Analysis And Themes In Eliezer Wiesel's Night
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CHAPTER 5
The color-coded boxes under "Analysis & Themes" below make it easy to track the themes throughout the work. Each color corresponds to one of the themes explained in the Themes section of this LitChart.
Summary
Analysis & Themes
On the evening of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) the Jews in Buna gather for a prayer. Eliezer, who once lived for prayer and religious study, rebels against this. He feels that humans are, in a sense, greater than God, stronger than God, to still pray to a God who allows such horrors. "I was the accuser, God the accused… …show more content…
In other words, the people show more forgiveness to God than He does to them.
Eliezer shares a silent, powerful moment of sadness and understanding with his father. For Yom Kippur, when Jews traditionally fast, his father forbids Eliezer from fasting. Eliezer no longer believes in such rituals, anyway.
This is one of the few moments in the narrative of pure love and comprehension. But it occurs in an instant when both father and son share with each other their lost faith in God.
The prisoners must go through a "selection" when they come back from work. The veterans say the newer prisoners are lucky—not long before, corpses were collected by the hundreds each day, and selections took place every week. The head of the block tells them to move around beforehand, to give color to their skin and to show they are healthy. Dr. Mengele watches the prisoners go past him and occasionally writes down the tattooed number of one of them. A few of the feebler ones are written down, but Eliezer is not. However, no one is immediately taken …show more content…
A few days later, the head of the block reads off the numbers of those who have been selected to die. Eliezer's father is among them, as is Akiba Drumer, the singer. His father hurriedly gives Eliezer a knife and a spoon, all that he owns. Eliezer is sent off to work. All day he wonders if he will ever see his father again. When he returns to the camp with his work group that evening, his father is still there, having convinced the Nazis that he is still fit for work.
This is another instance in which Eliezer can do nothing to help or protect his
Night
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Chapter 4
NEXTChapter 6
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CHAPTER 5
The color-coded boxes under "Analysis & Themes" below make it easy to track the themes throughout the work. Each color corresponds to one of the themes explained in the Themes section of this LitChart.
Summary
Analysis & Themes
On the evening of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) the Jews in Buna gather for a prayer. Eliezer, who once lived for prayer and religious study, rebels against this. He feels that humans are, in a sense, greater than God, stronger than God, to still pray to a God who allows such horrors. "I was the accuser, God the accused… …show more content…
In other words, the people show more forgiveness to God than He does to them.
Eliezer shares a silent, powerful moment of sadness and understanding with his father. For Yom Kippur, when Jews traditionally fast, his father forbids Eliezer from fasting. Eliezer no longer believes in such rituals, anyway.
This is one of the few moments in the narrative of pure love and comprehension. But it occurs in an instant when both father and son share with each other their lost faith in God.
The prisoners must go through a "selection" when they come back from work. The veterans say the newer prisoners are lucky—not long before, corpses were collected by the hundreds each day, and selections took place every week. The head of the block tells them to move around beforehand, to give color to their skin and to show they are healthy. Dr. Mengele watches the prisoners go past him and occasionally writes down the tattooed number of one of them. A few of the feebler ones are written down, but Eliezer is not. However, no one is immediately taken …show more content…
A few days later, the head of the block reads off the numbers of those who have been selected to die. Eliezer's father is among them, as is Akiba Drumer, the singer. His father hurriedly gives Eliezer a knife and a spoon, all that he owns. Eliezer is sent off to work. All day he wonders if he will ever see his father again. When he returns to the camp with his work group that evening, his father is still there, having convinced the Nazis that he is still fit for work.
This is another instance in which Eliezer can do nothing to help or protect his