Character Changes in Night by Elie Wiesel Essay Example

The novel Night, written by Elie Wiesel, provides first-person perspective insight into the Holocaust and many of the tragedies it caused. These tragedies not only caused physical hardships but a great number of mental hardships as well. As told by Elie Wiesel, there were many losses of loved ones, desires for even the smallest amount of food or water, and even suicidal thoughts. Everyone, including Elie, has been transformed in some way due to the Holocaust. Although many Jews were turned into brutes, not by their own fault, Elie Wiesel seemed to have remained a good person, even with the trauma of his experiences. 

One way Elie has tried his best to remain a good person throughout his experience is how he tried to help his father as much as possible. Even though he knew deep down that his father didn’t have long to live, he did everything he could to be with his father and support him. In the novel, Elie explains how he had suicidal thoughts. However, although he longed of ending his life quickly back then, he didn’t, just so he could help his father. “My father's presence was the only thing that stopped me. He was running next to me, out of breath, out of strength, desperate. I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his sole support.” Elie explains that he didn’t feel right to let himself die, even if that was what he really wanted, he let himself endure the suffering and pain of the rest of the Holocaust just so his father would not be alone. Elie also gives his father rations of his own food at times and whenever he finds extra food he always gives most of it to his father. “I listened to him without interrupting. He was right, I thought deep down, not daring to admit it to myself. Too late to save your old father…You could have two rations of bread, two rations of soup… It was only a fraction of a second, but it left me feeling guilty. I ran to get some soup and brought it to my father.” In this quote, Elie knows that his father is on the verge of death anyway and that these extra rations won’t help him too much in the long run. Elie, however, brings him food even after fully realizing this. Elie himself needs this food so much as well but gives it to his father. Elie could’ve accepted his father’s defeat and made things better for himself, but he didn’t, even when that meant sometimes he would barely eat his ration of food, this aspect of his journey proved Elie to remain a good person, even when the times were tough. 

Another way Elie has stuck with the good side of himself throughout this journey was when he would help the friends that he made and help them to not give up. “But, while running, he began to undo his buttons and yelled to me: ‘I can't go on. My stomach is bursting…’ ‘Make an effort, Zalman…Try…’” Elie was trying to help a friend he made, a young boy from Poland, and was trying to help him even though Elie himself could get in trouble if he stopped for just a second to try to help this boy. Another instance where Elie was trying to help a friend was when he tried to help Juliek to escape the crowds, only that Elie was almost suffocated himself. " ‘Are you all right, Juliek?’ I asked, less to know his answer than to hear him speak, to know he was alive.” Elie also states afterward knowing Juliek made it out alive, “All I could hear was the violin, and it was as if Juliek's soul had become his bow. He was playing his life. His whole being was gliding over the strings. His unfulfilled hopes. His charred past, his extinguished future. He played that which he would never play again. I shall never forget Juliek. How could I forget this concert given before an audience of the dead and dying?”  Elie, although he had so much on his mind like the thought of death, being shot or trampled if he does one thing wrong, focused on the music Juliek played and how he would never forget him. Elie empathizes with Juliek and describes his life with the music he plays, Elie goes into depth about how Juliek’s life is right now, and he helps the readers get an inside look at Juliek’s life, although we didn’t hear much about him in the book because Juliek’s life right now is much similar to his.

After reading this novel, others may think that Elie transformed into a corrupt person. These beliefs may be due to how Elie says he rarely thought about the ones who have passed. When Elie said his mother and little sister most likely died, he also said he didn’t think of them much, as his father either. “I spent my days in total idleness. With only one desire: to eat. I no longer thought of my father, or my mother.” Elie said that he didn’t think of the rest of his family anymore and that his only thoughts were food. To some, this may seem a bit selfish, to not think of family anymore simply because they are gone and you are hungry, but Elie hasn’t eaten in so very long. Anyone would’ve thought of eating, and Elie only didn’t think about his family because he helped them as much as he could, he even told Reizel’s husband, a family friend, that Reizel was safe, just so he could be happy, whether that was actually true or not. Elie also stayed alive just for his family, he explains earlier that he was staying alive for his father to have his support. People may also believe that Elie has turned corrupt because he states how he, himself, and the other free people didn’t think about revenge for the ones who died. “Our first act as free men was to throw ourselves onto the provisions. That's all we thought about. No thought of revenge, or of parents. Only of bread.” Some may believe that perhaps they cared more about food than revenge, which was not the case because Elie and the others haven’t eaten in so long, the rations of food they got each day were barely enough. One could argue that even after they ate and were not hungry, they still didn’t think of revenge or at least something they could do to fight for the deaths of their loved ones. “And even when we were no longer hungry, not one of us thought of revenge.” However, Elie didn’t think of revenge because he knew that there wasn’t much they could do, now that these loved ones had already passed. Of course, Elie still cares very much about everything that happened and all his losses, that is why, years later, he makes a speech about the Holocaust.

Last but not least, winning the Nobel Prize and giving a speech about the Holocaust, was yet another way Elie proved to remain a good person. Not only did Elie win the Nobel Prize for outstanding actions such as writing this book, but he also gave a speech about it. “This honor belongs to all the survivors and their children and, through us, to the Jewish people with whose destiny I have always identified.” In this quote from his speech, Elie Wiesel says how this prize does not only belong to him, but to everyone who had to go through that difficult period of time. Elie acknowledges everyone else who went through what he did and remembers them as well. “ Do I have the right to accept this great honor on their behalf? I do not. No one may speak for the dead, no one may interpret their mutilated dreams and visions. And yet, I sense their presence. I always do—and at this moment more than ever. The presence of my parents, that of my little sister. The presence of my teachers, my friends, my companions…” This quote shows how Elie still cares deeply about everyone who has passed and senses their presence within him, everyone from that traumatic journey, he didn’t forget for the greater good of himself, he remembered for the greater good of everyone else. 

Elie Wiesel, the author of this novel, Night, had experienced the horrid time of the Holocaust himself and presents clearly in the story the many changes that he went through. Of course, no one could have stayed the same, especially after that experience, some changed for good, and some changed for the worse. Elie is one of the few people that made it out alive, and whilst he is thankful for it, it leads both him and us to wonder how he has changed. Elie has changed for the better in many ways such as helping his father, his friends, and sharing everyone's stories with readers to be passed down to new generations, so history won’t repeat itself.