Death In Elie Wiesel's Night

By: Lee A. Zito

Death is an experience that I hardly think about. Whether it concerns my family, friends, or myself, death is something in which I have ultimately no thought of in my day to day life. For Elie Wiesel, during his stay in a Nazi Concentration Camp, death was everywhere. Death was upon his family, friends, and lingered heavily upon him throughout his time spent as a prisoner at various concentration camps. In his world death was reality, death was everyday life. Death was even in the air as crematoriums burned the dead up into ashes. What I found so profoundly amazing within Wiesel 's book, Night, was the realness of something as a fortunate young adult I have never had to consider. That is death.

As a teenager during the early
Jewish people are suppose to fast during this day. Wiesel describes how once this day dominated his life. He believed so strongly in God and desperately wanted to atone for his sins. Prayer and fasting was mandatory for him to show God his dedication, love, and repentance. But that is his past. The reality is he is in a prison where he was condemned for the simple fact he was a Jew. How is he to practice his faith in a place where thousands of Jews were dying because of this, because of their beliefs, because of who they were? How is he suppose to fast when he is slowly melting away because of
Because most of the present experiences happen within the concentration camps, a lot of their reminiscing is of their family, or friends, people whom they loved or pleasant experiences which made them happy. I find this extremely effective and important. This device helps the reader receive a better picture of emotions and feelings the main character is going through. Not only can we be there for what the character is presently going through, but the author is allowing us to view how they once were, what they once felt. It 's as if the author is showing the reader, "Look, I had what you had, once I was normal, and had a normal life, but now this is my