Mikaja+and+Jon

External Link: [|Elie Wiesel]
 * Night By Elie Wiesel**

Night is the story of a young jewish boy named Eliezer Wiesel who lived in Europe in the time of Hitlers rule. Night is his story of what he went through during the Holocaust. It explains what was done and what was needed to be done, the torture, and the punishment of this awful event in history. He started as a young boy with much faith in god and in his religon but after he is liberated from Buchenwald his faith has almost completely diminished.
 * Summary :**

__Eliezer Wiesel__- he is a 15 year old boy who is very brave and smart. He has a strong heart and is very coragous. He has a very strong love towards god and his faith. His faith is put to the test when he endures a horrible life living in the concentration camps for several years. He begins to show signs of losing his faith after time in the camps go on. However he shows feelings and love to the ones who helped him in his time at the camps.
 * Characters **:

__Eliezer's Father__- he is one of the main jewish figures in his home town of Sighet. He is a patient and intellegent man which makes Eliezer look up to him. He remains strong through his time at the concentration camps and keeps a postive outlook on the future.

__Moshe the Beadle__- he is a poor jew who lives in Sighet. He is one of the first jews to be captured by the Nazis. However he is able to escape and return to Sighet. He warns the people of Sighet what is in store for the future but everyone just thinks that he is crazy.

__Madame Schachter__- she is an older woman that is taken on the same cattle car as Eliezer. She is seen as crazy by everyone on the car because she has many nightmares dealing with fire. Everyone sees no fire when she claims she does but eventually the fire is seen at the creamatorium and her dreams are almost reality.

__Juliek__- he is a young jewish musican that Eliezer meets at Auschwitz. He is later seen again in the story on the death march to Gleiwitz where he eventually dies.

__Dr. Josef Megele__- Eliezer first meets him when he arrives at Auschwitz. He was the one of the main doctors who was known to do medical experiments on children.

__Rabbi Eliahou__- he was abandon by his son on the death march to Gleiwitz. He is a respected jewish prisoner who is heartbroken by this event. Eliezer prays that he won't do what Rabbi Eliahou's son did to him.

__Franek__- he is Eliezer's foreman at Buna. He is the one who spots out Eliezer's golden tooth and forces dentist to pry it out with a rusty spoon. He shows no emotions for the jews.

__Idek__- he is Eliezer's Kapo at the electrical warehouse in Buna. Eliezers enrages Idek which forces him to beat Eliezer.

The tone of Night is depressing and sad. The setting beings in Sighet, Transylvania which is Eliezer's home town. He and his family were then deported from here to Auschwitz which is located in Poland. From here he was then transfered to Buna, another concentration camp. Gleiwitz was the next camp that he was sent to which was one of the worst camps. From here to Buchenwald is where the death march takes place where many jews lost their lives. Buchenwald was where Eliezer was finally liberated.
 * Setting **:

__Fire__- symbolized the Nazis power and the Jews fear. The Nazis had the creamatorium where they burned millions of Jewish bodies, dead or alive. The Jews feared the fire much knowing it was the end for them. Eliezer deals with the sights of seeing people burned and the smell of flesh.
 * Symbols **:

__Night__- symbolizes Eliezers strength in his faith. Night was always where he questioned his faith and why all of these terrible events were happening. His hope and faith were always low. At night Eliezer would also stop praying where in the past he always did.

__The struggle to maintain faith__- at the beginning of the book, Eliezer has a strong faith in his religion. However when he is taken away and put through the inhumane conditons his faith begins to weaken. He is questioning why this was all happeninig. As the book continues his faith begins to get weaker and weaker.
 * Themes **:

__Cruel and inhumane treatment__- in Night, cruelty lead to more cruelty. Priosners were bascially like a one man army having to take care of themselves and do whatever was right to escape death. The conditions that they are put in enrage them and they would take it out on other prisoners. The Kapo also contributed to this because they said that everyman was to fight for themself. Their job was to turn everbody against eachother.

__Jon__- I found Night to be an interesting and informal book. Even though the book is full of sad events, it gets your attention because you want to know what happens next to Eliezer and his father. I also like that Elie Wiesel was able to have the strength to write such a powerful book about the misery and punishment he expericenced as a child. Being able to do this shows the he was a very strong person. It's amazing how he was able to recreate this exprenence so accurate and being able to express all of his emotions. This book now gives me more of a perspective of what the Holocaust was like. I would definetely recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in history or anyone in general.
 * Book Critique **:

__Mikaja__-