Our book Night is a memoir. Memoir is when the author tells of a significant event. It is not an autobiography that starts from birth until their current spot in life, but rather a focused lens on a significant moment. Often times when we read memoirs, we question. We search for truth. We think about how perspective comes into play.
In looking at our book Night, I want you to look at the darkness. What parts of our book speak to darkness? What happens in the darkness? How does the darkness influence the emotion, the senses, the perspective? Keep in mind our archetypes of light and dark. How do the light and dark differ in our text? Use quotes to support your answers.
Once you have thought about the darkness, think about what we know to be true. What did Wiesel shed light on for you as a reader? In other words, what do you know now as a result of Reading the book that you did not know before reading the book?
Please comment on one other person's blog after you have added your own thoughts. This is worth 25 points.
131 comments:
As a reader I took the text and analyzed it putting myself in his place and relating it to the real world. Now that I have read the book I see not only what happened in the holocuast, but what it meant to those in it. Before I read this book I always thought that the things going on in the holocuast never really struck them as a reality. I always thought they were thinking: "Is this real?". Now though I know that what Wiesel felt not only hurt him physically but hurt him mentally.
The whippings, deprivision of food and water, forced labor and many other things. Made him tired and brought him down physically. Mentally he watched those he loved suffer and die, specifically his dad. Also, he lost faith in the God he once loved and had so much faith in. I never knew or would have known what it felt like to be Wiesel. I can only imagine, and what we imagine isn't at all near what he felt.
-Addie Gall
Elie Wiesel's Night itself is darkness. Darkness is a time of lost hope, pleasure, and humanity. To devoted Jews like Wiesel at the beginning of the book, it is also the disappearance of faith in God. Darkness forebodes a conflict. This conflict results in a sin or regret that deeply impacts the individual: "The night was pitch-black. From time to time, a shot exploded in the darkness" (Wiesel, 85). When Wiesel refers to "night" in his book, it is a foreshadowing that implies of sin or regret. In this case, Wiesel views the sin of Rabbi Eliahu's son; he had abandoned his father. The son of Rabbi Eliahu was consumed in darkness. He had lost faith and emotion in his father. In darkness, he became confused. He could not use his senses or perceive the world that was pitch-black. He could only rely on instinct, that diverged him away from his father. Opposing the dark, is light. It is seen as the hero, or the solution out of a problem. Yet, light in Night seems to be the actions that sprout out of the Nazis. While traveling to Auschwitz, the crazy woman, Mrs. Schachter possesses a premonition: "'Fire! I see a fire!" (25). The fire forebodes the Nazi power that will soon dominate the Jews. When fire is created, it also creates light. The light is the actions that the Nazis enforce onto the Jews. Based of Wiesel, It seems that both darkness and light are against the Jews, implying that hope was dead.
The Holocaust is preached throughout my life in schools. The world does not want to repeat history. With Wiesel's account, I have learned not only events during the Holocaust, but the conflicts that are nurtured throughout the stay at the concentration camps. Wiesel shows the pain in losing faith in oneself, one's benefactor, and one's race. He proves that individuals were transformed into wild animals. He supports that individuals wanted to escape family, so they have a better chance of survival.
@ Addie Gall-
I agree with your statement of the Holocaust being a more mentality challenge than a physical test. If one's mind waved the white flag, the body too has surrendered. I also agree that we have never experienced Wiesel's pain, sorrow, and loss.
In Night the parts of the book that speak to darkness is when Wiesel is questioning God. He now has no faith and doesnt understand when God is associated with a negative connotation. In the book Weisel says:
And I, who believe that God is love, what answer was there to give my young interlocutor whose dark eyes still held the reflection of the angelic sadness that had appeared on day on the face of the hanged child?
This quote explains that Wiesel is starting to feel betrayed and he doesn't know why these things are happening. This is an example of what happens in the darkness and that is a loss of faith in several things including religion. This can easily play with your head and get one to feel strongly against a person or thing and then also experience the lost and saddness. I think this really numbs ones senses and makes them almost feel that they are going through the motions but not really experiencing life. Another factor of change is your outlook or perspective on life and how you view other people. Without faith is living without lust. You no longer thrive towards a future goal but more or less fight for the meer satisfaction of defeat the one who brought you down in the first place. The book is titled Night and night is a dark time. As a reader one should understand that darkness is the unknown,ignorance, despair, evil, death or the absence of understanding. This darkness basically reprsents everything in the book from the start all the way until the end of the torture.The light has the exact opposite meaning of darkness and appears in the only places in the book that the darkness does not. It is like finally at the end of the book we start to see a small light at the end of the tunnel, a small victory for those who survived which was being realsed. The Jewish people were so enveloped in the darkness that it changed them, as if forcing their own body to turn on them. Wiesel expresses this when he says, "The idea of dying, of ceasing to be, begain to fascinate me." This statement alone is enough proof to make a reader believe that he wanted to die but getting this far he wouldn't let himself. I now know that a loss of faiht can be more painful than an actual phsical punishment or death. This is because when it is a mental death one could say, it is ongoing and continues, day in and day out you are suffering, Wiht a physical death you havew the pain once then it is done and over with.
To Addie Gall: I thought it was good that you stuck to the main point of a mental death or suffering but also mentioned the physical aspects of it. I agree with you also when you say that this senario would be unimaginable.
Looking at the book and observing to get a good sense of the text, I notice the parts of darkness that stand out the most. One major part is where Wiesel starts to question his faith and belief in God. he says: "What are you my God? i thought angrily." He doesn't know what God is and at that moment he certainly does not know who he himself is. Another major part of darkness when Wiesel is in the camps. that whole experience is horrific, especially when he endures selections and the labor. What happens in darkness is a loss of hope, sense, priorty, yourself and reality. Darkness is just how it sounds, its dark. Its a torturous place to be in. The holocaust itself would be a wonderful example!
Darkness influences emotion by making you believe something that isnt nessicarrly true. Its a trick of the mind. Darkness puts brutal, black thoughts in your head we know isnt true but our perspectives are different. Darkness changees our view, the imagery of dark things is how we percieve them. No longer white and bright. Dark. Darkness messes with out senses by consuming and twisting our observation on things. The smell, what we hear, what things look like. Its different, its more black, more powerful in a sense of negativity.
Light imagery in the text would be when the Wiesel was learning the mysticism belief brought upon by Moishe Beadle. Darkness would be the concentration camps, Leaving home, death, ext.
Something I did not know before that Wiesel has opened my eyes to is all of the tradegy of the holocaust. His words make you feel like you know exactly what is going on. No only did I learn how of the events I didnt not understand before, I also learned of the desperateness during these times. I knew food was a scarce source but everything else as well. Rubber was invaluable.
Julianne: I agree with what your saying about how losing faith is a major darkness in Wiesel's life. Not only in himself but in religion.I also agree that darkness is ignorance. Its the unknown of negativity. You'd have to be there to understand his pain and sorrow. We can't
It is foolish to say that the entire book, Night is one of darkness. Thought darkness may be a dominating theme, there are still times when happiness breaks through and prevails. However, there are also many parts of the book where darkness is winning the battle.
First off, let me define the darkness found in the book. Sure, one could argue that the darkness being spoken of is a time without light, like the time between dusk and dawn. However, I feel that the overpowering theme of darkness in this book is a darkness found in the heart and soul.
An example of darkness in Night can be found on page 65. On this page, Wiesel is talking about the young boy that was hung. However, he was to light, so he hung there on the brink of death for half an hour. I believe that it would be nearly impossible to say that that is an example of one of the dark times in the book. For me, another is when Wiesel talks about the death of his father. “I shall never forgive myself. Nor shall I ever forgive the world for having pushed me against the wall, for having turned me into a stranger, for having awakened in me the basest, most primitive instincts. His last word had been my name. A summons. And I had not responded (xii). For me, this was terrible to read, and defiantly a darker part of the book. However, when there was hope of being freed from the camps by the armies, I think that there was light shining through the darkness. This gave people hope, and for me, hope and light are closely related.
In the darkness, everybody’s emotions, senses, and perspective are dulled. People seem to become empty skeletons with no substance. Nobody wants to talk to anybody else. Everybody just wants to be alone. People become irritable and vicious.
As a reader, this book brought me to realize the problems that faith played in the Holocaust. Before reading the story, I seldom thought about how faith was affected during the Holocaust. But now that I do, I see how much the faith of the prisoners changed in those years or months.
@Rohan: I like how you talked about a physical darkness rather than an emotional one that I talked about. I think that you did a good job arguing that the prevailing darkness in the book was actually a physical darkness, rather than an emotional like I saw it to be.
-Ryan M. 2
The parts of the book i feel speak to darkness is when Wiesel first enters the camp and is riding on the train to the camp. He is unaware of what is to come of the camp, the darkness that is ahead and the unknown, which is the archetype for darkness. In the darkness, torture happens and it is quite literally, hell on earth. It influences the emotion by creating a sense of not knowing and being unaware of what is to some.
Wiesel shed on light on me as a reader is how bad the camps actually were, and what it was like to be in the camps, being worked and tortured to death.
I analyzed the book and I found a place I thought told what happens in darkness and how it influenced emotion the best. Elie Wiesel wrote, “On the third night, as we were sleeping, some of us sitting huddled against each other, some of us standing, a piercing cry broke the silence: ‘Fire! I see a fire! I see a fire!’ There was a moment of panic. Who had screamed? It was Mrs.Schachter.”(Night 24) This quote helps to explain the since of terror there is in the dark. They could not see so they were all frightened. In archetypes of light it is seen as good, white, pure, and clean. The dark is seen as evil, bad, and mysterious. In this quote darkness is a part of why Wiesel was scared and believed Mrs.Schachter.
Wiesel showed me how the Jewish people had lost their faith. I never knew until I read Elie Wiesel’s book that the Jewish people had stopped believing in God and turned against other Jewish people in the camp. They beat each other over a portion of bread.
~Lydia Sch. period 2
Night looks at darkness many times throughout the book. Most of the time bad events occur during the nighttime when there is darkness. The darkness scares people and the archetype describes that something bad will happen in the future. The senses are captured by darkness because you have to rely more on your intuition instead of your sight. The light archetype represents happiness and easygoing but darkness is the complete opposite. One quote that described darkness the most in the book was, "The shadows around me roused themselves as if from a deep sleep and left silently in every direction." (14) This shows that in darkness things change, shadows move and things are unknown. In the book darkness differs, it can be meant in it's most literal form meaning the darkness at night. Or it could mean the darkness that overcomes the Jew's lives while they're in Auschwitz.
Wiesel made me realize how lucky I am to have such an amazing life. Sometimes I complain about having too much homework or something silly but then I think about WWII and I see that I'm being ridiculous. Compared to Wiesel's life I'm so blessed and I should appreciate everything. I also had no clue that the conditions were so bad for Jews. I'm surprised to learn that the German's hid their camps and disguised them as 'vacations'. It's appalling how indifferent people can be.
Jacqueline K. 7/8th period
To Ben W: I think the part of the book you choose was a great interpretation of darkness. When Wiesel first inters the camp he was curious and had no idea what terrible thing happened inside Auschwitz. The feeling of mysterious is also the archetype of darkness.
To Lydia Sch.
I agree with your choice of quote and I think it does a really good job of describing how there is terror in darkness, I never thought of it that way. Just like you, I learned that Jew's lost their faith during WWII. Previously, before reading Night, I had no idea that Jew's lost their trust in God. I find it sad that they beat each other over a portion of bread.
Sorry forgot to leave my name! The last comment made to Lydia Sch. was from:
Jacqueline K. 7/8th period
As i read the book night i noticed that the book kinda does a spiral on the darkness in it. It all starts when he first walks in the gates of the camp.
What he describes is something most of us will never see in our life time. And how all the inmates hopes go up for everytime thet think the front is moving near and it doesnt.Then the darkness of the gas chambers and chimnees. And losing contact with your family right when you get to the camp. losing things you love the most in the blink in of an eye. But the real question i have had the whole time is did they split them that early that way when they did pull them from eachother later on they wouldnt freak out as much?
The book Night is not full of darkness. Yes, it has very dark and solemn moments, but the book itself is not one of utter darkness. It may not clearly come out and speak of joy, but reading between the lines there is joy in the book.
Darkness to man is a time of hopelessness, depression, loss of faith (in anything, really), and most of all, loss of self; of your goals and values and humanity. In Night, there are times when darkness is shown very clearly. Such as when Wiesel loses his faith in God, in his religion, which used to keep him going everyday (77). When Wiesel loses his father, it is also very dark. He says "After my father's death, nothing could touch me any more." in ch. 9.
Wiesel's loss of faith sets a darkness over the first half of the book, while the loss of his father sets a darkness over the second half. Light is shown in the beginning, when he was happy, and still believed in a future; before Hitler took that belief away from him. Wiesel put me in his place in his writing, I found myself tearing up, clinging to my family, fearing that they could be taken. I found myself in his shoes, in the Holocaust, and that was a place I'd never wish to be.
As a reader I think that the book "Night" is about alot of things happining at night time they used to feed them at night they would run them at night and just alot of cruel things happend. He (Elie) watched alot of his family members be tortured and die.
He got whipped he was starved and dehydrated from not drinking any fluids cause he had to take care of his dad. When he was supposed to take care of himself. This story kind of put a life lesson on me. I used to take advange of my family. But when I look in this I think "wow I was so stupid" because I new that I could have ended up like Elie. Loosing my family and trust and one important thing..faith.
Addie Gall, I think your blog was fantastic! It sounded so much better then mine. I love how you have so much heart in you as you do for the book "Night" gooddd job girl!
When analyzing the book, I realized that even though most of it was about dark times, the light definitely shines through and produces that little bit of hope that the inmates need to survive. Some specific events in the book that speak to darkness would be when Wiesel was being moved to and from the camps but, more significantly, when he was beginning to lose faith in God. During this time, Wiesel became defeated and lost. He had always turned to God through his trials tribulations. In darkness, the future is unknowing. You can't get a sense of what is ahead of you, let alone what happens to you later on. Like Wiesel reacted, the darkness makes you feel uncomfortable, lost and alone. Wiesel expresses his feeling towards losing faith when he says: "I was nothing but ashes now, but I felt myself to be stronger than this Almighty to whom my life had been bound for so long. In the midst of these men assembled for prayer, I felt like an observer, a stranger" (68). Wiesel expresses that he feels he is alone in the crowd when mentioning his religion. He also believe that he is a being that is less than human now, non-living. Darkness can have this emotional effect on people. From my perspective, darkness can make you feel tense and paranoid. Thinking about how the prisoners were surrounded in constant emotional darkness, I sympathize for them that even with all of the mental and physical strength they have to exert, they still are feeling tense and paranoid. I believe light and darkness differs in our book only slightly. I say this because I think of Wiesel's time in the cattle car with poor Mrs. Schächter. I recall that her screaming: "Jews, listen to me," she cried. "I see a fire! I see flames, huge flames!" It was as though she were possessed by some evil spirit" (25). Fire represents light and according to the woman, fire was not a very good thing to be seeing.
From reading the book, I better recognize some of the more puzzling aspects of the Holocaust. Before, I knew the main points, but never got into as much detail about emotions and perspective.
@ Michelle!-
I agree with you when you talk about the fact that one of the major points of darkness in the book is when Wiesel loses faith. I used that for my own explanation. I also like how you explain that darkness manipulates you. I had never thought of it that way before. Good job!
In the book night, there is a significant amount of darkness. This reside in the starvation and malnutrition of the prisoners, selection, the work camps, the crematroium, and the fear and horror that was placed into the hearts of those there. Wiesel writes:
"Over there, thats where they will take you.Over there will be your grave. You still dont understand? You sons of b****hes? Dont you understand anything? You will be burned! Burned to a cinder! Turned into ashes!
His anger changed into fury. We stood stunned, petrified. Could this be just a nightmare? An unimaginable nightmare? (31)"
Here Wiesel explains the first illusions to be lifted, that they are safe and therir is nothing to fear. Darkness plays its part here in the ccrematorium, and the death of millions. The fires strike fear into their hearts, and this only the first part of the horrors, Later startvation, rotine and fear spring out of darkness and conquer the prisoners. Bad things happen in the darkness. The emotion and senses show a loss of faith and a lack of intrest. I know now know that darkness can change a persons perspective on life, and give them a cynical aspect.
Rachael S. 5-6
To aussie.girl (Jacqueline):
I completely agree with your disbelief in the Nazi's hiding the camps. I don't understand, either, how people could believe such statements that the people inside the camps were happy. I like your quote, it is a great use of connotation of darkness.
In the book night wiesel use Wiesel uses darkness as a symbol for death, starvation, crematorium, the concentration camps, sepreation for fmily members and friends. Darkness influences your emothin from sad moments in the book.
Dark is a symbol of pain that Wiesel suffered through out the book." A pitch of darkness. From time to time, a shot exploded in the darness."(85) Wiesel uses darkness to refers to forshadowing, that somehing is going to happen. Wiesel sheds lights by kepping to himself well being in Auschwitz. The only person Wiesel would to was his father and just a few people he meet in the camp.
to Rohan Srivastava: mie and his blog where almost the same thing this week. i liked how that he went into full details and explianed his quotes.
Samantha S/
5/6 perid
one part that speaks to the darkness is when every one is trying to go to cover on the way to the next death camp people were trampled and there was a boy with a violin that he played and then he died once his sad song was played. the darkness influenced sadness and the prospective of people being trampled while it is snowing. the light in the darkness of this scene would be the boy's violin playing. the darkness would be people trampling other people for there own benefits of safety.
he shed light on when his dad was sick and trying to hang on. he also shed light on the people that were killed by the cold and tossed out of the trains when they were dead. one thing that i did not know all that much about was how easy it would be for them to just lie down and die. when they chose to live it was the hardest thing they have ever had to do in there lives. dieing is easy, but living is hard is what i can tell from this book.
to Addie Gall- your connections are vary good ones and i agree with what you said in your second paragraph
The part of Night that seems to say a lot about darkness is the event where Wiesel and the others are in the cattle cars heading to Auschwits. Mrs.Schschter was screaming to the rest of the people in the car that there were flames. No one believed her until they saw the flames and smoke coming from a chimney in Auschwits. The darkness of night gave this scene an extra feeling of mystery and terror.
Darkness represents a shroud of mystery and an unknown terror. when one is in complete darkness they are afraid to move because they do not know their suroundings and their imagination comes up with all sorts of possible fears. The darkness has the ability to turn a person mad with taking away thier sense of sight.
In the book Night darkness brings a feeling of unsertainty and dread. The little bit of light that is in this story brings about feelings of hope.
After reading Night I feel as if I at least have the slightest ideas of the horrors that hate can bring. Hate doesn't always have a reason, and sometimes misguided and limitless hate is much more powerful than hate with a reason. The Nazis showed a great deal of misguided, and uncontrollable hatred towards th Jewish people. As master yoda would say:"fear leads to pain, pain leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to corruption"
In our novel the main thing throughout it is darkness. In fact the theme is dark and depressing. The darkness rises at the beginning and thickens until the end when it starts to let up. In the darkness, people are beaten, starved, made to watch their families die, and much worse. Darkness can make you ignorant, despairing, or unsure. It can make you feel unsafe or as if you're up on a high pedestal to be judged for your actions. Light does exactly the opposite. It symbolizes good, innocence, heaven, and right. In our text, darkness can be seen as either a way of survival or the way of the desired future. The S.S. soldiers are the ones who see the Holocaust as beneficial for a better future. It can be seen as a way of survival in the quote, "A terrible thought crossed my mind: What if he had wanted to be rid of his father? He had felt his father growing weaker and, believing that the end was near had thought by this separation to free himself of a burden that could diminish his own chance for survival(Wiesel, 91)". Light is shown when flashes of the end of the Holocaust begin. By the time, Wiesel is set free, the darkness is still heavy in the air, but diminishing to light all the same.
I've been reading about the Holocaust almost since the time I learned to read. When I was younger, I took it as a bad event but I didn't fully understand how big of and issue it was and still is today. As I've gotten older each year and learned more about it, I've come to realize just how catastrophic a deal it was. Wiesel shed light on the more challenging aspects of keeping faith while having nothing but reasons to drop it altogether.
To: Rohan Srivastava
I enjoyed reading your post. I feel like it went into very great detail about the questions, to the point where there was no way you could be misunderstood. You said everything you wanted to say clearly and to the point without adding in pointless details that would take away from your post. I agree with the comment,"It seems that both darkness and light are against the Jews." I can see exactly where you got the idea from and I have to say, you made me look at the novel in different terms.
One part of our book that speaks to darkness is the night they arrived in Birkenau. The archetype for darkness is the unknown, ignorance, despair, and the absence of understanding. Wiesel says, "It must have been around midnight. We had arrived. In Birkenau." (28). The fact they arrived at midnight really fits in to that it was unknown what was going to happen to them inside the camp.
Wiesel shed light on me as a reader to the fact that mental endurance is needed more than physical endurance. There were times when he could've given up in the book, but he didn't. For example, "I had no right to let myself die. What would he (his father) do without me?" (87). Throughout reading this book, he always somehow found motivation to keep himself alive. This taught me that perserverance is important.
The band nerd is Rachel Javorsky
@Jacqueline K., I like the comparison you made of your life and Wiesel's. I liked how the book really made you open your eyes.
@Kelli S. I like how you spoke about your innocence of the subject of WWII.
The things that Elie Wisel uses in his book that speaks to darkness is when Elie says things like how he was seeing people dying and seeing that noone cares about anyone but themselves. Darkness aslo appears when Elie says things about people only want things for themselves especially the Nazi's when they kill people even when they're lacking bechind just a little bit. The emoiton in darkness is always hard for a person and everything is always terrible and terrifying. He also had a terrible time just watching those people that he has known for so long and those ones that he has loved for so long is now suffering for his or her life, and that really brought him down physically, mentally and emotionally.
As a reader putting myself in his place was very difficult but also somewhat easy to do. Seeing those ones that you love that are suffering for their life was easy to put myself into because I aslo lost someonoe to alzheimers disease and that was terrifying for me to watch her die every time I saw her. Then to see her in her funeral was just the worst thing for me to see. I know now that love and suffering was very hard to control in this book and also the Holocaust. I also found out that happiness is now not really at all found in those lives that were in the Holocaust because it just ruined their lives forever. They never really have found love and happiness because of all of the lives lost and the family members that were murdered just because of the Holocaust and the haterid toward Jews.
To Aussie.Gurl:
I like how you explain that people can be so indifferent and the fact that the Germans were saying that the camp was a "Vacation" was such a terrible thing to do. I also like how you said that shadows move and things are unknown and that totally describes what the Holoceaust was all about. The people there probably don't know what's going on and their shadows can be those ones that have died there just because of Hitler's haterid towards the Jews.
~Amanda C. 3*~
In the book Night, darkness can be discribed in the times of lost hope, faith, or emotion. In this story I would say darkness comes in a brutal way, it comes in the death of peoples faith in life, god, and others.
Elie shed light on me through the bitterness of reality and how hard it was to suffer in captivation during the holacaust. It never feels so real to someone until you hear the evidence from someone who experienced it. I did not realize before reading this book that the holacaust lasted so long, and I did no understand the emotional tack to the event. The separating families and loved ones dieing. Now however I have gotten to hear from a author who went through it himself and could speek with experience and emotion of how it felt and what happened specificaly to him.
@Ryan- I agree with what you say about how senses are dulled in darkness. Physical or mental darkness alike really. In an unknown time, things can get scarry and people tend to shut down. Or as you put it 'become like skeletons'
-Sarah P first period
To Rohan Sirvastava: I agree with you in that the fire that they saw when they first arrived to camp did indeed shine light on the situation they were in. Before they got even on the train they didn't believe what Moishe the Beadle was telling them. About how "Jews were forced to dig there graves and then were killed",(not exact words). They also didn't believe Mrs. Schachter that she saw fire and payed the price when the fire, symbolizing light showed them what was really happening.
-Addie Gall
A time of darkness in the book is when Wiesel and others start to lose faith and to question God because it was a dark time during the book; when Wiesel was at the concentration camps. That is why the book was called Night, because it was a dark time in Wiesel's life. During the darkest times in the book, Wiesel and others around him start to question God and lose faith; "Where is God's mercy? Where is God? How can I believe, how can anyone believe in this God of mercy?" (77). This quote was said during the time when Wiesel was losing faith because of the events that were happening around him. One of those events was seeing Akaiba Drummer being choosen for selection. This was part of Wiesel losing fatih. He didn't know why God would put him through this or why he had to witness all of this. He was also losing faith in surviving because of all the executions he witnessed. He remembers this time as a great darkness in his life.
After reading the book, Wiesel sheds light on the fact that there is a great indifference in the world and that we have to deal with it. It could even be the most simple form of indifference such as not helping someone one with homework. There are always the indifferent people in the world, and then there are the ones that do something to prevent indifference. I think he tried to pursue us about his idea of indifference throughout the book. I also think he was trying the get his point across about the Holocaust. There is a major difference between experiencing the Holocaust and just reading about. We can tell the Holocaust really affected him and his life through his words. Reading those words, we feel his agony, but we will never really feel what we went through and the pain he has experienced.
Amanda C- 7/8th*
Sarah P: I agree with you about how darkness was shown in the book. It was shown in a brutal way. The way he did though made us to realize why this time of his life was so dark. I also agree wiht you on how he shed light on things. We don't know how it feels to be there until we truly experience it.
Amanda C- 7/8th*
When i think of darkness i think of war or video games. The reason i think of war is because what i picture is dark, hunger and tired. The reason i think of video games is because of dead island and how it starts in a dark place and there are only a few survives and you and your friends need to survive. There are so many dark and scary places. Wiesel shed light on faith and how you should all ways stick with family no matter how hard some thing is. something that i leaned was weather his dad died and all the bombing the very disruptive detail about every person he met like other people at the camp.
I agree with Rachel that the first illusions to be lifted and that they are safe and their is nothing to fear. From the quote i see why she used this quote because the truth and hoar.
$ dmytro stasiouk $ 6-7
Some things that I can see as being darkness are the lack of food, mass killings, and the beatings. At night, in the darkness, there are a lot of bad things that happen like when they were on the journy and had to run and people who stopped or couldn't go any longer would be shot, "They had orders to shoot anyone who could not sustain the pace." (Wiesel, 85) Most of the time when you think about darkness, you think of in a negative way, it gives off a negative connotation. In Night, when it is daylight, it gives you a clear picture of what is happening. But in the darkness, you can't really tell what is happening or what has happened.
Before I read the book, I didn't quite understand exactly what had happened in the camps. I had heard a lot about it, but never could fully comprehend it until I heard it from a living victim. Now that I put myself in the role of Elie, I can see with my own eyes what it was like throughout the difficult time.
@Lydia Sch
Before I read the book, I also didn't know that during the Holocaust the Jews had lost their faith. I found it suprising because some of them were very religious, yet they still had no faith that God was going to somehow pull through.
One part of the book that speaks to darkness is on page 34 when Wiesel talks about the first night in Birkenau, "Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed." Since night and darkness are archetypes for hopelessness and despair, this quote symbolizes the nightmare the concentration camp turned his life into- from the very moment he entered. The things that happen in the darkness are mainly bad things such as murder, dying and suffering. Darkness influences the emotions because we often feel fear when in the dark; from the time we are very little we learn that evil monsters lurk in the dark so that's why we keep the light on after watching a scary movie. Darkness robs us of our senses because while in it, we can't see anything so we feel vulnerable. It influences the perspective because we when we are in darkness, we feel as if we are invisible and it makes us feel very, very small. Light and dark differ in the text because on page 37 there is a quote, "The night had passed completely. The morning star shone in the sky. I too had become a different person." The darkness represents the nightmare while the light represents being awakened and reborn. For me as a reader, Wiesel took his story and held it in front of me so as to show me the cold, bare truth of it all. A jolt into reality of the horror he has witnessed, been through and come back to tell the tale. I know now that the Holocaust wasn't just a 'major genocide'. There aren't enough words to describe what it was- it was a mixture of terror, torture, anguish, suffering, self-preservation, indifference, cruelty and the brutality of mankind.
To Addie Gall: I understand what you're trying to say, but you didn't really mention the darkness in Night and I think that's an important part of your argument. I do like how you compared his physical and mental weaknesses and how you tried to imagine the Holocaust through his eyes.
As I read the book night i noticed that the book kinda does a spiral on the darkness in it. It all starts when he first walks in the gates of the camp.
What he describes is something most of us will never see in our life time. And how all the inmates hopes go up for everytime thet think the front is moving near and it doesnt.Then the darkness of the gas chambers and chimnees. And losing contact with your family right when you get to the camp. losing things you love the most in the blink in of an eye. But the real question i have had the whole time is did they split them that early that way when they did pull them from eachother later on they wouldnt spaz out as much?
To Dylan Bohland; Yours was my favorite because i like how you talked about connecting with family.
Night is a period between dusk and dawn. The Wiesel, its a time of darkness, total blindness, isolation, and an incredible opportunity for ignorance. At the start, i thought this book would have to do with, an adventure, but it turns out to be a real life horror story. This book totally captivates the idea of how darkness, is like a fog, it creeps over you. "Dusk began to fill the wagon"(27). It not only means it was getting dark, but that everyone in the wagon had much negativity and a hopeless expression.
@Rohan Srivastava
I don't agree much with the statement, "...both darkness and light are against the Jews". Yes, i agree fire is a source of light, but it is also a symbol of destruction and death.
In the book "Night" darkness is a big factor. Most of the big events in the book happen at night in the dark. Many people are afraid of the dark. It can change he mood, theme, and setting in a book. It can also change the feelings the characters have.
The book "Night" has taught me many things. The most important thing that I will use in my everyday life is to never give up in something you believe in. This is something that takes courage and strength and courage. It takes courage to ignore the people who see you differently because of something you believe. It also takes strength to ignore the people who want to change your view. Wiesel said "Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never." This quotes is what convinced me that this was how i should live my life.
@BrittanyG I really like what you said about light always shining through!
A part that speaks darkness was when a boy killed his father for a piece of bread.In darkness stuff that happens is torture and death. The darkness influences emotions because it makes everything seem dark and worthless. Light and Dark differ because when they thought something might get better it just got bad again. From light to dark. For example in the beggining of the book Elie got to keep his brand new shoes then they got taken away.
Something I know now that i didnt know was how poor and mistreated the Jews were. Well.... not exactly how poor and mistreated, I think its more how they were stripped of everything and not even considered human.And to Ben, I really liked how you described darkness. I thought it was really good and you use a nice example from the story. It was well done.
Jake S. 5th 6th
The way i think of darkness is bad things are going to happen. In the scary movies that i have seen all of the bad things happen at night.
In the book Night some bad things that happen in the darkness are, when the man tried to sneak out and take the barrel of soup. Another example of darkness in our book Night is when the SS soldiers took Elie's father over night. when i look at the book Night i see that the whole book resembles darkness.
-Zack Miller-
Ryan M: i like what you put about how the whole book is about darkness because i think the samething.
as a reader he shed light on me because he talks about the holocaust more since he was in it. the one part of darkness was when he gave his father his stuff to eat. the other people always tell him what he should do. i think that the light he spread on me was that he taught me alot through that book. he also said about darkness was when he was injured and had to run too another camp.
isaac payne
Many parts of the book show darkness, especially when Wiesel is forced to leave home, going to the concentration camps and witnessing death. When we are in the darkness we feel scared, hopeless and confusion. A part that I thought showed great darkness is when they hung the child and made everyone watch. Wiesel writes, “And so he remained for more than half an hour lingering between life and death, writhing before our eyes (65).” This would be a very horrific thing to experience and darkness soon comes after this when he starts loses faith. Darkness influences the emotion and perspective by making us lose positive perspective on things. Wiesel starts to lose his faith, he states, “What are You, my God? I thought angrily. How do You compare to this stricken mass gathered to affirm to You their faith, their anger, their defiance? (66). Losing faith is an example of darkness. There are some parts of the book where the light does shines through the darkness. The parts that the light shines through are the liberations of concentration camps and the feeling of finally being free (115). I find that light is very similar to hope.
I now have a better understanding of how the Holocaust affected people mentally/emotionally. I could not even come close to imagine being separated from my family, moving away to a place of darkness and witnessing death to loved ones. After reading the book I have gotten to hear how the Holocaust can affect someone, even though I don’t exactly know how the pain would feel like.
Olivia W. 2nd Period
To Amanda C:
I agree that some of the times of indifference were the selections and faith, since Wiesel thought that God was the one to blame. I also liked how you used indifference in your response and explained how it affects us.
In the book "Night", there was darkness all around. There is the physical darkness, the absence light of night, but there is also the mental type of darkness thought. The mental type of darkness is when Wiesel looks into people's eyes and see nothing, just darkness. The darkness stands for the absence of knowledge or the mystery of whats there. Nobody is quite sure of what goes on in the darkness because it is hidden and unable to see. The darkness changes the way people feel about things because it adds a sense of evilness or question. For example, if you saw real vampire at around twelve o'clock in the afternoon, it wouldn't be scary, in fact it would be quite funny to see. However, if it were twelve o"clock midnight, and a real vampire made its way towards you, you would most likely run, hide, or go to the bathroom in your pants.
Wiesel shed some light to the readers on just how bad the Holocaust was. Before i read the book i though it was just a bunch of people gathered up and forced to work and if you couldn't work you were killed. But once Wiesel explained more, I saw how sometimes you were killed even if you could work, that you were fed extremely small rations, and that people were dying left, right, and center.
@ Ryan
I like how you described in your opinion, what darkness is, then put that opinion into an idea that could be backed up into facts. Then you said how in darkness people's emotions and perspectives were dulled, however you did not explain why too much, but other than that i enjoyed reading it.
Darkness is something that we can all say frightens us every once in a while. Wiesel was exposed to the darkness of reality of the holocaust when he was brought to the first concentration camp. "I pinched myself: Was I still alive? Was I awake? How was it possible that men, women, and children were being burned and that the world kept silent? No. All this could not be real" (Wiesel 32). Wiesel saw the indifference in everyone. He saw that nobody cared to help the prisoners being murdered. Pure darkness was surrounding not only in the sky, but in the eyes of the people.
Commenting on Lydia Sch.
I agree with her on black is even classified as an evil color. It gives a sense of dread and fear.
Last post was by Lydia Stephens 2nd period!
In the book night weisel uses night as a form of darkness,torture, starvation and death. I think this book showed me exactly what the people went through and how they lost who they were as a person. Jews lost their identity and ended up being treated like animals. They no longer had to care for themselves because they were fed and housed just enough to keep them alive. I found out from this book that everything bad happened at night. For example when weisel and his father were sleeping , his father was taken away to be tortured.
To Lydia: I really liked the quotes that you used and u explained them well. I agree with everything you said.
Our book speaks to darkness in ways that are new to us. We have not yet experienced - and hopefully never will - the degree of darkness that occurs in Night. Wiesel faced cruelties that we cannot even imagine. His world became very dark and hopeless, as if there was a void inside of him that refused to be filled. Everything horrible happened to the Jews in the darkness. They were tortured and physically hurt, but also their identity, dignity, and faith in everything was taken from them in the darkness. They succumbed to the darkness and evil and allowed it to win the battle. They became indifferent because they had nothing else to live for because everything was taken. The darkness changes everything, makes it seem more mysterious and evil. We are always on guard in the dark, and our view of the world is changed when we witness darkness. Wiesel lost the light that he once held when he entered the camp and his light was never rekindled. The darkness had overcome him: "My soul had been invaded - and devoured - by a black flame," (37). He could not fight the darkness any longer.
Something that Wiesel shined a light on for me was that they stopped feeling the pain. I didn't realize that they too became indifferent. They saw someone die and it did not hit a nerve. Nothing had an effect on them, and they were only concerned for themselves. Somehow, I had not realized that they lost their humanity by becoming indifferent.
To Lydia Sch.:
I had also not realized that they had lost their faith in God. It is logical to assume that they would turn to God more for help and comfort, but instead they turned away from him. It is another thing that makes you wonder why, but then you realize that you would not understand until you were in that position. We cannot fully understand anything that they went through unless we too had gone through it.
~Katie D. 7/8º
There are numerous parts of the book that speak to darkness. Most of the time, the horrors that Wiesel witnessed occured at night. Wiesel said, "And as the train stopped, this time we saw flames rising from a tall chimney into a black sky" (28). The flames refer to the burning of the Jews. This horrific event, occured at night when darkness is most present and at its peak. The darkness influences emotion, senses, and perspective because it creates a more scary feeling. You understand the feelings more during darkness because that is when most people are scared no matter what the situation. Light and dark differ in our text because the light times show true happy feelings. An example of this would be, "At ten o'clock in teh mornign, the SS took positions throughout the camp and began to herd the last of us toward the Appelplatz. The resistance movement decided at that point to act" (115). This moment refers to the liberation of the Jews which ironically occured in during the daylight. In our text, darkness speaks to true horrific and scary moments. Wiesel said, "Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed" (34). In this quote Wiesel refers to his time at the concentration camps and how it felt like one night seven times long.
Wiesel shed light on me as a reader the horrors of the concentration camp, indifference, humanity, and faith. Before, I did not know a lot about the Holocaust and the concentration camps. After reading this book, I was shown everything about the Holocaust. Wiesel also showed me the risks of indifference and humanity. He showed me that indifference is just an ending point and humanity is stripped from one when times of danger arise. Wiesel taught me a lot about faith and how to keep strong to faith. Even though Wiesel lost his faith in God, he showed me a lot about faith and how it affects a person.
To Jake "The Stud" Simonelli:
I really liked your explanation of what darkness meant. I too also didn't understand what happened to the Jews as a result of the Holcaust and I think it was truly amazing as to what actually happened. Overall, I really liked and agreed with your work!
Amanda C.
I like the way you analyzed the book night. Darkness is found throughout the book, both figurativley and phiscally. The physicall darkness would be the death and the beatings that go on, like you said and figurativley, the darkness that spreads through out the prisoners minds. The darkness is associated with the unkown. you did a good job.
rachael s. 5-6
One part of our book that reminds me of darkness was when they were on the train. On the train there is a boy who kills his own father over a piece of bread. It's something you have to think about until you realize what actually happened. He killed his own father, a person he has known and loved for his entire life but just because he was starving he was wiling to kill him just to satisfy his hunger for a short amount of time. This shows that the "darkness" can cause a person to do things they would have never thought they would do before. This also applies to situations in the book where Elie begins losing his faith. Never once did he think before that he would lose his faith in God.
One thing I realized from the book or what Elie Wiesel shed light on was just how real the Holocaust was. When you read about it in history books, and such you never really see the personal side of it. However in the book Elie shows just how bad things truly were.
I agree with Ben W. because the darkness represents the unknown. When the Jews began to be deported that had no idea what was going to happen and how bad things were going to get. They continued to deny that anything bad was going to happen when they said the Germans wouldn't make it to their city. But they were forced to venture into the unknown or the darkness.
Alan M. - 5th
A specific part of darkness in the book night that stood out to me was hen Elie Wiesel lost his faith in God. This was a very crucial part in the book because all the Jews had left was faith. When Weisel watches the bodies being burned the first night at the concentration camp he is horrified: this is the beginning of Wiesel's journey to disbelief in God. When a person dies emotionally, they have lost all reason to live. Wiesel and many other Jews began to die emotionally when a few weeks passed by and nothing changed. Nothing got better, nothing new happened, and mostimportantly God didn't help them.
The darkness is a mystery of scary evens. Darkness usually symbolizes negativity. Scary movies' sets are usually in the darkness, if they were in the light, they wouldn't be scary, just like Night, if it was called Morning, you'd be led to believe it was a happy book.
When Wiesel says:
"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.
Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever.
Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never"
he is explaining darkness. If this happened in the morning, it would have been a lot different, because he would have felt safer. Wiesel explains his faith is gone. His body is starting to die emotionally, and that is worse than dying physically.
Before reading the book Night, i honestly did not know that there were Holocust survivors. If Wiesel hadn't lived to tell his story, I could not have had an emotional connection with the Holocust. If I was my age and i lost everything i had, and had to watch bodies being burned, I wouldn't be able to handle it. Wiesel died emotionally, but lived physically to tell his story.
To Rohan: I agree with your thought of Wiesel believing the human race turned into wild animals. It's unbelievable that people didn't realize this was wrong until after it all happened, millions of people dies for one race to realize they were wrong. Today, no one would think about trying to annihilate a race, its inhumane, although it took years for humanity to realize it, we learned a good thing from the Holocust, everyone was made different, for a reason.
Paige S. 1st
In the book "Night" there are many parts referring to darkness. Well this obviously can be expected because it is titled night after all. "A pitch of darkness. From time to time, a shot exploded in the darness."(85) This part of the book speaks to darkness because it shows what can happen in darkness. It almost foreshadows that bad things can happn in the darkness. In this case, people can be shot.
"Over there, thats where they will take you.Over there will be your grave. You still dont understand? You sons of bitches? Dont you understand anything? You will be burned! Burned to a cinder! Turned into ashes!
His anger changed into fury. We stood stunned, petrified. Could this be just a nightmare? An unimaginable nightmare?" (31) Here this shows the darknesws of humanity. THis person that was saying this had lost his humanity. He said what he wanted to to Wiesel, even though what he said could scare him. The darkness in this book changes the perspective in this book because you can see, well, the darker side of life. You can see the loss of humanity, the loss of faith, the loss of hope, the loss of happiness, and the loss of the self.
The light and dark differ in the text because even though it is light, bad things can still happen. Though when it is dark, worse things happen. The light usually represents happiness and goodness. And then there is light in the book "Night". In this case there is not that much of a difference between lightness and darkness.
There are many things about the holocaust I did not know before reading the book "Night". I always thought that "oh these people suffered, a ton of people died, and a horrible man lead to the destruction of thousands of lives". Looking back I am left wondering how i could be so ignorant, and not realize how much more there was to the holocaust. I never realized that just because they were hurt physically they were also hurt mentally. I always thought the pain factor was just physical, not mental as well. Another thing I never really thought about is that to some people the holocaust was a reality. To me, just reading about it, it does not really effect me. I usually am left thinking "oh that sucks, but this does not really effect me in any shape or form". Well to some people their whole life could be about the holocaust, and their problems from it will never ever go away.
To Rachael S- I agree with you. Knowing know exactly how someone going through the holocaust, lived the aweful events that happened, will give someone respect. Whether it be from pity or someone is just respectful, knowing how they felt will give them respect.
The part of the book that speaks to darkness the most, in my opinion, is the part where Mrs. Schacter becomes crazed. Something I noticed was that she only screamed about the fire and the flames at night, when it was dark. The darkness can pollute the mind. It can make you see things that aren't real. It can make you see things that aren't there. If in absolute darkness or in solitary darkness, it can strike fear into even the strongest of men. Children are afraid of the dark, and for good reason: the darkness is an unknown, and anything in the darkness is a place we are afraid to go that we are afraid to go. However, the darkness we know physically is not a bad thing. The darkness itself does not pollute and scare the mind; the mind assumes that whatever is in the darkness is not something it wants to see. Mrs. Schacter only screamed at night, when it was dark, suggesting that the darkness is horrific. During the daytime, however, she was quiet and calm. Still insane, but not disruptively so.
However, in my opinion the darkness is not something to be feared. If you spend enough time in it the way I have, you begin to accept it and even appreciate its uses (it is way easier to scare someone in the dark for all those people who haven't been to a haunted house). Darkness is calm and quiet most of the time. When it is not, the sounds it produces can be amazing. The echoing of an owl's hoot, the screech of a bat looking for insects to eat, both of these things are amazing. They are both nocturnal. And yet, the one we fear more is, ironically, the one who is more helpful. Most bats eat insects, mostly mosquitoes, and one bat can eat a lot of bugs in a night. And with thousands of bats out every night in certain areas, it comes as no surprise that places where bats live are less likely to be bothered by insects. (Yes, I do realize that owls eat mice, but in reality, how often do you get mice in your house, and if a lot of mice are coming in, then is it easier to trap and kill them or is it easier to trap and kill an entire colony of ants with a queen constantly producing eggs.) The darkness is not to be feared. Instead we should study it and see how it effects the mind. Because darkness comes with light; neither one can exist without the other.
To Paige S. :
I agree with you when you talk about how darkness is used today. When I was writing my response, I was thinking about how scary movies tended to have a lot of dark scenes. It is used negatively a lot in modern culture! And by the way, did you really not know that there are Holocaust survivors alive today?
-James Burns 2nd Period
Parts of the book night that have darkness in them are hard to depict from the lighter areas of the book. There is an shadow-like feeling carried throughout the tone of the book.
Wiesel writes talking about his father saying positive things that happened to his sister and mother. "How we would have liked to believe that. We pretended, for what if one of us still did believe?"
The quote shows the darkness of how the loss of hope and faith got greater as the story went on
After reading the book I came to realize that there is a lot of different ways to analyze a text
In response to addies blog, I agree because I think jews in the holocaust including weisel and his father had trouble accepting that genocide and concentration camps were then reality.
I can't even put myself into the position of a jewish person from the holocaust because in any situation I would never be able to experience the physical, mental, and emotional pain they felt.
No one can ever relate to the pain that the people had to experience in the holocaust. Elie was strong enough mentally and physically to survive until the end. These men had no more strength mentally which is why many could no longer live in the conditions they were in. When Elie and his father were on the train going to a new camp it was dark, quiet and he was unsure what awful thing would happen next. In my opinion darkness represents evil and its hard to see whats infront of you. On this train Elie experiences people no longer acting as people but as animals. These animals only want one thing which is food. Many on the train were killed or trampled by the people desperate for one small peice of bread. This shows the evil that had taken place in the cold, quiet, and scary train. While Elie was sleeping he was attacked by a man thinking he had a peice of bread when he had not. This shows the way these men were animals.
Elie Wiesel shed light on his little faith that remained within him. He had continually lost his faith in God, in living, and in his family. After reading this book it gives me a better prespective of the tragic event. Although I will never be able to put myself in the place of the Jewish because no one can ever feel their pain, I still beileve itt gives me a better understanding.
In response to MarissaR3 I agree with the way you decribed dark and light. Darkness does show negitivity like in your examples from the book. It is very hard to see what is coming next when your in the darkness becasue you are unprepared and paraniod.
I feel that the book itself is darkness. One of the definitions of night is literally “the dark”, so even the very title Night indicates that this was a very dark time. Throughout the entire book, we saw darkness everywhere. The cold hopeless feeling that accompanies the darkness of the camp slowly seeped into the hearts of all the Jews making them feel absolutely hopeless and made them lose faith. Sure there were physical struggles and challenges, but the darkness mixing with the loss of faith created more of a mental challenge that was even harder to overcome than the physical labors. These mental challenges lead to confusion in their minds. In the end that confusion lead them to betray their loved ones to stay alive. “A terrible thought crossed my mind: What if he had wanted to be rid of his father?” (Wiesel 91). Here Wiesel is speaking of Rabbi Eliahu’s son who had gotten separated from his father during the run. Even Wiesel himself feels a sort of relief that he no longer has the burden of his father after his father died. “Free at last!”(Wiesel 112)
Also it seemed as if almost all of the most horrible things that Wiesel witnesses happened during the night in the darkness. Horrifying events that will haunt his nightmares forever: “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed.”(Wiesel 34). There is a lot you can take from this one quote. Wiesel states that he shall never forget that horrible night that everything that he cared about was taken from him. His faith, his soul, his God, his mother, his sisters, everything was taken. All were taken but his father who also was taken from him at a later time. Also where he says, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed, like I said before one definition for night is “the dark”, so Wiesel is kind of saying that that night threw his entire life into darkness.
As a reader Wiesel shed light on how cruel these places really were. Throughout my entire life I have learned about the Holocaust, but never really like this. Wiesel describes his time in the camps with detailed accuracy. He describes things that are so cruel, like burning children alive, that it leaves me sitting here aghast and thinking “This can’t be real, can it? How could anyone be so inhumane?” for me as a reader it really helps me understand the pain and anguish, at least to a small extent, of these poor people. Even with the gruesome details, I can’t even begin to imagine the horror and torture the Jews went through.
@Rohan: I agree with what you said about Night itself being darkness. Also I can see where you’re coming from with the light and dark opposing the Jews. I never thought about it that way and it is definitely a twist I would have overlooked, but now I see exactly what you are saying and it makes perfect sense. I agree with you entirely.
C. Lenhoff 1st.
The entire book Night, has a feeling of darkness. Night is the time of day where there is no light. Nighttime is the time of evil. Throughout the book Wiesel talks about the night. For example, the anaphora written about Wiesel's first night in the concentration camp shows how the darkness affects him. "Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed," (34). Darkness quickly takes it's toll.
To bethany w: I agree with your statement that the shadow-like feeling carries throughout the book. The darkness seems to get to everyone in the camps. It leaves an eerie impression. It shows truly how cruel and evil these camps were to provide a feeling of darkness on every victim.
-Jacki K. 1*
In the book "Night" Elie Wiesel refers to the word night a lot through out the book. I believe he uses the word night as a loss of humanity and the ability to know what is going on. I also believe it shows great fear of the unknown. While Wiesel was at the camp he said: "All I could see was darkness". The word night has a very negative emotion that lies underneath the text. When Wiesel said that I imagined him lost and having no where to go as if he was in a room with no doors windows or anything, just him by himself. Wiesel uses the word night a lot to help really make you think about what he felt during these horrible times.
To Kaitlyn Pieper
I agree with your idea of a lot of events occurring at night almost setting a more negative tone in the book. You did a really good job using events from the book to help support your ideas.
JeffA 1st period
In the book Night the park that first spoke of darkness was the first night that he stayed in the camps. To us darkness is a type of evil, at night there is no light, and you cant always see whats infront of you. For example, Wiesel states, "Never shall i forget that night, the first night in the camps. That turned my life into one long night seven times sealed" (34). We associate night with darkness, something you cant wait to be over and thats exactly what Wiesel was saying, that his life became one long night that never ended. Our fears and bad dreams come to us in the middle of the night and those fears and nightmares became his reality and his life.
After reading this book it made me realize how much you have to believe in yourself and your own strength. If you have faith in yourself, it doesnt matter what anyone else thinks or does, you are stong enough to make it through your worst nightmare.
To Rosevine A:
I really liked your definition of darkness and how you explained in detail aboutwhat went on in the camps to help describe darkness. Great quotes and overall good description.
The idea of darkness is a reoccurring theme throughout the book, Night. Darkness is often shown through references to night, in times of blackness, silence and cold. These times of darkness are prevalent in moments of uncertainty and sorrow. An example of this occurs in Wiesel’s last night before leaving Buna:
“… The last night in Buna. Once more, the last night. The last night at home, the last night in the ghetto, the last night in the cattle car, and, now, the last night in Buna. How much longer would our lives be lived from one “last night” to the next?
I didn’t sleep. Through the frosty windowpanes we could see flashes of red. Cannon shots broke the silence of night.” (83).
From this passage, we can easily see the idea of uncertainty occurring within Wiesel and his exhaustion from constantly moving and being unaware of the future events to come. These moments of darkness and loss allow the readers to become influenced and feel the great suspension and depression being cast upon Wiesel. Also, the times of darkness in the book create a visual light in which the readers feel the weight of constant uncertainty and sadness that affects all the prisoners of the camp.
As opposed to times of darkness in our book we also witness times of joy and enlightenment. These times are symbolized by the color white, to show a time of purity and uprising relief. Also, within the times of light we see the idea of calmness, color and relaxation. For instance, we see this idea of realization and tranquility when Wiesel writes:
“Around noon, everything was calm again. The SS fled and the resistance had taken charge of
the camp.
At six o’ clock that afternoon, the first American tank stood at the gates of Buchenwald” (115).
From this quote we see the archetype of brightness and light. It shows the readers, a positive event and uses description to allow the event to be seen in a relived light and color in the middle of the day. Also, it helps to clarify the idea that nighttime or darkness is used for the bad and dark events, as where good things that are encouraging, happen in the time of day within light and color.
Overall, this book has really helped me to see things from a brand new perspective. Wiesel has helped me to realize that it is very easy when in times of panic and uncertainty to give up on faith, family and moral values. However, this book has really helped me to realize that being fortunate; I have become blind and have taken all the important necessities and values of my life for granted. Wiesel has helped me to recognize how fortunate and lucky I truly am and in doing so I have begun to appreciate my life, faith and family with more respect and honor than I ever have before.
In the book Night, Mr. Wiesel has the ability to use night and darkness for a couple of different things. For example, in the beginning he uses darkness to show how it can drive people together:
"Freed from normal constraints, some of the young let go of their inhibitions and, under cover of darkness, caressed one another without any thought of others, alone in the world" (23).
This quote tells how the young and the scared sought comfort and assurance in the arms of each other. The darkness drove them together and allowed them to release any reticent that they previously had involving sexual contact. It changed perspective of what was wrong and right.
Another way that darkness was used, was as a change in the characters. It was a euphemism for loss of faith and ignoring ones morals. These things crept and slunk through what was once pure and light. The seed of doubt that was planted by Elie's doubt in God grew. So did his need for self preservation. These are different types of darkness as well. They annihilated the light and made Wiesel fro get about them. This darkness eliminated his faith in God. It eliminated his need to stay with his father. The darkness took these values and contorted them throughout the novel.
As a reader this book has impacted me in a way that I can barely describe. It allowed insight as to how much these people, these victims, changed internally as well as externally over the course of their ordeal. I didn’t know how much they had fought one another for basic necessities like food and water. This book told me about it, and I don’t know whether I prefer knowing. Perhaps ignorance is bliss and I would be better off not knowing what was done to these people. Knowing exactly what happened has changed me. It has made me realize that I have nothing to complain about. I don’t know what starving is. I don’t know what torture is. I don’t know what it is like to lose the ones that I love. These people know the exact meaning of these things, and this book makes me pray to whatever God exists that I never do.
- Angie G. 2*
@ Maddie Kidd
I agree with what you said about none of us understanding what these people went through, no matter how many books we read. Your blog was insightful in this fact and I included some of your ideas in my own.
To Lydia Sch. :
I agree with your realization on the book Night. I personally never truly realized the type of impact and hatred that was placed upon the prisoners of the camp. I also found it extremely terrifying how far the inmates would go just to eat and survive. Overall, I really enjoyed your post. I really liked the quote you used and your analysis about how darkness doesn't allow us to see provoking fear. All in all I felt you did a really good job.
Some examples from the book Night when Elie Wiesel is in the darkness is his first night at the camp. He sees the smoke and smells the burning of bodies. Witnessing these events make him question his faith, wondering how such a God could cause this to happen to his own people. One moment that we, as a reader, know that Wiesel is in the darkness is when he says, "We were incapable of thinking. Our senses were numbed, everything was fading into a fog" (36).
Something that I understand better now after reading the book is that this was not just something that happened in history. Indifference is a problem that still exsists in our world today.
To Addie Gall:
You made a good point when you said that Wiesel felt not only hurt physically, but also mentally. This is proven throughout the book, when he questions his faith.
Kayla B 2*
Though overall the book has a primary theme of darkness, darkness is not the only thing in the book. Light is occasionally seen, specifically in the first half of the book, when Wiesel is still in Sighet. And I don't think I would call Wiesel's initial time in the camps dark either, just gray.
In my opinion, darkness doesn't really set in until Wiesel finds himself losing faith in his God. Then, his father dies making the darkness even blacker.
Also, when i say darkness, I mean mental darkness rather than physical darkness, even though there is of course a day/night cycle.
To Ben. W-
Interesting perspective there. I kind of think the opposite of that in the beginning. I suppose that's why text is open to interpretation.
The book Night has many parts that speak of darkness. The most significant is the Jewish people losing their sense in faith. In the darkness many Jewish people lost their faith and failed to survive the Holocaust. The darkness of the book influences the sad, dull emotion throughout the book. The senses are more cautious from the darkness and it shows a scared perspective. The darkness also shows the unknown that goes out throughout the book.
The darkness also represents the dark times that the Jewish people are going through.All the hard times they have and the evil that is coming.
Wiesel has shed light on me as a reader. He has shown me examples of the hard time that Jewish people have gone through and the unfairness of it. As a result of reading the book I have learned so much more of the events that went on during the Holocaust. I have learned about how the Jews were treated and how they felt. I have learn a lot from reading just one book.
-Olivia Y.
second period
To:Rohan Srivastava
I like the way you used the quote in your blog to talk about the books foreshadowing. Also your view of the darkness in the book is very interesting.
In "Night", darkness is more than a time or thing, but a feeling. Wiesel speaks often about "darkness" just like he speaks about the "night." The darkness hangs over everybody's spirits. In the beginning of the book darkness is spoken through the reactions of other people concering Mrs. Schachter's words: "She is hallucinating because she is a thirsty, poor woman..That's why she speaks of flames devouring her... But it was all in vain. Our terror could no longer be contained. Our nerves had reached a breaking point. It was as though madness had infected all of us." (26). This quote shows that the light, or hope, in the victims had drained, and they felt as if all the happiness had gone from the world.
Coming into the process of reading "Night", I though it would be like any other Holocaust book; honestly. Wiesel presented a different light on the events that happened though. He taught me that even while being tortured, there was many internal conflicts about family and faith in the Jewish people. Through "Night" I also learned that they were not just killed as soon as they arrived at a camp, but had to work and died slowly.
After finishing Wiesel's book, I now view the Holocaust as fights from individuals, rather than just killings of random people with no story.
In the book, Night, the darkness plays a key role, however, the entire book is not about complete darkness. Although joy is not a main theme, it does break through now and again in the story. Our book speaks to the darkness when it talks about the death of Wiesel's father. He states, "I shall not describe my life during that period. It no longer mattered. Since my father's death, nothing mattered to me anymore." (113). The darkness in this case is sadness, shame, and the realization of how important family is. Wiesel's life means nothing anymore without his father, who was always with him and a supporter of him during this time in their lives. Wiesel also feels the shame of not being with his father in his final hours. Instead of protecting him from the blows of the officer, Wiesel stayed safe up in his bunk. This darkness makes us feel sorry for Wiesel, for everything that he has gone through in the past year. It makes us side with him against the cruel acts being put upon him.
While there are many periods of darkness in this book, the light shines through now and then. At the very end of the book, the Jewish people were liberated by American soldiers. Wiesel says, "At six o'clock that afternoon, the first American tank stood at the gates of Buchenwald." (115). This tank is the symbol of the Jews' new-found freedom. They no longer have to deal with the starvation, constant beatings, and the horrible living conditions. They can physically move on to a better part of their life.
Before I read the book, Night, I knew what the Holocaust was from reading about it in History class. I knew about the crematoria's, starvation, and the mass graves. However, I never saw how the Holocaust looked to a person who lived through it. Wiesel's descriptive book really opened my eyes. I cannot even begin to think how a human being can do such terrible things to people. These German soldiers would go to the camps everyday, torture these innocent people, and then go home and somehow have the nerve to hug their children and kiss their wives. I never thought that a person could be so sick and shoot a baby. I never thought that someone could be so cruel and burn a person alive. It baffles me how a person can do these things. This book and these descriptions really made me take a step back and look at what the Jewish people went through.
aussie.gurl - I really liked how you used the shadows quote. When you think of shadows, you think of something coming up and creeping up behind you, just like how the Holocaust came up onto the Jewish people. I agree totally in the fact that Wiesel made me think that I am so lucky to have the life that I have.
The archetype of darkness is portrayed all throughout the book. Darkness means hoplessness, the feeling of the unknown, and evilness. Wiesel says,"They had orders to shoot anyone who could not sustain the pace," (Wiesel, 85). This shows that anybody can die at any time for any reason. Each day the people of Auschwitz didn't know what was in store for them, or their family, or their futures. The only glimmer of light is in the beginning when Germans first came to live with the Jews. They acted polite, nice, and caring. All of that feeling is destroyed once they first arrive to Auschwitz all the way until everyone dies.
@ Rohan Srivastava- I agree with your last paragraph completely. I learned so much about the Holocaust and more by reading this book. Probably more than any average social studies class could have taught me. Good Job!
By: Jazlyn R. `7/8
In the book Night, darkness is always present. It was present when Wiesel saw the smoke from the creamatorium rising into the sky, it was present when the prisioners were shot running from camp to camp and it was present during every other action that caused death or grief during the book. Darkness can represent sadness, uncertainty or even death and all of those things were present throughout Night. During the dark times in Night, famalies were seperated, people were tourtured and people were killed brutally. Wiesel was also found in his own darkness when he was doubting God and his religion. He felt confused and angry at his God for abondoning him and he wanted to find out why the people were being punished by him so much. The light side is very much the opposite of the dark side. The light side is when people helped each other out in the camps, when famalies and relatives were reunited and when any other good action took place. However, the struggle between Wiesel and his darkness is always a prevalant theme in Night. Wiesel struggled with the darkness of him doubting God, saying "Why, but why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled." (67) During this quote, Wiesel was going through his darkest of times.
I have learned just how much suffering can be endured by human beings and how much their faith in God can be tested. By reading Night, my eyes have been opened to just how much people went through in the concentration camps. I now know what Hitler wanted to accomplish when he condemed thousands of people to die just because they were different than the rest. I learned how wrong it was. I now understand why they teach about the Holocaust so much in schools. They don't want history to repeat itself.
@ Lauren H. I agree with your idea of how darkness is not a theme throughout the whole book. There were some times in the book when the good side won over the bad side.
I think the selections speak to darkness. I think this because the darkness is unknown and at times of selection the Jews' fates are unknown. In the darkness is fear. The Jews fear what is happening to them and what could possibly happen to them. The darkness leaves a sense of fear and the unexpected. In the darkness you don't know what is coming and that causes fear of what it could be. The light interprets hope, life and faith, while the darkness shows fear and death. Wiesel shed light on family and priorities. He showed that no matter how hard a situation is you can lean on your family and have faith they will be there. You will grow from the mutual support to overcome any challenges.
To Ben W.: I like how you explained the darkness portraying the torture the Jews endured. Also how you have light shed on the understanding of the concentration camps.
Parts of the book that speak to darkness would be when Wiesel loses his faith in God.
"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? Because in His great might, He had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many other factories of death?..." (Wiesel, 67)
In the darkness, Wiesel gives up his beliefs in God and that God will help him. All he sees is people dying with no hope. He does not understand how the same almighty person could cause all this despair. Losing his faith causes him to give up hope, he feels empty, and now his rebellion against God chooses what he does. The light and dark differs in the text because the light would be maybe hope that since his father is with him, Wiesel will be able to survive. The darkness is that his father is only weighing him down in his survival. Mostly this occurs when Wiesel must take care of him when his father becomes ill.
"I gave him what was left of my soup. But my heart was heavy. I was aware that I was doing it grudgingly." (Wiesel, 107.
The darkness here overpowers the light. Wiesel's survival is more important than hurting himself to help his father.
I knew a lot about the Holocaust before having read this book. However, this book really helped me to understand just what the Jews went through. When you learn in school you get the facts of what happened, but in "Night" you actually see a person's account of how they felt, and what they personally went through. I did not know what it was like for a Jew in the holocaust before having read this. Wiesel shares his true emotions and thoughts and gives you the bigger picture on just how awful it was.
- Maddy G. 1st period
Looking at the book I notice the parts of darkness that stand out the most. One part of the book that I feel speak to darkness is when Wiesel is riding the train to Auschwitz and he first enters the camp. The archetype for darkness is of the unknown. What lay ahead at the camp was quite unknown to Wiesel and all of the other Jews.
Wiesel shed light on the kind of torture that went on in the concentration camps. He shed light on how it felt to actually have been there. Before reading this book I had always known that many bad things occurred during the Holocaust, but after reading it I have a far more in depth understanding of the severity of the whole situation.
-Nathan Bardwell 2nd Period
To Ryan:
I like how you said that the book was not all of darkness, and I also agree with it. In general I thought your response was quite good and you definitely put a lot of thought in to it.
To Andrew S: I thought that you did a really great job explaining the different aspects of darkness in Night. I agree with you that parts of the darkness were when smoke was coming from the crematorium, when families were separated and people were just killed. I had not thought of the smoke from the crematoria when I was answering this question but I could definitely see it as a part of the darkness. Also, like you, I learned how much human beings can suffer and just how exactly the Jews were tortured in the camps.
- Maddy G. 1st period
In the book Night we see that darkness takes over many prisoners lifes. The archetype darkness refers to a mysterious feeling or sense that something bad is going to happen. When someone dies or is sentenced to death the author put a darkness feeling into it. Seeing the babbies burned or people being hung showed how dark it was at the concentration camps. If someone got an extra ration for meal time or got a day off from work, this showed a "light" feeling instead of darkness. During the hollidays the SS were a little nicer and this also showed a "light" feeling for the prisoners.
In the eighth grade we learned a lot about the Holocaust. We went to the Holocaust muesum also in Washington D.C to learnded somemore. After reading this book I learned more about the tortures that happened within the camps. I knew people were killed very brutally but had no idea it was that bad. He went into detail about some of the deaths and I could not believe how horrible it was even with the information I already had about the Holocaust.
@ Rkordahi
I agree with you greatly on the thoughts on the Holocaust. Its like we knew the stuff went on, but did not comprehend how tragic and unbelievable it was.
above comment ( i hope) from iceman is thomas m from 7°-8°.
In the book "Night", darkness is used to convey a feeling of loneliness and to show Wiesel's despair. When Wiesel says in the book, "It must have been around midnight. We had arrived. In Birkenau."(28), he draws attention to his fear of the unknown inside of the gates of the camp he had arrived at with the fact that it was midnight-the darkest time of the day. Wiesel puts a dark feeling in his first glimpse at this place because it was soon to be the cause of his misery and his loneliness.
Wiesel sheds light on the truly horrible way that the Jews were treated inside of the camps and before the camps-like they weren't human. He shows the way that his faith held him back and his suffering from this inhuman conditions brought light into his eyes blinded by love of a Lord who(he thought) didn't care about him. Before this book, many could be led to believe that God was these people's only source of comfort, not the source of their greatest pains and struggles.
Anna J. 7-8 period
Darkness is a prominent theme in the book Night. There are many instances which occur in darkness, but some light still shines through in various places. On pages 74 and 75, Wiesel discusses what occurs between him and his father once they find out that his father was going to be part of the selection. This was a very dark time for both of them, as they thought they would be separated forever, on account of the death of Wiesel's father which seemed to be inevitable. What comes next was hard for me to read: "My inheritance... 'Don't talk like that Father.' I was on the verge of breaking into sobs. 'I don't want you to say such things. Keep the spoon and knife. You will need them as much as I. We'll see each other tonight'" (Wiesel 75). This section portrays darkness as Wiesel's father is preparing his son for life after his death. The reader can tell how Elie Wiesel feels, considering how clearly he states it: "I was on the verge of breaking into sobs." His father was convinced that this was the last time they would be together. Sadness and darkness surrounded him, even making it hard for him to speak: "His speech became confused, his voice was choked" (Wiesel 75). The sense of the unknown and the despair overwhelmed him.
Darkness influences the emotion, the senses, and the perspective of situations significantly. When in darkness you become confused and disoriented. The darkness can overwhelm a person to the point of breaking down mentally and emotionally. It changes the way you view things as well. You can have a negative outlook on most situations but if there is any glimmer of hope it may be dwelled upon for some time.
In a book filled with so much darkness there are still moments where the light shines through. One instance where light is seen is when Juliek is playing his violin in the dark barrack surrounded by the many dead. Elie Wiesel was amazed at the sound he heard: "Who was this madman who played the violin here, at the edge of his own grave? Or was it hallucinations? It had to be Juliek.... Never had I heard such a beautiful sound. In such silence" (94-95). Wiesel shows his initial reaction to this music, questioning how a person could play something so beautiful and illuminating in such a bleak and depressing situation. Juliek gave him a small glimmer of happiness and light as they waited out the night during evacuations.
While reading the book Night, the words of Elie Wiesel shed light on the realness of what occurred inside the concentration camps. He also brought forth the reality of what was going on inside of the minds of the Jews while they were undergoing such horrendous torture. I had not fully understood what the Jews had gone through emotionally and spiritually until Wiesel gave readers the opportunity to follow his thoughts throughout his time at the camps.
To Lydia St.: I like the way you related your quote the eyes of people. It definitely does show the fact that darkness was being portrayed through the actions (really the lack of action) given by the people outside of the Holocaust who kept silent.
The negative things that took place in the book night took place mainly at night. The dark means that a person lacks understanding. The propaganda that was enforced by the Nazis was so strong that many people began to believe them. The neighbors of the Jews stood by watching. They did not bother to stand up for the Jews. They were indiscriminant towards the Jews. The people on the light side are the Jews. Many of them had not even committed a single crime in their lives, and yet they were targeted by Hitler. The people on the dark side were those who stood by watching, and the Nazi soldiers. In other words, the light was good, the dark was bad. By reading the book night by Elie Wiesel, I learned that the Holocaust did not take place over the course of one day. It happened through the course of many years. Hitler made little steps. Each step led to the next step and that step led to the one on top of that one. In the book, Wiesel writes, “First edict: Jews were prohibited from leaving their residences for three days, under penalty of death.” (10). Then, they were not allowed to own gold or any other valuables. After that, they had to wear a yellow star. The Jews were prohibited to go to public places. They were moved to the ghettos.
@ Lydia: I agree that the darkness can be very frightening. It scares us all.
to Addie Gall
I see what you are saying, but it I think that you, to help your argument, you could describe the darkness. Mentally, he was in a dark place where he had no help sorting his struggles out because everyone else had the same problems. Physically, the same. I think you have a point, but you need to support it.
Anna J. 7-8 period
The post from "Leah" was from Leah W. 1
Darkness is definitely a key role in our book. Not only can the darkness represent fear, but the darkness represents the obvious, that bad things almost always happen at night, in the dark. "It must have been around midnight. We had arrived. In Birkenau." (Wiesel, 28). This was probably one of the worst and scariest things that could happen to them. The arrival to the camp, and of course, it happened at night.
Something that I learned from reading this book is you never know how you are going to react to a certain situation until you are physically put into that situation. I doubt that any of the victims of the Holocaust thought that they would ever turn against their family and fend for themselves in a dangerous situation, but once that dangerous situation became their whole life, it was every man for himself.
Bekah H. 7/8.
To Lauren H. 7/8: I agree with your idea that the book was not completely dark, and there was some light in it. I also agree with your statement about how you cannot believe that the Germans could be so cruel. What really baffles me about that is how many people were too afraid of Hitler to say anything.
The one of the parts that speak to the darkness in the book, Night, is when the SS hanged a pipel who was a kid and the man behind Wiesel said,"For God's sake, where is God?" (65). In the darkness people question God's existence and the darkness also impairs them through their thoughts and judgments by being unclear of the path in front of them. For example, Wiesel can't decide to fast or not because he can't see God i this suffering and misery. At that time he made his decision by telling us,"I did not fast. First of all, to please my father who had forbidden me to do so. And then, there was no longer any reason for me to fast. I no longer accepted God's silence" (69). The light differs from the dark in this book by when Wiesel sticks with his father and feels ashamed to have thoughts of abandoning him which show the light but the dark is the moments when he sees the indifference among the people around him during this time. The thing that the author showed me was the actual feeling and atmosphere of the Holocaust that was explained with great detail.
-Kyle C. 7/8period.
@NAK
I like how you described what the darkness was representing in the event that you picked and how it affected a person. I also liked your connection to explain how the Nazis used hate against the jews.
-Kyle C. 7/8period.
Before they had gotten to the camps, when they were on the trains, the lady in Wiesel's car would scream every night. She saw fire, flames, smoke. "Look Jews, look at the flames, look at the fire!" Nobody knew what she was talking about. It always happened in the darkness. The dark setting made it all the more creepy when I was reading it. It gave it a sense of bad feelings, which is what the dark archetype essentially is. Before reading this book I had learned about the Holocaust. I had learned of the physical stress being put onto so many of the Jewish people. Reading 'Night' put the whole situation of the Holocaust into a different point of view. It seemed as if you were going through the Holocaust, though without the pains of hunger, whippings and physical labor. I remember when I was reading the part when they were on the death marches. I could practically feel the cold air in my throat, the rawness that comes with it. Reading about the Holocaust this way put it into a whole new light for me; it showed me the mental stress that people went through.
--
Paul S.
7/8 Period
To Ben W.
I agree with you about your statement of when his dark moments happened; on the trains, during the camps, etc. Your use of the darkness archetype furthers the statement. Overall it was good and I agree with it.
--
Paul S.
7/8 Period
As an archetype, darkness has multiple ways to interpret it. There is the emotional feeling of despair that darkness is often associated with. Darkness can be also the physical darkness. When the world around a child becomes dark, the child become's frightened of the monsters lurking in the shadows. Fear and despair creeps into the soul of everyone. In "Night" Wiesel talks about a mother named Mrs. Schächter who goes mad in the cattle car delivering the Jews to the concentration camps. She screams "Fire! I see a fire! (25). Mrs. Schächter loses her mind in the cattle car out of despair. The darkness of the night, the terror it brings, and the loss of her husband and other children bring her to go mad. She was mentally and emotionaly damaged. To make her be quiet the other people in the cattle car physicaly beat the woman. The darkness around the Jews lead them to be more afraid then they usually would be. The deprivation of food and water for three days broke the Jews. They fell into despair mentaly, slowly becoming terrified of what was around them in that car. The night Mrs. Schächter went mad, it was dark, no light able to reach most of the people. Light as an archetype signifies hope, but the lack of light says there was no hope for the Jews traveling to the concentration camps.
This book has taught me nothing more of suffering or pain. I have read so many books that the pain and despair is undescribable it is hard to count. The most related book is "Parallel Journies". One of the two main characters in the book was a Jew named Helen and to me her torment seemed worse than that of Wiesels.
To Rohan-
I like how you comment on the darkness and light archetypes both being against the Jews and that for them hopes seemed dead. Using darkness to show the loss of faith was a nice take on the idea. I agree though that ina postition of the Jews in the cattle cars, hope would seem dead, trapped like a child in something so much more real and montrous then the fear of when they were children.
The above is Colton K. 1st period
In Night, Most of the scenery in the book is stated to be in night. While I was reading this memoir, I began to connect the statement with our archetype Night. Our archetype tells that Night is associated with evil, and bad things happen at night. Which is proven by this little section of our book, , "It was cold. We got into our bunks. The last night in Buna. Once more, the last night. The last night at home, the last night in the ghetto, the last night in the cattle car, and now, the last night in Buna. How much longer would our lives be lived from one "last night" to the next?" (Page 83 Paragrah 2)That shows of all the bad times that happened, they happened at night.He shined a light on for me that is hope for people to become less indifferent, or not at all, that we can change.
To Olivia W:I really liked how you explained your quotes, I agree with what you learned after you read the book, with reading the memoir we understand what Wiesel went through.
Jennifer W 7/8~
Every part of this book speaks of darkness. Darkness is a symbol of the night. The night and darkness can have literal or mental meanings. It can take away ones life swallowing their souls. It can eliminate ones faith. I think a part of the book that represents night in one of the best ways is the first nights he spent in Auschwitz or on the train ride into Auschwitz. He doesn't know the darkness that will fall upon him or his family members. Wiesel said something along the lines of never shall I forget the darness that consumed my faith forever or he used night, but it shows the mental view of how darkness can be put in in this story. The darkness I think heightens all senses and emotions. The Jews emotions broke loose and they becamme angry with many others in the camp. This book showed how brutal the Nazis really were because of this first hand account.
To:Ryan
I like how you made the comparison throughout about light and dark. Your point is more than clear in the paragraph.
Night as the title of the book sets the theme for the whole book. The archetype of Night leaves a sense of the unknown. From the very beginning of the book you get the sense that it is going to be a negative experience. Often the word night and darkness have negative meanings to them. When anything negative or suspenseful would occur it is during the night time which makes it even more suspenseful. Many times throughout the book Wiesel says that the nights were long.When he says this he is telling us that the night brought upon great fear to him. Wiesel also says "The shadows around me roused themselves as if from a deep sleep and left silently in every direction." (14). This tells that the fear was starting to eat at him but then at the end of the day he had to let it go and try to stay positive. The darkness was the negative and the positive was the light. In our text the light was those moments when Wiesel was not as scared or the moment when he finally felt freedom.
Now that I have read the book I think that it had shed light on me that the Holocaust was a real. The Holocaust is something that is hard to grasp for me. I just do not understand how one man could be so cruel and have that much control over other human beings. On top of that all this occurred recently. I think that reading this book had helped me see that it was a real event and it did have a major effect on many peoples lives.
To Olivia Young: I agree with you that the lose of faith is a major part of the darkness of the book night. As well as the time just being all together a dark time. It is amazing to think that all of the things that happened to Wiesel was real. It is terrible that the times were so dark that it cause Wiesel to lose his faith in God.
The book Night refers to a certain darkness throughout the book. The darkness is a pain and suffering the Jews and other people in the concentraion camp go through everyday. The book uses all types of archetypes all through the book. The darkness is the archetype that is carried on and used the most in the book. Wiesel states "Why do you go on troubling these people, their ailing bodies?". This shows their pain and suffering and the darkness they were treated with. The darkness that is shown in this book is Wiesel losing faith. He starts to lose a part of himself.
@Lydia Sch I really liked how you explained how the darkness wasnt just the pain and suffering in the concentration camps, but it was also between people.
The book night as a whole speaks to darkness. A point in particular, is when they are in the gallows and saying the prayer of the dead and wiesel questions the existance of a God at all. In the darkness, wiesel has a loss o faith. It is a very troubling and disorienting time for him. He doesn't know what to make of it. Emotionally wiesel is angered. He becomes very upset that god would let these things happen. It qill take wiesel a long tume to recover from this loss. Wiesel uses diction to make sure that he gives the reader the best picture he can. Wiesel talks about darkness, "The night was gone. The morning star was shining in the sky. I too had become a completely different person. The student of the Talmud, the child that I was, had been consumed in the flames. There remained only a shape that looked like me. A dark flame had entered into my soul and devoured it." (34, night) Wiesel ahows how the darkness the camp has changed him as a person. He explains that he once was innocent, but now has been scarred with so many atrocities. Here wiesel uses short sentences to create an effect that makes the reader have an "ahhh" moment. Wiesel refers to the light as before the camp and darkness to during the camp.
After reading night, i now gave a better understanding pf how the jewish people felt. I never thought about how they believed the germans. I necer thought they accepted that they were stupid as a fact.
To rohan: i like how you talked about what we get from the holocaust. We try very hard in order to prevent histpry from repeating itself. I also like how you talk about how wiesel and what he suppprted.
Hannah m 1
In our book,"Night" Elie Wiesel refers to darkness and the night time often. The part of the book that speaks this to me is probably when they are marching to the next camp after he was hospitalized from his foot, or when his father is passing away. During the "darkness" people are seen giving up hope, passion; trading it in for more earthly things such as food or people. It influences the reader more than the text because it sets the emotion and the mental image of what the reader is trying to comprehend. It gives you a 'inside source' perspective on how Wiesel really felt, and how the people of the camps thought. The darkness archetype is often referred to as a time of sadness or depression and is included with the color black which authors will use or show things that are bland or unsuccessful. However light is alluded to being a bright yellow or white symbolizing goodness, God like things and happiness. "Night" doesn't show much of the white light or happiness,that it is focusing on sadness and how the Holocaust effected innocent Jewish people.
Wiesel brought to my attention as a reader the true pain of the Holocaust and how to use imagery correctly. He taught me that you can loose faith in yourself and in God, no matter what the circumstance. That you can also keep faith throughout tough events, and gain it back once you think it's gone forever.
@Addie Gall-
I think we have similar opinions. You wrote about being in his shoes and how you think it would feel like. I have often wondered what pain and punishment it would be going through the holocaust. I've also caught myself wondering "is this real" when i thought that it was to harsh to be real.
-Cheyenne. W_1
Looking at the darkness in the book Night, a part that speaks to darkness is when they are in teh train and the son kills his father for a piece of bread. The darkness that happens is the son leaving his human emotions and becoming animal instincts. The darkness influences emotion, senses and perspective by making everything gloomy, hurtful, painful and sad. Light and dark differ in the text, a "light" part would be when they are freed, a "dark" part would be when Elie's father died, "A terrible thought crossed my mind: What if he had wanted to be rid of his father? He had felt his father growing weaker and, believing that the end was near had thought by this separation to free himself of a burden that could diminish his own chance for survival( 91)".
Wiesel shed light on how emotional it was to be seperated from your family and how horrible the living conditions were, I now know about these miserable things.
Emily L 7/8*
@Addie Gall
I agree that Wiesel felt not only hurt physcially, but also metally. I like how you said that it made him tired and brought him down. I also think he lost faith in his God and how much he was deprived of family. I honestly could not imagine being Wiesel in that situation and witnessing all of the horrible things that went on at those camps. It must have been agony.
Emily L 7/8*
The parts of the books that speak to darkness would have to be when death almost consumes one. Those moments show the darkness and despair that the person is feeling. In the darkness, bad things happen. In our book every tragedy that took place at the concentration camp happened at night. Darkness represents badness and confusion. Darkness blurs our perspective, senses, and emotions. It causes confusion and renders one helpless. In the book, the light would be hope, and gratitude. Hope of liberation and gratitude for kind words and food. When Wiesel says, "The darkness enveloped us. 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 unfilled hopes. His charred past, his extinguished future. He played that which he would never play again." (94) This quote is about the light, Juliek's violin, being consumed by the darkness, an audience of dying men. Wiesel shed light on that society should never forget the Holocaust. It was a horrible time of suffering and it would be disrespectful if the world were to forget.
Jake "The Stud" Simonelli- I agree with you that the boy taking bread from his own father and almost killing him is a good example of darkness. It shows that darkness can cause one to do anything, even that of killing his own father. Darkness is a time when the lines are blurred, and one cannot tell the difference between right and wrong.
-Casey 1 period
The book Night, by Elie Wiesel, refers to darkness many times in the book. For example Wiesel states,"The night was pitch-black. From time to time, a shot exploded in the darkness. (Wiesel 85)" Wiesel refers to darkness as a negative presence like our archetype. During the book, people were fighting over bread like animals. They would kill loved ones for the smallest ration of bread. The darkness had consumed most of the population of the concentration camps. Their senses had evaporated like rain water on a hot sidewalk and they basically couldn't fight off the darkness anymore.
Darkness is a key role in our book. Not only can the darkness show fear, but the darkness also explains the obvious, that bad things almost always happen at night, in the dark. "It must have been around midnight. We had arrived. In Birkenau." This was probably one of the worst and horrofic things that could happen to them. The arrival to the camp, and of course, it happened at night.
Something that I learned from reading this book is you never know how you are going to react to a certain situation until you are physically put into that situation. I highly dis believe that any of the victims of the Holocaust thought that they would ever turn against their family and fight for themselves in a dangerous situation, but once that dangerous situation became their whole life, it was every man for himself.
Michelle: I comnpletley agree with your statement. Darkness is definatley a major role in the book Night. Weisel is ultimatley affected by the darkness that surroundes him and the Night that connsumes him each day at the concentration camp.
Dominic Bosko 1st
When I finished reading the book Night, he had given me a new look on torture, despair, and hardship. When I am in a bad situation, or even a really good situation, I always question myself as if it was not real. The parts of the book that speaks about darkness is the part where his father his dying. After he dies, the darkness overwhelms Wiesel and he lost his faith in God. I did not see any light in this passage, even after they were liberated. The effects of the camp still lingered the Jewish people. Wiesel also showed me how to be grateful for what I have. Also, that if I am going through a rough time, somebody out there is starving, dying, being bullied, or being abused.
@ Rohan Srivastiva--- Of course, your blog explains the contrast between light and darkness perfectly.
Ethan Engelke, 2nd period
Addie- You read my mind. Reading this book has definately changed my views and has helped me to understand how the victims felt. Wiesel's book spoke not only for himself, but for the people he met that died. I think that seeing how bad some of the others were suffering helped to motivate him to live. He didn't want his life to end that way.
-Megan Zajkowski
Throughout the book Night, by Elie Wiesel, the word 'Night' is mentioned very often. Night is interchangeable in the fact that it is used as representation for many different things. The word is used on almost every page; 'There was nothing. Only the darkness of Night.'(25). Here, Night is being introduced fairly early in Weisel's book to be a metapor for indifference. The Jews were being shipped to Auschwitz, being treated no better than a trainfull of dirt, and the rest of the world is sitting by, ignoring the fact that their neightbors, friends, and co-workers are on their way towards death. Sometimes Night is used to represent the actions of the Nazi's; 'By now it was night. It had stopped snowing. We had marched a few more hours before we arrived.' (92). Here, the Jews were running to another part of Auschwitz, and were not allowed to stop or slow down. Although people do it often, run for hours, it an act of cruelty when the runners are not in proper clothing, the weather is freezing, and they are malnourished. The Jews were not in the proper state to run for miles, and the Nazi's didn't care. They also didn't care about other things they did to the Jews during the Night, which seems when the worst of the worst acts seem to happen. Night was used throught Wiesel's book, and even titles it, showing how much meaning he put on the word.
After reading Night, I realize how indifferent I have been, and have begun to regret the times where i have been ignorant and ignored a situation I could have changed, if even slightly. I hope that in the future, I will act differently than I have in the past, because even though it will never be such an intense situation as genocide, I am still commiting an act if negligence. Negligence is the same, no matter if someone is being bullied, or their whole race is being killed.
@Angie5339-
I agree when you say that Night is used in many ways throughout the book, and I agree with you, so much that that's how I interpreted the use of the word Night also. I find it interesting though, the different ways Wiesel used it, for I have never thought about it in those ways before.
Natalie S 1*
Darkness is not just a describing word, but also a symbol.
Darkness can be felt all through out the book 'Night.'When I see the word darkness, the words mysterious, spooky, and/or depressing always pop into my head. Bad things happen in the dark. Things like kidnaps, killings, and abuse. In the book, darkness makes the story more scary and mysterious. We don't know what will happen next.
Light and dark do differ. When we think of light we think of sunshine, happiness or success, which is the opposite of darkness.
@DominicB
I get where you are going when you quoted "we mustve gotten to the camp around midnight" and how scary you thought it must of been for them.
But darkness can symbolize something more than a time of day. Would it really matter what time of day they got at the concentration camp? Wouldn't they still feel the same way?
I do agree that we would not know what any of this is like unless we were in a situation like this.
Good connections!
Jessica T. 5/6
Darkness is not just a describing word, but also a symbol.
Darkness can be felt all through out the book 'Night.'When I see the word darkness, the words mysterious, spooky, and/or depressing always pop into my head. Bad things happen in the dark. Things like kidnaps, killings, and abuse. In the book, darkness makes the story more scary and mysterious. We don't know what will happen next.
Light and dark do differ. When we think of light we think of sunshine, happiness or success, which is the opposite of darkness.
@DominicB
I get where you are going when you quoted "we mustve gotten to the camp around midnight" and how scary you thought it must of been for them.
But darkness can symbolize something more than a time of day. Would it really matter what time of day they got at the concentration camp? Wouldn't they still feel the same way?
I do agree that we would not know what any of this is like unless we were in a situation like this.
Good connections!
Jessica T. 5/6
I feel like one of the darkest parts was after they arrived at the camps. After they arrived Wiesel realized that Mrs. Shachter was correct, and had known something they had not. ''on the third night... a piercing cry broke the silence:''Fire! I see a fire! I see a fire!'' (24) ''There was nothing. only the darkness of night.'' (25) This was what made arriving at the camps so dark. As they were piecing the sounds, smells, and sights together, they thought back to that night when they were given warnings. Instead of listening to the warnings of fear and hope for others, they had her beaten, everyone had found her annoying only to arrive at the camps in more fear than before. They also did most of their marches at night. And example is at the end of the book before they are liberated. -Megan Zajkowski 7/8
All of the parts where Wiesel speaks about the concentration camps are filled with darkness. Night is spread throughout the whole book. One specific quote shows a lot of what dark does to people. " ‘Fire! I see a fire! I see a fire!’ There was a moment of panic. Who had screamed? It was Mrs.Schachter”(24). That quote is a perfect of example for our archetype of dark. It shows unawareness and being afraid. Darkness causes your senses to raise and to be more alert. It also raises our paranoia a lot and influences our brain to think that something bad is going to happen.
Before I read "Night", the Holocaust was something different to me. Reading "Night" showed me a first person perspective on things, showing the emotional effects of being taken away from family and watching death happen every minute all around you.
To Addie G.
I totally agree with you on what reading Night did to you. He showed the emotions and his thoughts through out the whole thing. Most people couldn't live what he lived through and what he has seen.
The archetype for darkness is uncertainty and the unknown. This is emphasized throughout the book "Night" by Ellie Wiesel. Wiesel's entire future is contingent on the mood of the Nazis on each particular day. If one is in a bad mood or he steps one toe out of line there is only one result: death. Wiesel struggles with the darkness that now hangs over his future like a dark cloud.
One point in the book that really emphasizes darkness occurs on page thirty-two, "He seemed to be telling the truth. Not far from us, flames, huge flames were rising from a ditch.” (32) In this quote Wiesel is misinformed that he is headed to the crematorium to be murdered. This goes to show how uncertain everything was in the camp and how one little thing can change it all.
-Sam H. 1st period
To Addie Gall:
I like the way you noticed how the mental torture was much more painful than the physical pain. I agree with the fact that it must have been tough to accept that the inhumane cruelty of the Nazis was actually real and that people could actually do something so apatheticly horrible.
The darkness in the book represents the death of so many Jews in the Holocaust. It adds a solemn feeling while reading the book. Most of the bad things that happen to Wiesel happen at night. During the day is mostly when nothing significant really happens.
After reading the book one thing that I now knew was that a lot of the Jews just gave up hope while in the concentration camps. A lot of them may have been able to survive if they could have kept hope and kept pushing on but they didn't and they didn't care anymore and just died. In the beginning I would have thought most of them would have tried to keep hope but the further I got into the book the more I found out that it was just the opposite.
BrittanyG: I thought you did a good job in describing the darkness and all the ways it affected Wiesel.
In the book Night there are many examples of darkness being shown. Wiesel wrote, “On the third night, as we were sleeping, some of us sitting huddled against each other, some of us standing, a piercing cry broke the silence: ‘Fire! I see a fire! I see a fire!’ There was a moment of panic. Who had screamed? It was Mrs.Schachter”( 24). On the night they arrived all was quiet and restless until a scream broke out. I feel that the darkness represented the unknowing and the scream was the fear the Jews felt. Something else I noticed while readin the book was that the Nazi had made the Jews wear yellow stars. why the color yellow? Yellow meant wisdom and enlightnment. The Jews could not have felt wise or enlightened while they were in the concentartation camps. Did the Nazi's do that to mock them? Although Wiesel explains all the diicerent thing he experience we will never be able to compare our life to his.
to : Rohan Srivastava
I agree with the idea of darkness is a loss of humanity. I think through darkness one can lose the idea of themselves and change instanly. Also I agreethat it is alias of hope. During dark hours if you try to look out for something you don't see it because darkness has overpowered it.
I found that elie when he lived in the camps he lived through a time Of darkness. What elie had to go through wOuld drain the life out of someone. When I was about to read this book I thought of someone who was going to live through the Holocaust and just explain the event. As I read through this I felt the pain. I felt the suffering and the sorrow. I saw the loss of hope and faith. I understood that people can die physically and people can die emotionally. Through physical it is a loss of life but at the same time a time of relief. When a person would die emotionally they would lose the life out of them and it takes awaythe life in their eyes. It takes away the spring they used to have. I fell losing the life emotionally is far worse than losing the life physcially.
I agree with Rohans statement. I fell that elies life itself is darkness. That he was living through the times that he could never take back. Every moment in his life was a time of sorrow and greef that they could never take back. There is so much that people had to live through that they cannot take back. They have to live with the memories their whole life and their whole lives will be filled with darkness.
Sorry it was late. No Internet access until Sunday.
Kayla Cameron 5/6
many parts of the book night are dark and scary one example that speaks of darkness is when they first arrive at the camp. it speaks of how it was around midnight when they had arrived and how they smell the smell of burning bodies from the chimneys. this part of the book i believe is about darkness. another example is when Wiesel questioned god. this is another example because it was such a dark time in the story.
During the book Wiesel had shed one thing on me as a reader and that is that physical death is not the worst punishment one can receive. i had learned that emotional death is far worse watching the ones you love die and slowly becoming no one just an empty shell.
to Chris
i had liked the way you had added quotes to your comment and how you had explained how the book had changed your views on different events.
-Hunter G
The main part of Night that speaks to darkness to me is when the prisoners are running to Buchanwald. During this time they are confused. They do not know where ther are going. This relates to the saying "left in the dark." During this time period nothing good happens. A son leaves his father, and many are shot because they cannot keep up.
Prior to reading this book I did not know that the Jews had feelings toward what was happening. I just thought that they went along with it. I also didnt realize how bad life actually was in the camps. I just figured that the camps were similair to prisons. Now i have learned that they were much worse.
I cannot understand how Wiesel felt. He saw people killed and starved when he was only fifteen. When we first began talking about how he lost his faith in God I was kind of angry that he no longer believed. However, after further thinking I understand a little more of why he felt abandonned by Him. I still am a little confused but I cannot relate to Wiesel saying that I have not seen what he has.
Haley Y.
Kayla:
I agree with the darkness throughout the book. I also felt the same way you did as I read the book. I like how you described what Wiesel went through. The line, "What elie had to go through wOuld drain the life out of someone," adds flavor to your response.
Haley Y.
Post a Comment