"Night"

Paper Summary:

This paper focuses on how the Nazis stripped Jews and other victims in the concentration camp of their individuality and personalities. Using Elie Wiesel's classic novel on the holocaust, "Night," the paper describes how the autobiographical protagonist is forced to become a number among millions of other victims. It traces this loss of self-hood from the first chapter when he has to live away from the rest of humanity in a ghetto and until the final chapter when he physically survives Auschwitz but feels his soul has been slaughtered in the process.

From the Paper:

"The camps not only succeeded in stripping away the outward social signs of personhood, they also succeeded in stripping away the inner sanctums of humanity. In the camps, the individuals slowly change from being objectified humans to actually becoming like beasts. They are described as eventually behaving like "wild beasts of prey, with animal hatred in their eyes; an extraordinary vitality had seized them, sharpening their teeth and nails." (Chapter 7) The inmates no longer care about the trappings of morality and civilization. When pressed, they become even more brutal than the guards themselves. For example, in Chapter 7 one boy kills his own father over a scrap of bread. This change from civilized beings into brutal monsters begins as early as Chapter Two. Here the captives have not even been taken all the way to the death camps when the first blood is spilt among them."

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