The thought of death strikes fears in the thoughts of society. Similarly, death is also a major theme of Elie Wiesel’s Night. The prisoners of the Holocaust during WWII experienced death in every form imaginable on a daily basis. The main character Elie Wiesel experienced these horrors first hand. After being ripped from is normal civilian life he placed in a hell on earth. Throughout the course of the narration there are several accounts of graphics experiences described in vivid detail. The sights of death drained every ounce of humanity left in him until he was reduced to nothing but a living corpse. This book was written with the intent to open the eyes of the world to the darkest form of human brutality. In an attempt to ensure that the
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The theme of death is a recurring theme in the novel. The Mirror scene is a good example of it, as it connects both meanings of death: the physical death and the symbolical. Three days after the liberation of Buchenwald, Elie suffered from food poisoning. One day during his hospitalization he decided to glance in a mirror because he was curious to see how he had changed. This would be the first time since being held captive in concentration camps that he has seen himself in a mirror. Talking to himself, he describes the changes that have occurred to him. Ellie said, “from the depths of the mirror a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me” (Wiesel 115) While he has moved on from this traumatic period in this life, the pain he endured will continue reside him till his final breath. While he physically survived the Holocaust, he was not the same person emotionally, physically, or spiritually. These aspects of Elie are nothing but a relic of the past never to be regained again. This quote is important to understand the stories its major theme of death. Since the aspects of suffering and death had taken a tremendous toll on Ellie, he was practically dead. Death is an important theme because it opens the eyes of the world to them horrors of the
The theme of death is a recurring theme in the novel. The Mirror scene is a good example of it, as it connects both meanings of death: the physical death and the symbolical. Three days after the liberation of Buchenwald, Elie suffered from food poisoning. One day during his hospitalization he decided to glance in a mirror because he was curious to see how he had changed. This would be the first time since being held captive in concentration camps that he has seen himself in a mirror. Talking to himself, he describes the changes that have occurred to him. Ellie said, “from the depths of the mirror a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me” (Wiesel 115) While he has moved on from this traumatic period in this life, the pain he endured will continue reside him till his final breath. While he physically survived the Holocaust, he was not the same person emotionally, physically, or spiritually. These aspects of Elie are nothing but a relic of the past never to be regained again. This quote is important to understand the stories its major theme of death. Since the aspects of suffering and death had taken a tremendous toll on Ellie, he was practically dead. Death is an important theme because it opens the eyes of the world to them horrors of the