Night by Elie Wiesel by Usama Shakeel

Time and Place of book

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 04:36:59 UTC

The story takes place during 1941–1945 World War two in Sighet, Transylvania (Romania)

Main Character

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 04:39:57 UTC

The main character is Eliezer. He is twelve year old boy living in Transylvanian town of Sighet in 1941.

........

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 04:45:28 UTC

After Eliezer was moved to concentration camps it had completely altered his identity. “The night had passed completely. The morning star shone in the sky. I too had become a different person. The student of Talmud, the child I was, had been consumed by the flames. All that was left was a shape that resembled me. My soul had been invaded – and devoured – by a black flame.” Eliezer’s identity has further changed because he has lost his innocence, he is no longer a child, and has lost his faith in God’s justice. He can no longer define himself as either a "child" or a "student of Talmud;" now he is simply a prisoner.

Elizer's background

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 04:47:53 UTC

Eliezer studied the Talmud as a teenage child, the Jewish oral law. He also studies the Jewish mystical texts of the Kabbalah, which his father didn’t want him to study because it was very unusual to study at the age of twelve.

Wallpaper

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 04:49:35 UTC

I chose train as my wallpaper because in the novel prisoner's were transported through trains. Where prisoners went through torture, received no food, lived on snow.

Change in Eliezer

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 04:53:25 UTC

Eliezer became a totally different person, as he mentioned that when he looked himself in mirror he saw death stare at him. He went through torture, received no food, lived on snow. He mentions that ”Death enveloped me, it suffocated me. It stuck to me like glue. I felt I could touch it.” His experience of life is pain and nothing more.

Real Life Event

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 04:56:34 UTC

I can relate this event to real life. This event sets in northern Nigeria where 130 girls were kidnapped from a school on 14 April. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said the children won’t be free until all imprisoned militants had been freed.

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 04:58:23 UTC

.........

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 04:59:43 UTC

The same event took place in Night where Hungarian police boarded its own Jewish people to concentration camps. Jewish belongings of Sighet people were forcefully taken away. These kidnapped girls are being tortured for something they are not responsible. Jews were killed but in Nigeria these girls will be sold until government all Abubakar Shekau imprisoned militants had been freed.

Mood of the story

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 05:02:27 UTC

The mood of “Night” is very melancholy . It’s depressing and very dark. Elie Wiesel style is very communicative but has serious tone. “That was when I began to hate them, and my hatred remains our only link today. They were our first oppressors. They were the first faces of hell and death.” His hatred towards Nazis and disgust feelings shows very depressing yet serious mood.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 05:04:03 UTC

First Person or Third Person ?

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 05:14:02 UTC

The novel “Night” is written in the first person. The narrator is Eliezer and he’s a twelve year old boy. It changes the story in a way that it’s written from his point of view and those events were real and he was there. This book is more of autobiographical than a story

Narrator of the story , His/her relationship to the story ?

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 05:16:03 UTC

Narrator of the story is Eliezer (slightly different version of Elie Wiesel). The story is told from Elie Wiesel’s point of view so yes the narrator is in the story. Elie Wiesel’s tells the whole story from his perspective and how personal and painful experience it was for him. The story is set in the past. During World War II Nazis executed Jews in huge numbers.

Torture Eliezer faced

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 05:19:19 UTC

Eliezer was Jewish and the community he was living in was also Jewish. At the age of twelve he was sent to the concentration camps where he was forced to work and if prisoners didn’t work they would get killed. He saw things which were so horrible that he started losing faith in humanity and God. Elie Wiesel was there and he lived the years of torture and pain. The story is so unique because it’s so real and the author experienced it and is written in such a way you can put yourself in Eliezer’s position.

Adolf Hitler

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 05:20:42 UTC

Leader of Nazi party

Climax

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 05:25:58 UTC

The climax of the story is when Eliezer’s father passes away. Going to different concentration camps and travelling in trains along with thousands of people in just one cabin. Lack of basic needs and being tortured by German police. All of this lead to deterioration of his father and Eliezer himself.

Themes

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 05:31:52 UTC

There are numerous themes in the story including violence and silence. Violence is used to control people and that’s what Germans did to force Jewish people into concentration camps. For example people who resisted against powerful German SS guards were publicly hanged in front of other prisoners as warning to them. Jewish prisoners also used violence against each as they struggle to survive.

........

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 05:34:19 UTC

Overall we see violence taken so extreme that characters themselves have a hard time believing that is it possibly real. “I pinched myself: Was I still alive? Was I awake? How was it possible that men, women, and children were being burned and that the world kept silent? No. All this would not be real. A nightmare perhaps … Soon I would wake up with a start, my heart pounding, and find that I was back in the room of my childhood, with my books” (Section 3 page 54) Violence is so extreme that Eliezer doesn’t believe that its real, he thinks it’s nightmare.

My opinion about Theme

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 05:35:23 UTC

We see violence everywhere in the world. We see children getting bullied in school, children becoming more violent each day due to games and shows they watch. People are more violent than they were 100 years ago. People stop caring about each other, now everyone looks to themselves and what benefits them. This theme is no surprise to me. In mid 90’s the world has seen two World Wars, millions of innocent lives are lost due to dictatorship

Gas Chambers

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 05:37:38 UTC

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 05:39:29 UTC

Mothers with their children

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 05:40:42 UTC

Prisoners had a number tattooed to to them along with star of David they were required to wear all time.

More Themes

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 05:42:18 UTC

Silence is also another theme. We see when prisoners arrive at the concentration camps, they see pots of alive babies getting burned. Prisoners were thinking how inhumane it was to burn alive people. Jewish prisoners questioned could God let someone do so much horror and cruelty. As the story continues we see a child getting hanged for stealing from German SS officers. A man asks as he watches a young child getting hanged “Where is God?” yet the only response is “[t]otal silence throughout the camp.” Lack of divine response and horror shakes Eliezer’s faith in God forever. There is a second type of silence in the story. When Eliezer’s father Shlomo gets beaten to death, Eliezer does nothing to stop the SS officers instead he doesn’t move because he feels guilty about his inactions “I did not move. I was afraid”

What I learned from novel

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 05:43:48 UTC

The story gave me glimpse of Holocaust that no other textbook or movie could. I learned about terror the Jewish people faced and how it can break family and friends bonds so easily and turn them into enemies of each other. For example Rabbi Eliahou’s son abandons him and his son behaving cruelly towards him. Eliezer prays that he will never behave like Rabbi Eliahou sons did. During the end of the story, Eliezer father Shlomo passes away and Eliezer doesn’t feel guilty, instead he is relieved that his father is gone. Eliezer doesn’t have burden of his father on his shoulders anymore. The story shows how Jewish people lived in extreme cases, it measured their strength, love and faith to the extreme that they lost faith and existence of God.

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 05:45:13 UTC

Prisoners were tattooed a number for identification

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 05:47:43 UTC

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 05:47:57 UTC

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 05:50:12 UTC

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 05:50:20 UTC

Resolution

usama_shakeel — 2014-05-28 05:55:55 UTC

Resolution of the story is when Jewish people in concentration camps find out about American and Russian army getting closer and closer to concentration camps. The feeling of freedom was eminent among the Jewish prisoners.