Book Report On Night
Book Report on Night
The book Night is an autobiographical novel about Elie Wiesel’s journey through the Holocaust, and how Elie comes to realize that, as in nature, the “night” in one’s life eventually turns to “day.” Night is the first book in a trilogy which describes Elie’s feelings during and after the Holocaust. Many things changed in Elie during his journey including his beliefs. In the death camps, everyone slowly becomes more selfish, including Elie as they were worried about their own surrival. In the death camps, there are no fathers, mothers, brothers or sisters. It is every man for himself.
Some evidence of the selfishness occurs towards the end of the book when Elie was at his last camp. Elie moved camps as the frontline advanced. His father was sick and wanted to rest in the snow, but Elie walked away from his father and slept in his barracks. When he woke up he said, “A terrible thought came to my mind, don’t let me find him. If only I could get rid of this dead weight.” He felt terrible after he had that thought. This is when I decided that the camp experience was powerful enough to change him.
Later on, Elie’s father gets sick and can’t keep any liquid down, and throws up anything he drinks. So Elie’s father was placed in the sick area. The other prisoners would beat the father and take his bread because he was moaning. The father said to Elie, “They beat me, they snatched my bread.” His father kept trying to get Elie to give him water. Elie felt bad that he kept giving him the “poison.” I think the most painful death would be dying for dehydration or starving, which is what happened to Elie’s father in this brutal camp.
Eventually, Elie’s father dies. Elie said that if he thought in his conscience, he’d probably come up with the thought, “Free at last.” This is when you can clearly see the change in Elie’s character. Before this, Elie always felt guilty about the bad thoughts that came to his mind. Now the...
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