Eye Motif in Night by Elie Wiesel (Book Analysis)

“And the look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me.”(109)

Elie Wiesel, a young boy from Sighet was captured by the Germans and taken to a concentration camp at the young age of 15 years old. His story describes the ineffable horrors of his experience in the camps and of the tragedies he faced at such a young age. Author Elie Wiesel demonstrates how the motif of eyes can portray our inner feelings, the feelings we can’t put into words through his memoir, Night. 

Eyes can show more emotion than words can. Wiesel repeatedly correlates people with their eyes. On page 58, he describes the eyes of the jews with “our eyes shone with hope.” The jews were feeling hopeful that they would soon be freed because of the alert. This example, seeming small, contributes to the larger meaning of the text by being a part of many instances of eye imagery. In the context of what was happening to the jews, words might not have been sufficient. Instead, using imagery like eyes makes the reader interpret the scene for themselves. It makes the reader picture what is happening with the help of Elie telling us what their eyes looked like. More examples of eye imagery are on pages 72 and 74. He uses eyes to convey the overwhelming feelings of the edge of death. The example on page 72 talks about when Akiba Drumer was selected to die and Elie describes this as “his eyes glazed” and “ suddenly his eyes would become blank, nothing but two open wounds, two pits of terror.” The way he illustrates his eyes to be like death shows how death may have already taken its toll on him. It shows how even though Akiba wasn’t dead yet, his spirit was. He had given up and there was no hope for him. Again on page 74, the author depicts a Hungarian jew to have “dead eyes.” Like Akiba, the jew wasn’t actually dead yet, but he had dysentery. He had accepted his fate and was on the brink of death. That is why Elie classifies him with dead eyes. These examples go back to the meaning of eyes as a whole. Wiesel uses eyes to describe what he can’t put into words. 

The consistent use of eye imagery expresses how our eyes can say what words can’t. In Elie’s final line of his book, he talks about how his own eyes are staring back at him, and “the look in his eyes.” has never ceased. He leaves the reader with this final line to make them think about what his eyes may have looked like. Scared, tired, cold? With everything he witnessed and was put through, you can only imagine what he was feeling. So, what words do your eyes speak when you don’t?