Night By Elie Wiesel And Maus Essay

Superior Essays
Introduction The Holocaust is a very important time in history. It can be difficult for one to learn about the horrors that happened during that time. Therefore, many books have been written to help students get a better understanding of this tragic time. Among these hundreds of books are Night, by, Elie Wiesel and Maus, by, Art Spiegelman. These books are very different from each other, but they both do a phenomenal job at educating people on the Holocaust. One may argue that Maus is a better teaching tool, however, Night, is a better book to teach Gr. 10 students about the Holocaust. Night is better at showing the effect the Holocaust had on the Jews, it’s written by someone who experienced the Holocaust, and the violence in it is more …show more content…
The author of Night writes about his personal experience in the Holocaust, which allows readers to know what he was feeling or thinking in certain situations. When Elie’s father died, Elie said, “I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. But I was out of tears. And deep inside me, if I could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience, I might have found something like free at last!”. (Wiesel, 112). Elie revealed to the readers that he was somewhat relieved that his father had died. Elie and his father were very close. They always protected each other. During the Holocaust, he was only focused on survival, and having his father gone allowed him to just focus on protecting himself. If someone else wrote a book about Elie’s experience in the Holocaust, readers would have most likely never known this piece of information, because it was something Elie thought to himself. Knowing what Elie was thinking during this situation allowed readers to see how his relationship with his father changed because of the horrible events that happened during the Holocaust. Therefore, knowing what Elie is thinking and feeling helps readers get a better understanding of what the Holocaust was like and how awful it was, making Night a good teaching tool. The author of Maus is writing about his father’s experiences in the Holocaust, so he’s unable to write what his father was thinking or feeling in certain situations. For example, on page 93 of Maus, Vladek was telling Artie that during the Holocaust, all the Jews were called to a stadium and were given a stamp. People without a stamp were kept at the stadium and were never seen from again. Vladek told Artie, “Those with a stamp were let to go home. But there were very few Jews now left in Sosnowiec. One from three they kept at the stadium… Maybe 10 000 people- and along with them, my father. Well…

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