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How Does Elie Wiesel Change In Night

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Something I found myself wondering while reading Night by Elie Wiesel, was how much the narrator , Wiesel, had changed from the beginning of the novel to the end? In what ways has his identity been stripped of him, warped and destroyed until he was barely recognizable by the end of the book? In the beginning, Wiesel is a young boy, around the age of thirteen, living in a village called Sighet with his family. He is devoutly religious and wants, more than anything else to study the Kabbala and his Jewish faith. While meeting with a man in town, Moishe the Beadle, and having discussions about his beliefs, he continues to pursue religious study. However, in 1942 Moishe and all of the other foreign Jews of Sighet are taken by German soldiers …show more content…

He describes the horrific killing of all of the other Jews and only escaped because the Nazis had shot him in the leg, leaving him for dead. Much to his dismay, nobody in the village believes him. Despite his pleas for the other Jews to hear what he’s saying, they all think that he’s lying or looking for sympathy. Wiesel is one of these people and more or less ignores what Moishe has to say and, as stated on page eight, “devotes himself to his studies.” But all of this changes in the spring of 1944 when the German soldiers arrive in Sighet. Soon after gaining the trust of the people, the Nazis begin placing restrictions on them and later, segregate the Jews into ghettos. It’s only then that many of the Jews begin to realize the danger they have been placed in due to the German soldiers being there. After some time in the ghetto, Wiesel’s life truly spirals from his control when his family is sent to the Birkenau Concentration Camp. From there, prisoners are sorted by gender, separating them from family and other loved ones, and abused by guards and other prisoners. They travel back and forth between Auschwitz and Birkenau for a while, in the process, they are stripped of their identities by having their heads shaven and being forced to dress in identical clothes, as well as being referred to as the number …show more content…

Whether it be their belongings, their clothes, hair, family, and even their humanity. Wiesel, his father, and the other prisoners try to hold onto what’s left of their dignity until it becomes impossible. They are humiliated daily by the guards by being forced to live in filth and referred to as dogs. Wiesel remarks on page 36: “In one terrifying moment of lucidity, I thought of us as damned souls wandering through the void, souls condemned to wander through space until the end of time, seeking redemption, seeking oblivion, without any hope of finding either.” This quote shows us just how dehumanized Wiesel felt in the camp. The soldiers had taken every part of their humanity by treating the Jews like slaves and animals. It was through this stripping of Wiesel’s humanity that took who he was as a person from his identity. The killing of one’s body and soul can undoubtedly lead to the demolition of a person’s identity. When he is separated from his mother and sisters and sees the horrendous crimes being inflicted upon the Jewish people, Wiesel contemplates suicide as they walk past the flames to which the Jews were thrown. This is clearly not something that he would have considered before, so you can already see how the conditions of the camp have changed him. He describes the permanent emotional scars the first night left on him on page 34: “Never shall I forget that night, the first

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