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‘There remained only a shape that looked at me. A dark flame had entered my soul and devoured it’. To what extent would you argue that Elie is destroyed by the experiences he recounts in Night?
Before the Germans arrive at Sighet, night time is for Elie a time of spiritual and physical renewal. It is a time of studying religious texts, of prayer, and of restful sleep. This comforting sense of night is forever lost as Elie experiences the horrible, dreadful nights of the concentration camps; those experiences are the ones, which allowed a dark flame to enter his soul and devour it, destroying him forever. Night begins in 1941, when, the narrator of the story, Elie, is twelve years old. Having grown up in a little town called Sighet in Transylvania, Elie is a studious, deeply religious boy with a loving family consisting of his parents and three sisters. One day, Moshe the Beadle, a Jew from Sighet, deported in 1942, with whom Elie had once studied the Cabbala, comes back and warns the town of the impending dangers of the German army. No one listens and years pass by. But by 1944, Germans are already in the town of Sighet and they set up ghettos for the Jews. After a while, the Germans begin the deportation of the Jews to
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Below are additional random excerpts from the paper...
the concentration camp in Auschwitz. The overwhelming sense of Elie's experiences during the first day of camp is that it is like a nightmare. As Elie and the other prisoners walk past the chimneys at Birkenau, they stand motionless, unable to comprehend the sights: "We stayed motionless, petrified. Surely it was all a nightmare? An unimaginable nightmare?" (Chapter 3, pg. 28) Elie thinks he's dreaming. After pinching his face, in disbelief he utters, "How could it be possible for them to burn people, children, and for the world to keep silent? No, none of this could be true. It was a nightmare...." (Chapter 3, pg. 30). They begin to recite the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead. For the first time, Elie begins to feel a sense of revolt against a God who would allow something like this to happen and these experiences begin changing and destroying Elie. At this very stage in Elie’s horrifying journey, I believe it is the beginning of the dark flame entering his soul and devouring it. He has always been a religious boy who enjoyed spending time at the temple with his spiritual mentor, Moshe the Beadle and had a strong faith in God. But at this early point in Elie’s journey it is apparent that a dark flame has entered his soul and has began destroying Elie’s strong faith in God and has caused him to question God when misfortunes come upon him, thus resulting in Elie’s doubt about God’s absolute justice, when he had always been a deeply religious boy and so devoted to God. That first night of camp is forever etched into Elie's mind. His entire narration seems like an account of one long, endless night: "So much had happened within such a few hours that I had lost all sense of time. When had we left our houses? And the ghetto? And the train? Was it only a week? One night-one single night?" (Chapter 3, pg. 34. It is evident that even from one night in the concentration camp Elie’s life has already began being destroyed by his experiences: "Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed.... Never shall I forget those moments, which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never."(Chapter 3, pg. 32) At Birkenau, Elie is separated from his mother and sisters. Realizing the importance of being together, Elie and his father lie about their age. After a brief stay at Auschwitz, they are moved to a new camp, Buna. At Buna, Elie goes through the dehumanising process of the concentration camps. Both he and his father experience severe beatings at the hand of the kapos (overseers). In one instance, Elie receives twenty-five strokes of the whip from Idek the Kapo for walking in on him while he is with a girl. All the prisoners are overworked and undernourished. Many lose faith in God, including Elie. A week later, the prisoners notice a black gallows in the middle of the camp. A youth from Warsaw, a strong, well built boy is hanged for stealing. Everyone is forced to march past the dead youth and stare into his eyes and at his "lolling tongue of death." Although there are other hangings, one has a particularly hau
Some topics in this essay:
Akiba Drumer,
God Elie’s,
Dr Mengele,
Elie Elie,
Jews Germans,
Dutch Oberkapo,
Night Germans,
God Elie,
Buchenwald April,
Idek Kapo,
faith god,
dark flame,
dark flame entered,
flame entered,
3 pg,
strong faith,
elie’s soul,
slow painful spiritual,
entered elie’s,
dr mengele,
chapter 3 pg,
spiritual death,
day elie,
painful spiritual death,
flame entered elie’s,
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Approximate Word count = 2227
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)  |
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RELATED ESSAYS |
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The Night The poem Acquainted with the Night was written by Robert Frost in 1928. It .... with. He has become "one aquatinted with the night (ll. .... |
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Night The novel Night, by Elie Wiesel, has had much sociological significance on society. Night is Wiesel 's attempt to trace the dissolution .... |
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Night Night is a dramatic book that tells the horror and evil of the concentration camps that many were imprisoned in during World War II. .... |
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night Night by Elie Wisel is a memoir about the author 's experiences at 5 different concentration camps; the mood is intensely gloomy to the point of total tragedy .... |
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night "Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. .... |
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PROFESSIONAL ESSAYS |
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Night and Fog Night and Fog Introduction The Night and Fog Decree issued by Nazi Germany on Dec 7th, 1941, began with this first directive, ôWithin the occupied territories |
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Friday Night Lights (2004) Friday Night Lights (2004) Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Tim McGraw, Derek Luke, Jay Hernandez, Lucas Black, Garrett Hedlund Introduction ôFriday Night |
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Night & Fog NIGHT & FOG A Holocaust Survivors Primer On Life The book Night and Fog by Arne Brun Lie is another memoir of a holocaust survivor but it is different than |
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Late Night Talk Shows Late night talk shows are a highly profitable venture for television networks when they attract an audience, and they are a drain on the network coffers and |
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A Midsummer Night's Dream A Midsummer NightÆs Dream One of the functions of literature is to force the reader to question the things he has taken for granted; another is to heighten |
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A Midsummer Night's Dream In William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the character of Lysander expresses the idea that "the course of true love never did run smooth" (Ii134 |
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