Night Novel by Elie Wiesel

Night by Elie Wiesel

Though it is called a novel, Night (Wiesel 1982) is actually a memoir about Wiesel's experiences as a young, devout Jewish boy who is forced by World War II Nazis into a concentration camp, along with his family. The main character, Eliezer, is actually Wiesel, and through his descriptions and thoughts about his life before, during and after the concentration camps, Wiesel illustrates ways that people may recognize evil and fight it by: listening to warnings, taking a side and acting; paying attention to evil as it tightens its grip on us; acting against the oppressor rather than the oppressed; remembering the terrible results of evil so we can fight it in the future.

Idea(s) Developed by Wiesel about Circumstances Compelling Individuals to Respond

One idea that Wiesel develops is the idea that we should listen to people who have experienced evil and warn us about it, then take a side and act. At the beginning of Night, Eliezer, the main character and narrator of the book, is a devout Jewish 12-year-old boy, the 3rd of 4 children whose parents ran a shop in Sighet, Transylvania (Wiesel 1982, 1-2). Eliezer's "place was at school" (Wiesel 1982, 2) and his "cultured, rather unsentimental" father tries to find someone to help Eliezer with deeper Jewish studies (Wiesel 1982, 2). Eliezer is eventually helped by Moshe the Beadle (Wiesel 1982, 2). Through Moshe, Wiesel develops the idea of the wrongheaded complacency and responsibility to act that should compel observers of evil: when Moshe and others are deported, one observer sighs and says, "What can we expect? It's war…" (Wiesel 1982, 4); when Moshe returns and tells of the mass slaughter of deported people by the Nazis, nobody believes him or wants to listen (Wiesel 1982, 4). Though Moshe strongly believes that he survived to warn them and does come back to warn them, they refuse to believe him (Wiesel 1982, 5) and merely remain "neutral," going about their business as usual and hoping for the best.

Another idea that Wiesel develops is that we should not be naive, should pay attention and understand when evil is tightening its grip on us, and be sure to act against the oppressor and not the oppressed. Despite Moshe's warnings, the people continue in their complacency into Spring of 1944: even when they were required to wear a yellow star, were banned from restaurants, cafes, railway travel and synagogues, forbidden from going out after six o'clock and finally forced into ghettos, the townspeople refused to believe that they were in danger. Thinking back on it, Eliezer stated, "It was neither German nor Jew who ruled the ghetto -- it was illusion" (Wiesel 1982, 10). Even when the Jewish townspeople were deported with few of their belongings, were beaten or saw others beaten and were forced to wait and be transported like cattle, some still seemed to believe that things would be alright in the end (Wiesel 1982, 24). They did not see the evil because they did not want to see the evil. In this way, Wiesel shows the danger of naivete when evil is tightening its grip. In addition to paying attention, we must also ensure that we act against the oppressor rather than acting against the oppressed. Eliezer describes a townswoman named Madame Schachter whose husband and two older sons were mistakenly deported ahead of her and who lost her mind during her own deportation. In order to keep her from screaming, the other townspeople tied her up, stuffed a gag in her mouth, and even beat her to stop her from screaming (Wiesel 1982, 21-23). Madame Schachter may indeed have gone mad but her madness was caused by seeing the horror of what had happened and what was happening to them. Furthermore, unlike the rest of the townspeople who kept hoping the worst was over, Madame Schachter may have intelligently anticipated what was going to happen to them in the ovens when she screamed, "Look at the fire! Flames, flames everywhere..." (Wiesel 1982, 23). It could be argued that Madame Schachter was the sanest person in that cattle car.

Wiesel also develops the idea that we must remember the horrors imposed upon humanity by evil, which makes us likelier to recognize and fight it in the future. As Eliezer states, "Never shall I forget that night…which has turned my life into one long night...Never shall I forget those flames which consumed by Faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered by God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never." (Wiesel 1982, 32). By using the phrase "never shall I forget" as a mantra, Wiesel instills the notion that these horrors imposed by evil must never be forgotten by the human race. Never forgetting is actually quite practical because by never forgetting, we can recognize the signs of evil and act against evil when it begins to tighten its grip.