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The Literary Review of Night

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Words: 1848 |

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Published: Jun 29, 2018

Words: 1848 | Pages: 4 | 10 min read

Table of contents

Night essay outline, night essay example, introduction.

• Overview of Elie Wiesel's "Night" and its portrayal of the Holocaust
• The impact of the Holocaust on Eliezer's physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being
• The role of aggressive diction, gruesome imagery, and figurative language in the narrative

Aggressive Diction and Loss of Faith

• Analysis of Wiesel's use of aggressive diction
• The significance of words like "murder," "consumed," and "flames" in describing faith
• The repetition of "Never shall I forget" to emphasize the horrors of the Holocaust
• The use of powerful words like "commanded" to describe the treatment of Jews

Tone and Its Emotional Impact

• The solemn tone of the narrative
• The portrayal of Eliezer's acceptance of his fate
• Examples of metaphors and personification to convey emotions
• How tone sets the mood and reflects the emotional state of the narrator

Imagery and Its Effect on the Reader

• The use of imagery to stimulate the reader's senses and emotions
• Memorable images like the reflection in the mirror and the hanging boy
• The impact of imagery in conveying the horrors of the Holocaust

Raskolnikov's Transition and Relationship with Sonya

• Raskolnikov's change in conscience after committing murder
• His struggle with accepting guilt and the breakdown of his resistance
• The role of Sonya in helping him confront his crime
• Raskolnikov's realization and the path to redemption
• The transformative journey of Eliezer and Raskolnikov
• The importance of literary devices in conveying their emotional and psychological experiences
• The lasting impact of their stories on the reader's understanding of human suffering and redemption

The Variety of Literary Devices in the "Night" By Elie Wiesel

Transition changes in raskolnikov's character, works cited.

• Chan, Y. (2013). The Holocaust. Stanford University.
• Easton, J. (2018). Night. Sparknotes.
• Eby, M. (2022). Literary Devices in Night by Elie Wiesel. Study.com.
• Elie Wiesel. (2015). Academy of Achievement.
• Elie Wiesel's Night. (n.d.). The Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
• French, W. (2018). The Holocaust. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• Heselton, J. (2017). Diction, Tone and Imagery in Elie Wiesel's Night. The Classroom, Demand Media.
• Michelson, K. (2013). The Power of Night and the Hope of Light: Lessons from the Holocaust. The Huffington Post.
• Neuman, L. (2002). The Paradox of Night: Night as a Symbol and Theme in Elie Wiesel's Literary Works. Modern Judaism, 22(3), 203-219.
• Wiesel, E. (2006). Night. Hill and Wang.

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Professors Share 5 Myths Students Believe About College

Anxiety among students: what do teachers think about it, how to write a character analysis essay, dorm overbooking and transitional housing: problems colleges are trying to solve, themes of “night” by elie wiesel.

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The following review example can serve as a guide for students trying to find inspiration when writing an assignment. 

What makes the story real? Not the reliability of facts or the fact that it’s based on real events. The main element is honesty. Integrity to share the happiest and the saddest moments, success and despair. The real story is raw to the bone, and the real author never hides behind the pen and paper.

This is the case for Elie Wiesel. The writer chooses memoir to go uncensored with his thoughts and memories about the most challenging moment in his life and the scariest event in history – war. 

Elie Wiesel’s “Night” is a powerful narrative that delves into the darkest chapters of human history through the eyes of a young Jewish boy, Eliezer. This semi-autobiographical novel, though woven with fictional elements, deeply reflects Wiesel’s harrowing experiences in Nazi concentration camps. “Night” is not just a story of survival but also a testament to the human spirit facing unimaginable horrors. In this article, we’ll explore the central themes that emerge from this profound work, rendered in simple text for clarity and understanding.

In this article, we’ll discover the main themes in “Night” and their meaning. 

Loss of Identity

The themes of “Night” by Elie Wiesel explore profound aspects of human nature and spirituality. Eliezer’s journey begins in his hometown, where he is deeply immersed in Jewish teachings and traditions. His profound identity as a young, devout Jew is starkly contrasted with the dehumanization he endures under the Nazi regime. The camps strip him of his name, his hair, and eventually, his faith, reducing him to a mere number. The transformation is so drastic that Eliezer, along with other prisoners, begins to see themselves as nothing more than animals, fighting over scraps of bread. This theme highlights not just a loss of personal identity but the obliteration of humanity itself.

“In the afternoon, they made us line up. Three prisoners brought a table and some medical instruments. We were told to roll up our left sleeves and file past the table. The three “veteran” prisoners, needles in hand, tattooed numbers on our left arms. I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name.”

Loss of identity, faith, the oppressive silence, and the ubiquity of suffering are not just historical reflections but also universal questions that resonate across time. Wiesel’s narrative serves as a stark reminder of the depths of darkness humanity can reach, and the resilience required to search for light amid such darkness.

Loss of Faith

The core of Eliezer’s being is his faith, which is deeply challenged by the atrocities he witnesses. At the beginning of the narrative, Eliezer declares, “I believed profoundly.”  

“I was twelve. I believed profoundly. During the day I studied the Talmud, and at night I ran to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple.”

In the concentration camps of Birkenau-Auschwitz, the horrors Eliezer witnesses begin to shake his faith in God. The crematoriums burn without end, devouring countless lives, including the most innocent of all—children. The cruelty he observes and endures is unimaginable, more brutal than one would ever treat animals. He struggles with the idea of a just God who would allow such atrocities.

“Night. No one prayed, so that the night would pass quickly. The stars were only sparks of the fire which devoured us. Should that fire die out one day, there would be nothing left in the sky but dead stars, dead eyes.”

Despite the terror surrounding them, Eliezer is struck by the sight of fellow Jews clinging to their faith, praying and seeking solace in their beliefs. This perseverance in the face of such evil puzzles him; it seems to demonstrate a strength and a capacity for forgiveness that surpasses the deity they worship.

As time goes on, death becomes a constant companion in the camps, and despair takes root. Eliezer, along with others, loses any remaining belief in a benevolent God. This sentiment is shared by others, like Akiba Drumer and a rabbi Eliezer speaks with, who conclude that a God cannot exist in a world that allows the Holocaust to happen.

“Behind me, I heard the same man asking: “Where is God now?” And I heard a voice within me answer him: “Where is He? Here He is—He is hanging here on this gallows. . . . “”

Eliezer’s faith is irreparably damaged during an execution at Buna, where a young boy is hanged before the eyes of the prisoners. A voice from the crowd pierces the air with the question, “ Where is God now? ” In his heart, Eliezer believes that if God exists, He is present in the suffering of the boy on the gallows, who dies a slow, agonizing death while the prisoners are forced to witness.

Silence permeates “Night,” symbolizing both the incomprehensible absence of God and the muted response of the world to the Holocaust. Eliezer grapples with God’s silence, unable to reconcile it with the loving deity he was raised to worship. 

This theme is painfully illustrated when Eliezer fails to answer his dying father’s call, a silence born of utter despair and hopelessness. Wiesel uses this motif to challenge the reader, posing difficult questions about divine and human inaction in the face of atrocity.

Fathers and Sons

Eliezer’s story begins with him witnessing his father cry for the first time when they are forced to leave their home. This is significant because it shows a crack in the strong figure his father has always been. The memoir “Night” delves into the breakdown of father-son bonds under the extreme conditions of the Holocaust. Central to this theme is the changing relationship between Eliezer and his father, which also reflects on the relationships between other fathers and sons in the concentration camps.

Before the Holocaust, Eliezer’s father is a respected figure both in the community and at home. Their relationship is based on tradition, where honoring one’s parents is a key commandment, especially in Jewish families like theirs. But once Eliezer and his father are separated from the rest of their family at Birkenau, they only have each other. As his father becomes weaker, the roles they once played change. Eliezer finds himself in the position of being the protector, rather than the one protected.

Life in the camps tests their relationship in many ways. Eliezer often feels guilty for being mad at his father when he can’t defend himself or keep up with the march. Despite his weakening state, his father still tries to look after Eliezer by giving him tools for survival and even saving him from being strangled on the train. But there’s only so much they can do to shield one another from suffering. As the conditions worsen and the weaker prisoners start dying, fathers start to be seen as burdens. Sons struggle with guilt over their survival instincts and their inability to save their fathers. Eliezer witnesses the extreme of this when a young man abandons his exhausted father, a rabbi, during a death march, and again on a train when a son kills his father for food.

These harsh realities force Eliezer to confront his feelings for his father. However, by the end of “Night,” these feelings become irrelevant. His father falls ill, no one is willing to provide medical help, and Eliezer is powerless to protect him or to stop others from causing harm. The roles and relationships that once defined them are irreversibly altered.

“Oh, to strangle the doctor and the others! To burn the whole world! My father’s murderers! But the cry stayed in my throat.”

Final thoughts

Elie Wiesel’s “Night” shares a heart-wrenching story of how the Holocaust tore apart people’s lives and faith. It shows the painful change in a son’s duty to his father and the struggle to keep hope alive. The book makes us think deeply about the harsh truths of survival and loss during one of history’s darkest times.

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By Elie Wiesel

'Night' by Elie is an important memoir of the Holocaust, depicting the horrors and truth of Germany's treatment of European Jews.

About the Book

Article written by Emma Baldwin

B.A. in English, B.F.A. in Fine Art, and B.A. in Art Histories from East Carolina University.

The novel is an important historical memoir published in 1960 . It was not until the trial and execution of Adolf Eichman in 1961, a year after the novel was finally published, that it came fully into the public spotlight.

Key Facts about Night

• Title:   Night
• When/where written : 1955-1958, South America and France
• Published: 1960
• Genre:  Memoir/Semi-fictional autobiography
• Point-of-View: First-person
• Setting: Europe during WWII
• Climax:  the death of Eliezer’s father, Shlomo
• Antagonist:  The SS soldiers and broader anti-Jewish laws and sentiment.

Elie Wiesel and  Night

Unlike some novels that are written at a distance,  Night  is tied up with the author’s life in an intimate, unignorable way. Wiesel has spoken about  Night  as his account of what happened in the concentration camps , one that is set back only slightly from reality through the creation of Eliezer and a few changes of events and circumstances. The novel is brutally honest, and clear. Wiesel spends its brief 100 pages depicting the lead up to the ghettos, trains, and camps, the loss of his family members, including his mother and sister, and then later his father as well, his suffering (and the suffering he observed) and finally his liberation.  Night  is incredibly personal , so much so that its language only gives the reader so much access to a time in Wiesel’s life that anyone would want to forget, but which he knew was too important to keep in his past. The novel was written several years after WWII, from the perspective of a thirty-year-old man, looking back on himself as a young adult. The climax of the novel connects intimately to one of the most important but often overlooked themes in  Night,  that of father/son relationships. Or, more specifically, sons and their treatment of their fathers. When Eliezer’s father, Shlomo, dies, and Eliezer experiences freedom from the burden of his father’s care, Wiesel represents the true breadth of the changes he’d undergone in the camps and the desperate state to which he and others were existing in.

Books Related to Night

The lasting impact of  night .

Today,  Night is commonly considered to be one of the best personal accounts of the Holocaust ever written . It is read in middle schools, high schools, and universities around the world, providing students with an insight into the horrors of the Second World War as they were experienced by someone close to their own age. It is one of the first ways that young people learn about the Holocaust.  Night  is also credited with helping to preserve the story of the Holocaust, something that Wiesel was incredibly passionate about. When speaking about the story of his life and the lives of millions of others who died, lost their families, homes, and identities during the war, he said that it would be “ not only dangerous but offensive ” to forget them.

Night Review ⭐

Night themes and analysis, night quotes 💬, night historical context 📖, night character list 📖, night summary 📖, about emma baldwin.

Emma Baldwin, a graduate of East Carolina University, has a deep-rooted passion for literature. She serves as a key contributor to the Book Analysis team with years of experience.

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The Story of ‘Night’

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By Rachel Donadio

• Jan. 20, 2008

This fall, Elie Wiesel’s “Night” was removed from the New York Times best-seller list, where it had spent an impressive 80 weeks after Oprah Winfrey picked it for her book club. The Times’s news survey department, which compiles the list, decided the Holocaust memoir wasn’t a new best seller but a classic like “Animal Farm” or “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which sell hundreds of thousands of copies a year largely through course adoptions. Indeed, since it appeared in 1960, “Night” has sold an estimated 10 million copies — three million of them since Winfrey chose the book in January 2006 (and traveled with Wiesel to Auschwitz).

But “Night” had taken a long route to the best-seller list. In the late 1950s, long before the advent of Holocaust memoirs and Holocaust studies, Wiesel’s account of his time at Auschwitz and Buchenwald was turned down by more than 15 publishers before the small firm Hill & Wang finally accepted it. How “Night” became an evergreen is more than a publishing phenomenon. It is also a case study in how a book helped created a genre, how a writer became an icon and how the Holocaust was absorbed into the American experience.

Raised in an Orthodox family in Sighet, Transylvania, Wiesel was liberated from Buchenwald at age 16. In unsentimental detail, “Night” recounts daily life in the camps — the never-ending hunger, the sadistic doctors who pulled gold teeth, the Kapos who beat fellow Jews. On his first day in the camps, Wiesel was separated forever from his mother and sister. At Auschwitz, he watched his father slowly succumb to dysentery before the SS beat him to within an inch of his life. Wiesel writes honestly about his guilty relief at his father’s death. In the camps, the formerly observant boy underwent a profound crisis of faith; “Night” was one of the first books to raise the question: where was God at Auschwitz?

Working as a journalist in his mid-20s, Wiesel wrote the first version of “Night” in Yiddish as “Und di Velt Hot Geshvign” (“And the World Remained Silent”) while on assignment in Brazil. But it wasn’t until he returned to Paris and met François Mauriac, a noted Catholic novelist and journalist, that “Night” took the shape we know today. Mauriac urged Wiesel to rewrite the book in French and promised to write a preface. Still, “it was rejected by the major publishers,” Wiesel recalled in a recent interview, “although it was brought to them by François Mauriac, the greatest, greatest writer and journalist in France, a Catholic, a Nobel Prize-winner with all the credentials.” Les Éditions de Minuit brought it out in 1958, but it sold poorly.

The American response was similarly tepid. Georges Borchardt, Wiesel’s longtime literary agent and himself a Holocaust survivor, sent the French manuscript to New York publishers in 1958 and 1959, to little effect. “Nobody really wanted to talk about the Holocaust in those days,” Borchardt said. “The Diary of Anne Frank,” published in the United States in 1952, had been a huge success, but it did not take readers into the horror of the camps. Although “Night” had sophisticated literary motifs and a quiet elegance, American publishers worried it was more a testimonial than a work of literature. “It is, as you say, a horrifying and extremely moving document, and I wish I could say this was something for Scribner’s,” an editor there wrote to Borchardt. “However, we have certain misgivings as to the size of the American market for what remains, despite Mauriac’s brilliant introduction, a document.” Kurt Wolff, the head of Pantheon, also turned “Night” down. Although it had qualities “not brought out in any other book,” Pantheon had “always refrained from doing books of this kind,” meaning books about the Holocaust, he wrote to Borchardt.

Finally, in 1959, Arthur Wang of Hill & Wang agreed to take on “Night.” The first reviews were positive. Gertrude Samuels, writing in the Book Review, called it a “slim volume of terrifying power.” Alfred Kazin, writing in The Reporter, said Wiesel’s account of his loss of faith had a “particular poignancy.” After the Kazin review, the book “got great reviews all over America, but it didn’t influence the sales,” Wiesel said.

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100 pages • 3 hours read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

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Discussion Questions

Religious faith plays an important role in Night , from Eliezer’s devout childhood in Sighet to life in the concentration camps after the Jews are deported from Hungary. How does Eliezer’s relationship to God and his commitment to his faith change over the course of the narrative? What is the value of religious observance and faith for the imprisoned Jews, and how does their religion become a target of Nazi persecution and oppression?

Family ties, especially the bond between father and son, is a major theme of Wiesel’s memoir . How does the narrative emphasize the importance of this relationship? How are love and loyalty related to the will to survive and the instinct for self-preservation? Does the relationship of Eliezer and his father change over time at Buna, Gleiwitz, and Buchenwald? If so, how?

The narrative of Night relies on powerful symbols, such as night , fire , and silence , to convey the author’s meaning. What do these three symbols signify, and how does Wiesel develop those meanings throughout the course of the book?

Related Titles

By Elie Wiesel

Hope, Despair and Memory

Never Shall I Forget

The Forgotten

The Perils of Indifference

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Night by Ellie Wiesel Essay (Book Review)

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

Review/analysis, works cited.

During the Second World War, a number of scholars and writers came up with various writings to express their opinions, views, and standpoints. The Night, by Ellie Wiesel, is one such book that expresses the views of the writer.

Life was unbearable during the Second World War, particularly in Germany whereby concentration camps existed. Wiesel describes the state of affairs in the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald.

Many people lost their lives, including property. Families broke up because family members had to be taken to different places. Others were unable to escape and found themselves in death camps whereby they could provide cheap labor without payment.

This piece of writing revisits the works of Wiesel in the book titled Night. The paper summarizes the reasoning of the writer and goes a notch higher to analyze some of the themes in order to establish the relevance of the book to the modern political environment. In other words, the paper looks at the strengths and weaknesses of the book.

The writer explains that life in the concentration camps was unbearable. He wonders where God was when such injustices were mated out to the Jews.

He concluded that God might have died because he could have intervened could he be alive. To the writer, life had taken a new twist meaning that the relationship between family members had changed.

The writer complained that his father had burdened him since he had to take care of him in everything. This was a great challenge to the writer given that he was only sixteen years.

In the concentration camps, family relations had no meaning. This is captured in a statement where the writer complained that if he could only eliminate his father since the old man was a form of a burden to him.

However, he regretted using such string words on his father. In the book, the writer shows that life had taken a new twist meaning that moral values were no more. In the concentration camps, there were no fathers, no brothers, and no friends.

In 1945, the writer reveals that the US liberated Buchenwald, even though it was late for his father who had already perished in the hands of Nazi.

In the introduction, the writer gives a brief description of his life (Wiesel 35) He reports that he was born in a place referred to as Sighet, which is a town situated in a hill in Hungary.

Before invasion, laws had been passed aimed at suppressing the Jews. Things got worse when Adolf and his men invaded Hungary.

Wiesel was separated from his family as his mother was taken to the gas chamber in Auschwitz and his father and he were taken to Buchenwald. The mother could not survive the conditions of Auschwitz and passed on immediately while his father died some few days before liberation.

Moshe the Beadle

The narrator tells us the importance of religion in society in this section. He claims that he cried uncontrollably when he noticed that the Temple had been vandalized. Moshe the Beadle was a man in charge of marinating the Synagogue.

In other words, he was a caretaker who ensured that everything went well during prayers. The caretaker is presented as a humble man who never quarreled with any one in society. In 1942, the man of God was whisked to Poland but he managed to come back in order to pass the information to villagers.

However, the villagers never minded listening to him. The story of Moshe the Beadle shows that a political enemy always targets the soft sport, which is normally the religious leader.

The villagers could not listen to Moshe simply because he was not influential. In the section, the government of Hungary proved that it was part of the Nazi project since it ordered all non-citizen Jews to leave.

This is one of the strengths of the book since the Holocaust could not have materialized without the help of other Eastern European governments.

The Sighet Ghettos

Jews were restricted from participating in important societal activities and enjoying their lives to the fullest. In this regard, Jews were not supposed to own property or to practice their religion.

Wherever they moved, Jews were required to wear the Yellow Star, as a form of identification. The Hungarian administration came up with a decision to transfer Jews to one of the Ghettos for easier supervision.

The Jews were only restricted to two Ghettos and the rest of their residences were closed. This shows how the Nazi regime was ambitious to control the influence of Jews in other neighboring countries.

The Jews could not influence political leaders to come up with fairer laws since their movements were easily monitored in the Ghettos. The writer reports that the Ghettos were self-contained meaning that all social services were provided.

No Jew could move out in search of a social amenity. In fact, they were allowed to appoint their councils, referred to as the Jewish Council, which could arbitrate on any issue in the ghettos This was meant to facilitate compliance since the Nazi government could easily approach the council leaders and inform them about the new developments.

After sometime, the Ghettos were closed and the Jews were transferred to the concentration camps in Poland and Germany. The writer reports that the Hungarian police had no mercy since each person was mistreated irrespective of his or her societal standing.

The writer reports that he was moved to one of the concentration camps referred to as Auschwitz, together with other eighty members of his community, including Madame Schachter.

Schachter prophesized that the bodies of people were burning but the rest of the Jews could not believe her, just the way Moshe the Beadle had been ignored. People were put in different sections based on gender, age, and health.

Unfortunately, the narrator’s mother was send straight to the gas chamber owing to her old age and deteriorating health. The Auschwitz shows that political opponents will never have mercy because they will ensure that only relevant individuals are allowed to live.

The weak are eliminated immediately to avoid any costs. Children were eliminated right away since the writer reports that the lorry delivered children into a burning fire while he was watching with the father.

The political class and the politicians will never care about morality as long as their interests are well catered for by the existing policy. In the book, the main aim of the political class in Eastern Europe was to acquire wealth.

The political class never cared about the value of human life. They would allow the soldiers to strangle innocent children only to frustrate parents.

Buchenwald and Liberation

In the last section of the book, which talks about the Buchenwald camp and subsequent liberation, the writer does not explain the factors behind liberation. He simply goes ahead to describe how liberation came about but does explain the immediate and long term factors that were responsible for liberation.

In Germany, there had been some sort of resistance since some leaders wanted the government to close the concentration camps. In Europe, other world powers such as Britain and Russia had gained momentum and wanted to liberate their citizens who had been kidnapped by the Nazi regime as prisoners of war.

The writer does not explain all these factors. Furthermore, he does not give a brief explanation of how the US joined the war. There had been some developments in the international system, which could not allow Germany to continue oppressing the Jews.

In the beginning of the story, the writer explained that the old and those perceived to be unhealthy were eliminated immediately. However, he explains towards the end of the story that his father was ailing from dysentery.

The question is how comes the father was allowed to live yet it was against the policy of the Nazi government. This leaves us with some questions to answer.

The chapters of the book by Wiesel are arranged in a manner that would help the reader to comprehend the real meaning of Holocaust and how the Nazi unleashed terror on the Jews.

The book has some strengths including explaining how the Eastern European states contributed in implementing the Nazi policies. The Hungarian government declared that all immigrants would be deported in case they could not provide sufficient documents.

This proves that the government of Hungary knew what was just about to happen to the Jews. One weakness of the book is that it does not give authentic information.

At one moment, we are told that the old and the sick were never allowed to see the day while at other times the writer tells us that the sick could be left to suffer.

Wiesel, Elie. Night . New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2012. Print.

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IvyPanda. (2019, April 4). Night by Ellie Wiesel. https://ivypanda.com/essays/book-review-night-by-ellie-wiesel/

"Night by Ellie Wiesel." IvyPanda , 4 Apr. 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/book-review-night-by-ellie-wiesel/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'Night by Ellie Wiesel'. 4 April.

IvyPanda . 2019. "Night by Ellie Wiesel." April 4, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/book-review-night-by-ellie-wiesel/.

1. IvyPanda . "Night by Ellie Wiesel." April 4, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/book-review-night-by-ellie-wiesel/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Night by Ellie Wiesel." April 4, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/book-review-night-by-ellie-wiesel/.