"Night"

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes the historical and personal importance of the themes and symbols in Elie Wiesel's award-winning novel on the Holocaust, "Night." The paper examines the symbolism behind the title, the main character's struggle to maintain faith in God and the "silence" of God, the inhumanity of the holocaust, and the change in the father-son relationship between Eliezer and his father.

From the Paper:

"Elie Wiesel's Night is a deep and dark first hand look into the horrors of the Holocaust. However, more than being just a book on the external events that occurred during this horrific period, it is a story of the internal struggle of a boy who was the only one of his family and one of the extremely fortunate people in the camps to have survived long enough to be rescued. Although the boy in Night is not Elie Wiesel himself, he writes the novel as an autobiography in which the story is virtually the same as was his own, but with some minor details changed. It is really a human document, a first-hand look into the horrific and barely believable acts of inhumanity of the holocaust, and an in-depth look into the slow, torturous destruction of a human soul. This is more than a witnessing of events, more than a historical first-person account of facts. This is a personal story that was similar to millions of others, a story of a moment in history where even God could not have existed. By analyzing the themes and symbols of this work we can better understand the impact the holocaust had on the world and the souls of humanity, the horrific historical impact, and begin to understand what humanity is truly capable of doing to its own kind."

More papers on "Night":

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• Comparison Essay # 86527 : "Disguises in "Twelfth Night" and "King Lear"
• Analytical Essay # 230 : "Nightmares and Night Terrors"

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