Elie Wiesel's "Night": A Book Report

Paper Summary:

This paper summarizes "Night" by Elie Wiesel and explains how the book is about Wiesel's gradual loss of faith as a result of his experiences in the camps.

From the Paper:

"Night by Elie Wiesel was first published in English in 1960 and gave the most chilling and most faithful account of his experiences during the Holocaust. We have heard a lot about concentration camps and how Jews were made to suffer simply because of their religion, however this book gives us something deeper to think about. The book studies the Holocaust experience in the light of Jewish beliefs and the author narrates the gradual loss of his faith in God. The novel begins with a normal description of life in Elie Wiesel's house. This is done to show how devout a Jew he was and how firmly he believed in God before all was taken away by the Holocaust. "I believe profoundly. During the day I studied the Talmud, and at night I run to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple." (p.13) He was a strong believer in the powers of God and saw Him as an absolutely fair and just Creator. The book opens in the year 1943 when Elie's family and others in his Hungarian town of Sighet had not yet heard of concentration camps or Nazi atrocities. A pious Jew man who had been imparting religious knowledge to Elie tells everyone of his experience during a brief journey when all his fellow Jews were brutally killed by Nazi forces. It is not easy for the villagers to trust his stories but eventually Nazi forces enter their village too and this is when the real journey of faith or should we say, loss of faith begins."

More papers on Elie Wiesel's "Night": A Book Report:

• Analytical Essay # 56006 : "Elie Wiesel's "Night": An Analysis"
• Book Review # 3261 : "Book Review on "Night" by Elie Wiesel"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: