Night Week of: 3-30-15

Prompt: How do Elie's experiences during the Holocaust change him as a person?

               During the book Night by Elie Weisel, you can really see the difference in the main character's actions, attitude, and his feelings toward specific things. He is growing up with many instances of pain, family loss, abuse, and cruelty. He is supposed to learn  how to cope with his life in ghettos, concentration camps, and he is forced to see things that no one usually sees every single day. He loses so many things that he once had, family, faith, friends, etc. He was exposed to things that changed him at the moment, and him in the future.

               When you read further into the book, you can really see that his ideas of religion have dramatically changed. He used to be very religious and his beliefs were very strong, but by the end of the book it is obvious that he doesn't believe the same things. He said "Why did I pray?... Why did I live? Why did I breathe?” (pg. 2) This shows that he put praying, living, and breathing on the same level of importance. All three of those things were something that meant so much to him, but by the end he seems to realize that he can not believe in those things, and that he can only worry about himself. He also said "During the day I studied the Talmud, and at night I ran to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the temple.” (pg. 1) This shows that he would think of his religion as the most important thing to him, and he would pretty much do anything to maintain it. Elie was so religious, and all of the concentration camps changed him and his religious mindset. After being in those camps, he didn't know who he was anymore, and he used to rely on God for that. He was exposed to so many inhumane things, and he always asked by God would let that happen to people. He lost faith by the end of the book, and his beliefs were held on the smallest string ever. Between the different sections, he would always bring up his religious beliefs. By the end of the book, that was one of the last things he wanted to talk about at those hard moments. He only wanted to worry about food, his father, and staying alive.

Another way Elie changed was with his inhumanity towards other prisoners and family. There are many instances where he has witnessed, and been apart of inhumane things between other people. Someone once said to him when his father was sick "Here, every man has to fight for himself and not think of anyone else… Here, there are no fathers, no brothers, no friends. everyone lives and dies for himself alone." This shows that when they were in the camps, it was very hard to worry about other people that were in your life, or that you were once close to. He used to want to only be with him family, but by the end of the book, he seems to only worry about himself. I mean, if you were put into those type of conditions, you will probably start to think about the same things. There was one instance when Elie's father was getting beaten up, and Elie just stood there and watched because he did not want to get hurt either. There were also other parts when Elie saw a boy was attacking his father for the food he had. The man said “Meir. Meir, my boy! Don’t you recognize me? I’m your father… you’re hurting me… you’re killing you father! I’ve got some bread… for you too.. for you too…” This shows that families are starting to turn against each other, and it is almost causing them to kill each other as well. There are many other examples of inhumanity like throwing babies into fire, people getting their names taken and then given numbers, people were hung and no one was bothered by it, and many more.

In each section it is clear to see that these two things have really changed. He has been through so much, and that is what has made him the person he is today.