrested, the Germans were living with the Jews in their homes. The Germans were very polite and had gained the Jews trust while living with them. Just 10 days later the Germans came and arrested the head of the Jewish community and made up rules with the penalty of death. The Jews thought everything was fine and did not suspect anything wrong because the Germans had gained the Jews trust. The Jews were taken to a concentration camp and like Elie's family, a lot of the families were split up. Elie and his father were taken on a long march to their assigned barracks where they were told to take off their clothes and then inspected to see who were the most muscular:“When he found out that we were there, he succeeded in slipping us a note. He told us that having been chosen because of his strength, he had been forced to place his own father’s body into the furnace”(35). Katz had arrived at the camp a week earlier than Elie and his family. He was chosen because of his strength and because of that he had to kill his own father. When I read this part I felt like somebody had stabbed me in the back. I can't imagine how it must of felt to kill a person with no choice let along it being your own father.
Elie Wiesel's writing style is very different to other memoirs. I like that he wrote his book with vignettes and sections instead of the normal chapters. You can fly through the book very quickly because of how he wrote it. Many weeks can go by in just one page and it is very suspenseful seeing of the pain somebody had to go through and experience the pain mentally and physically. The book is very powerful considering he is telling about his own personal experience. It's so hard to rap my mind around the fact somebody had to go through something that horrible.
The way Wiesel writes his memoir is almost like it’s written in prose, he is extremely descriptive with his writing, and his sentences flow, but he keeps the plot fast-paced and moving like the greatest poems are. There was one part I read that almost brought me to tears: the uncertainty of it, the questions it left, and the horrifying thought that it was pure hope that was keeping these people alive when there truly was nothing to hope for. “Take care of your son. He is very weak, very dehydrated. Take care of yourselves, you must avoid selections. Eat! Anything. Anytime. Eat all you can. The weak don’t last very long around here”… And he himself was so thin, so withered, so weak… “The only thing that keeps me alive,” he kept saying, “is to know that Reizel and the little ones are still alive. Were it not for them, I would give up.” One evening, he came to see us, his face radiant. “A transport just arrived from Antwerp. I shall go to see them tomorrow. Surely they will hav...
Grace, I thought your blog post was very moving. I completely agree with everything you said. I thought your quotes and your explanations were particularly moving and well thought out. What did you think about his writing style? Did you notice anything particular about it?
ReplyDeleteGrace,
ReplyDeleteYour blog post really put in detail of what the Jews were going through. I thought it was moving, well written and thoughtful. I agree with every thing and it seems like you put a lot of time into this assignment. I can relate to needing a little time before I can comprehend what happened as well. I also agree that it is so hard to wrap my mind around that something like this truly happened.