English 201
December 4th, 2013
Brutes
After reading the book "Night" by Eliezer Wiesel, One of the most tragic themes in the book is Wiesel's discovery of the way that atrocities and cruel treatment can make good people into brutes. Despite the difficult circumstances, Wiesel is able to endure the atrocities and remain true to his character and consistent with his morals.
When Wiesel first gets to the camps he discovers the actions taken by some to ensure their own survival sickens and it disgusts him, and at times, he even criticizes his own behavior and thoughts. Wiesel discovers the atrocities to include hangings, beatings, cremations and no one seems to care. After spending weeks at camp he discovers everyone will eventually turn into brutes to ensure survival but instead Wiesel keeps his head up and stays true to his goal which is get him and his dad past these tough times.
One of the questions that get asked from this prompt is that if Wiesel himself escaped this fate of turning into a brute and the answer is yes. Wiesel does escape this fate because he needs to take care of weak father. Struggling to survive day to day, not knowing what will happen next, every person is forced to make decisions that test one’s character, and one of the decisions makes Wiesel is to always stay in a good moral character like his father. At the end of the book
Araujo 2 Wiesel's father dies which then causes him to cry which means he did not turn into an emotionless brute like everyone else.
During the Holocaust, survival meant sacrifice. The decisions that the prisoners were forced to make can seem condemnable, but not making these arduous choices almost guaranteed death. Wiesel refused to give in and his strong virtues (like his father taught) miraculously protected him and aided him in his survival. However, countless people who were unwilling to go against their faith and morals were not as fortunate and lost the fight. Fortunately, Wiesel was able to remain true to himself, and it helped preserve his life as well.
At the end of the book Elie reflects on himself and how he changed and how he didn't. He reflects to himself how he never gave up on his dad and that he would always stay true to him no matter what circumstances. Elie did not change because of the horrific events instead he stayed with his father with a good moral conscience and helped each other get liberated from the camps.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
and is left with his father. Wiesel depicts his father as an unsentimental man who…
- 403 Words
- 1 Page
Good Essays -
Experiencing physical darkness, Wiesel would have never believed what his future would draw for him. It is religion what people had on the most when experiencing difficult times. However, the darkest the situation the greater the struggle for keeping the faith is. Wiesel was forced to watch people being tortured brutally and starved to death. Watching people hurting and because of that little by little losing faith in God. Friends and family died daily and the only thing left for young Wiesel was God. As his journey was coming to an end he started to doubt in God. People kept on dying and children hurting, but Wiesel kept praying. Then, a male child was torture, half was dead, Wiesel among other men was forced to watch, listening to man…
- 216 Words
- 1 Page
Satisfactory Essays -
After the prisoners endure months of cruel labor and the war is coming closer to home, the Jews are being moved to inland Germany. As Wiesel mentions, “The SS pushed us in, a hundred to a carriage, we were so thin!” (92). Over the next 10 days, Wiesel and the others are kept alive only by snow and bread with rations smaller than ever. The means for survival are so scarce, that the Jews even fight each other to the death within the cramped space of a cattle car only for a small piece of food. The train moves slowly, as stopping to rid the cars of the emaciated dead only become more frequent. Finally, the convoy arrives to Wiesel’s last destination in his horrifying experience. Unfortunately, the treatment and environment of the Jews continues to deteriorate the closer they get to the end of the war. This makes life for Wiesel all the harder, as his father now has contracted dysentery and is confined to the sick ward. Even in his final days, dehumanization is truly prevalent in Wiesel’s sick father. As described to Wiesel by the head of the block, “Here, there are no fathers, no brothers, no friends. Everyone lives and dies for himself alone” (105). This mindset carries on within the camp until Wiesel’s father’s eventual death. Without his father, Wiesel is left alone in the…
- 852 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Elie Wiesel could be described as your normal, average boy who loved his family, friends, and God. All this changed when WW2 began. Wiesel’s whole life got turned upside down and changed. Wiesel, along with his father, got sent to a concentration camp. In that camp they had lost everything, their personal possessions, their family, and even their will to live. In Night, Elie Wiesel uses diction, imagery, and tone to illustrate the loss of humanity during the holocaust. Loss of humanity was a huge theme during the holocaust because of all the things they had lost and the way the Naziz did this.…
- 505 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
The illusion he mention disappearing when they leave the wagon is true. Their fate is a true reality and all hope that this was all ‘never going to happen’ is now gone. When walking towards the crematorium, the babies and adults alike birth being burned instigated the first feelings that how God isn’t as just as he once thought. This makes me think that in some ways people are wrong about the Nazi legacy. While they did inevitably lose the war, they did succeed in somewhat of a larger scale: destroying the idea of the Jewish religion and God’s mighty for some of the prisoners. I also think that Elie Wiesel talked about how his father didn’t show his emotion to his family at all to put into perspective of when he cried, just how unbelievable all this was for Elie. My favorite part of the book so far is the break when Elie talks about the affect seeing the crematorium had changed his view of God. I like it because it shows such a raw emotion and how the Holocaust had put such lasting effect on his life. I wonder how my faith would be after witnessing such horrors. This ordeal makes you angry of how humanity could be so vile and indecent. While Elie talks about how he remained silent when a member of the Kappo hurts his father, it reminds me of how Elie in the preface says that silence was a key to the Jews being abused for so…
- 818 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Throughout the autobiography Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie tells us what it is like to be a Jew in the Holocaust. As a 15 year old boy Elie sees more awful things during the course of the different camps in Europe that we will see in our lifetime. Elie’s relationship with humanity changes from frustrated to no longer having any humanity left as he journeys from Sighet to freedom.…
- 1306 Words
- 6 Pages
Good Essays -
In Wiesel's book, “Night,” he narrates the life of an inmate in a concentration camp in Auschwitz. As you read, you start to get the feel of how scary the camps were and how terrified the workers were. Wiesel informed us how they treated the souls of the camp. They were scared and confused when they were first brought to in the camp. They lost their loved ones and many valuables.…
- 183 Words
- 1 Page
Good Essays -
There are many examples of dehumanization in this memoir. For example, Wiesel describes people reverting to primal, animalistic ways. Another example is the Nazis forcing people to do unforgivable things to their own family. These are both important examples. However, I think the best example is when Wiesel talks about his tattoo. While this is an obvious example, it is arguably the most important. After being tattooed, these people will be regarded as nothing more than a number on a list. Any hope that these people felt is gone. Hitler did not want them to hold on to their humanity.…
- 100 Words
- 1 Page
Good Essays -
imprisonment in the camps, Wiesel was an amazing brother and son, an amazing professor and…
- 566 Words
- 3 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
The Holocaust deeply affected Wiesel’s faith. In his book Night, he described how he felt in his first day of camp: “In one terrifying moment of lucidity, I thought of us as damned souls wandering through the void, souls condemned to wander through space until the end of time, seeking redemption, seeking…
- 943 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
With only fifteen to sixteen years of age, Wiesel continuously encountered pure torture. From being senselessly abused to unceasingly overworked, there was not a day where Wiesel could sleep with a light heart. “I happened to cross his path. He threw himself on me like a wild beast, beating me in the chest, on my head, throwing me to the ground and picking me up again, crushing me with ever more violent blows, until I was covered in blood” (“Night” 53). As a result of running into an angry SS officer, Wiesel first-hand encountered pure rage and torture. Being beaten senseless, regardless if you were a child or not, was not uncommon in the concentration camps. Although Wiesel was only fourteen years old, he endured consecutive blows from a grown…
- 513 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Have you ever noticed that when people are in a difficult struggle, they seem in a bad mood and often turn into brutes? In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, a teenaged boy goes through a horrific experience during the holocaust. In the beginning, he watched friendly people turn into starving savage beasts.…
- 319 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Adolf Hitler left a ruinous impression on the Jewish history. With over 40,000 construction camps and the slaughter of over 6 million Jews, he traumatized the culture. Eliezer Wiesel was one of those victims. To be beaten nearly to death, dehumanized, and to lose himself was tragic. During the Holocaust, all Jews were dehumanized and in Night by Elie Wiesel reveals this.…
- 121 Words
- 1 Page
Satisfactory Essays -
The horror and atrocities at Auschwitz have stripped millions of people from their humanity and have demonized them into beasts. This form of dehumanization occurs several times throughout the novel Night, by Elie Wiesel. There were unfortunate situations in which family, friends, and strangers would demolish each other for a miniscule quantity of bread. Another prime representation of the newly discovered brutality is when friends would betray each other to withstand another day in hell for an excess ration of whatever remains. By instinct, a person would attempt anything to persist on in the world, even if it means losing a grip on reality and taking a step closer to brutality. Elie Wiesel does in fact escape his ghastly fate by standing by his father’s side, and successfully resisting temptation.…
- 770 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
In the story, Wiesel talks about what it was like to be sent to the concentration camp Auschwitz. Not only did he talk about what it was like to be sent there, but he also described what it was like to go through the camp. To me, I realized how brave Wiesel was to have been in such an awful and discriminating situation and still try to find hope. If it were me in his shoes I have no idea what I would have done. It’s hard to think about it considering that nobody I know has ever been in a situation close to that. I am sure that if it came down to it I could find the will to go on and give it all that I have. Just so I could live to have my family and other people know the truth behind not only what happened at the holocaust. But, my own personal…
- 552 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays