Night by Elie Wiesel Essay Example
Night by Elie Wiesel is a memoir that illustrates the journey of a young boy going into and through Nazi concentration camps. It showcases his struggles with growing up and discovering himself while also going through gruesome experiences and daily abuse. At different times in the book, Elie’s trauma can become a hard pill for the reader to swallow, but it is necessary to fully understand the underlying themes. Recognizing and learning about the Jewish people’s agony can help the reader more than they think. This piece of literature helps teenagers build on their morals by exploring how historical context and true diversity are connected and help create a positive impact.
Morality can be represented differently. It could be people acting positively towards others, how people's ideas impact others, and good actions. Night gives different instances and examples of what impact Hitler’s actions had on the German people. Hitler needed someone to blame and chose the Jews, who have a bad history in German culture. His words were ingrained into young and old German minds, this influenced their character and led to the heinous acts inside and outside the camps. The soldiers’ previous acceptable morals were clouded by the threatening Nazi influence. Night also shows examples of pure morals in the prisoners; the prisoners holding onto their faith and staying close with their fellow Jews helped them maintain their own beliefs. "Oh God, Master of the Universe, in your infinite compassion, have mercy on us ... (Wiesel 20) This shows incoming freshmen how they should be careful with how they are influenced. High school can be a hard place to navigate. Freshmen should make sure their morals are always on their minds when making decisions.
True diversity is looking deeper and recognizing everyone's individual differences more than the visual ones. The purpose of the concentration camps was to eliminate that idea. The Nazis wanted to eradicate people who did not fit their perfect picture of Aryan appearance. Discrimination was very prominent in Night and made Jews second guess themselves. This led to fellow prisoners judging each other and separating themselves when they should’ve been connecting. “I’ve got more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He’s the only one who’s kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people. (Wiesel, 77)” Teenagers can look at this and think about how they are treating others. They should always be respectful and surround themselves with diverse groups of people. It makes teenagers develop solid connections with people that are genuine, regardless of their personal opinions or looks.
Different information about a topic or place that influenced the events that followed is the definition of historical context. Incoming eighth graders need to understand this theme in order to appreciate and learn from Night. It can teach them important life lessons that will help them leave a positive impact. Historically, the Holocaust has a negative context, this should make them realize the importance of it not happening again. History has a pattern of repeating itself, whether that be discoveries, legislation, or acts of violence. In this instance, we want people to have good morals so that this never has even a possibility of repeating. These incoming eighth-graders are the future of this society so teaching them the deeper meaning of right and wrong is more important than people think.
In American culture, people have a habit of speaking in an aggressive way about topics that are important to them. This can cause issues because they tend to only establish one side or opinion and are unwilling to listen to others. People who share differing opinions can feel the need to hide their ideas because the majority of people are against them. Society needs to take a step back at times and see how their words and actions affect others. Teenagers see a lot of this in the media and in everyday life, this influences them and how they speak to others. Night highlights this in the form of concentration camps and the different prisoner roles in those camps. Certain prisoners are chosen to become Kapos, a type of prisoner that beats on others gets more rewards, and is treated better. They are influenced by greed and the soldiers to do their dirty work. Another example is how prisoners lost faith in their religion after being stripped of everything. “Blessed be God’s name? Why, but why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled. Because He caused thousands of children to burn in His mass graves? (Wiesel 67)” Being faithful to their God could save them and keep them sane. Religion gave them hope and something to keep that the Nazis couldn’t physically take away from them.
Historical context and true diversity are not directly laid out in the book, but they are prominent in what you take away from the book. They both teach teenagers important themes of life that can positively impact their character. Night provides a bridge between the two while also teaching students about an important historical event. They can then take this information and apply it to aspects of their life they never thought they could learn from a book about a Holocaust survivor. It also shows them they can find valuable lessons in anything they read, do, accomplish, or fail at. Learning from everything you do is how you grow as a person and changes the way you treat yourself and others.
Ultimately, incoming eighth-graders should read Night by Elie Weisel. This book helps them relate to a person that they couldn’t see a connection with before. They know about the Holocaust and its survivors but probably never thought about it more than this. It applies certain themes that can help these eighth graders find themselves during crucial years. Historical context and true diversity are major themes in this book and can become major themes in these eighth graders' life decisions.
