【Book Review】Night

Night

    Eliezer, a young teenage boy, lives peacefully in a small town with his parents and neighbors, but their life is disrupted by the arrival of German troops. At first, Eliezer and his family alongside with other Jews are forced to leave their house and move into small ghettos. Then, with starvation and despair, they are transported to the concentration camp. From then on, Eliezer faces the most tragic and desperate journey of his life, which is filled with separation, blood, and death…

    Night is one of the most predominant books about World War II and holocaust issues. Elie Wiesel, the original author of this book, initially wrote it in French and then approved it to be translated into English. Instead of using a third person narrative, which can introduce a more general perspective to the readers, Elie Wiesel writes this book in the first person perspective as a documentation of his own experience during the concentration camp. It’s evident that Night and The Diary of a Young Girl resemble each other in terms of their background as well as the technique of narrating. Even though this kind of narrative cannot bring every single character into the story, it creates a striking and emotional feeling to readers. This book is characterized as a memoir or autobiography, nonetheless the story is said to be altered in some trivial parts for the purpose of making the plot flow more effectively. I believe this is what’s called fictionalize. Besides, I believe that when readers observe from the perspective of an immature adolescent, they will empathize with the narrator and thus feel even more emotional impact during Eliezer’s journey.

Elie Wiesel

-Spoiler Alert!-

    Numerous issues are exhibited within this story. The first one I would like to mention is Eliezer’s struggle with his own faith. From the beginning, Eliezer is not only curious but also doubtful about his religion. He eagerly reads and studies Torah and the Cabbala which is doctrine of Jewish mysticism. Before the disaster takes place, he holds the belief that since god is good, then the world must be good. His belief is completely destroyed after seeing the cruel scene in the concentration camp. The drastic holocaust reveals the negative side of every human being. Even Eliezer’s long-held belief is shaken, he still prays to god when he faces despondent situations. Deep down in Eliezer’s heart, he will never abandon his own religion.

    Wartime is the best period to reveal true human nature. Nazis are not the only determinant of this tragedy, prisoners, people who are persecuted by the German armies, are also the major aspects. While the Nazis are torturing Jewish people and revealing the atrocious nature of war, the confliction raised between prisoners are even more shocking and unbelievable. Eliezer witnesses the son kills his own father just for the sake of a small piece of bread, whilst some other people strangle the son soon afterward. He realizes that there is neither friendship nor kinship in the concentration camp because everybody is forced to fight for himself. That’s the cruel aspect of war and humans.

    In several parts of the story, the author uses fire as sort of an implication. I don’t know how fire is related to Bible or Jewish tradition, but I have my own thought about this iterative mention of fire. When fire first appears in the story, it represents the burning furnace that devours thousands of people’s lives. Then on the truck to the concentration camp, the frantic mother also exclaims several times about the fire on far east side, which brings an apparent ominous feeling. In my eyes, fire is like a dread weapon which eradicates all the bright side of humans and causes people to suffer from persecution. It sets up the story and foreshadow that Eliezer is doomed to lose all of his beloved ones. Fire is the representation of evil in this story, it always imply the arrival of death, devastation, blood, and death.

    I highly recommend this book to everyone who is interested in learning more about the holocaust as well as the World War II. This book is such a tragic and emotional story that every bits and pieces of it is drenched with mourn and desperation. The entire story is very depressed except a few pages in the beginning. Although this book is extremely short with just over a hundred pages, it carries extremely heavy issues. It inspires readers to think deeply about the nature of humanity and the dread of war. Books that propel us to contemplate are the books that are worthy of our attention and time.