Loss Of Identity In Night Elie Wiesel

Night challenges the reader to recognize the physiological effect the camp has on Elie and his struggle to maintain his identity. As the books opens, Elie is family oriented and devoted to Judaism. When Hitler gains power, Elie is shipped to a concentration camp and will never be the same person again. When he first arrives at Auschwitz, he has to “throw [his] clothes at one end of the barracks” (32) and the SS officers “shaved off all the hair” (33) from his body. This is the first blow to Elie’s identity, because he is just another shaved prisoner in the same dirty striped clothes. Elie loses a part of himself here because something as small as a haircut changes his sense of what he looks like. He loses his power to how he appears to others. The Nazis do this immediately to take away the humanity of the Jews and to make them understand at Auschwitz that they are no longer a human, just a prisoner, an individual, a number. Elie recalls when he “became A-7713” (39). At that point, there is a …show more content…
The themes in Wiesel’s memoir are still very relevant. Everyone is raised under their parents beliefs and to think about going against the gender you were born as or their sexual orientation is hard. Many people today, struggling with being transgender or admitting their sexual orientation, have trouble because they fear the backlash from those with different views. Elie, like so many others, is scared of questioning “the norm” because of what others might think. He was raised in a very religious household so he doesn’t yet know a life with doubt. Elie struggles to be who he really is after he gets to the camp. People today make the transition to the other gender, but feel they are now outcasts even though the only difference is their inside matches their outside. Thematically Night is very relevant and readers should be taking away a greater appreciation of those struggling with who they want to