Night By Elie Wiesel: Literary Analysis

“Fading light buttered the ridges until shadows licked them clean and they were lost to nightfall.”- Daniel Woodrell. This quote by Daniel Woodrell illustrates how light used to exist until it was extinguished by the darkness brought about by a shadow. Moreover, this was just the case for the author of the novel Night- Elie Wiesel. As a survivor of the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel was forced into witnessing horrible atrocities that embedded a veil of darkness around him and thus he was deprived from seeing the light in his life. As a result of this, any possible hope for a better future was pretty much sucked out of him. This state of hopelessness is greatly emphasized in Eliezer's novel as Eliezer makes an attempt to describe the struggles he …show more content…
For instance, Eliezer turns from a life filled with light to one of complete darkness in which his faith in God is greatly shaken. An example of this can be seen at the beginning of the book, where Elie Wiesel devotes his time to studying and comprehending the essence of divinity. However, as his life makes a turn and the Nazis begin to subjugate the Jews under the ruling hand of the Fuhrer, Eliezer finds himself slowly questioning the goodness of God and his immense mercy. According to the novel on page 65 it states "For God's sake, where is God?" And within me, I heard a voice answer. "Where he is? This is where- hanging here from this gallows..." This shows how God's silence in regards to the Jews suffering killed Eliezer's faith in Him, thus God became dead in Eliezer's heart. To add on, the symbolism of the night time (God's silence) has also led Eliezer to rebel against God in several occasions. For instance, this can be seen on page 69 of the novel, which states "I did not fast. First of all, to please my father who had forbidden me to do so. And then there was no longer any reason for me to fast. I no longer accepted God's silence. I swallowed my ration of soup, I turned that act into a symbol of rebellion, of protest against Him. And I nibbled on my crust of bread. …show more content…
Faith is the shield that takes upon itself the attacks of enemies who intend to devour and destroy any trace of light in your life. For what is faith, but the certainty of what can't be seen, and it's this faith that was put into trial many times by Elie Wiesel. For instance, throughout the novel Night, Elie Wiesel describes his struggle to maintain faith despite all the gore and carnage that he witnesses during the Holocaust. Moreover, he attempts to do this with the continuous use of the word 'night' which is tied with a negative and dark connotation. After all, as the author himself stated, how can you possibly inscribe in words the unscrupulous things that were done to the Jews in the so called Holocaust (an infracture so wicked and hellish that left irreversible and unerasable scars on the souls of many Jews)? Honestly, is there even a word that could possibly do any better than dilute the gargantuan significance of this event without being considered sacrilege? Nevertheless, Eliezer doesn't only remain a witness whose life testifies of this defining moment, but his book has transmitted to many the prominent significance of what Jews faced during the Holocaust- where millions upon millions of lacerated and mutilated bodies were turned into nothing more than cinder and ashes in one long, perennial night. Thus, by the usage of the word 'night' Eliezer allowed readers to better