Figurative Death in Night
The Death of Good: Figurative Death in Night
In the early 1940’s, Hitler started death camps. His goal was to kill all of the Jews because they were not pure Germans. He started concentration camps, where they would beat and starve the prisoners until they died. The prisoners went through selections to see what job to make them, and if they were not fit enough, to kill them. The Nazis used crematories in which they burned prisoners, in ovens, until they were ashes. One of the most infamous concentration camps was a camp called Auschwitz. Night is a true story, written by Eliezer (Elie) Wiesel, about his time spent in Auschwitz, and another concentration camp called Buna. He was deported from his home in Sighet, Transylvania when he was only fifteen, and in the concentration camps, saw more death than any boy should have to see. There was a lot of literal death, but there was also figurative death, too. There are several figurative examples of death in Night.
One figurative example of death was the death of freedom. In 1944, Nazis came into Hungary and started ghettos, where they held Jews in their own city. This also happened to Elie’s town of Sighet. They were fenced in by barbed wire, and the Germans came “to fetch men to stoke coal on the military trains” (Wiesel 9). In the concentration camps, if they tried to escape they were shot by the SS soldiers surrounding the camp. Everything Elie and the other prisoners did was controlled by the Kapos who would mercilessly beat them if they did not obey immediately. There was roll call every day and then they would be fed a thin soup and some bread, which the foremen could easily take away for the slightest reason. Elie was once beaten twenty five times, on a box, for “‘meddl[ing] in other people’s affairs’” (Wiesel 55), when he accidentally walked in on the foreman fooling around with a girl. So much had their freedom been taken away that when they were bombed, although they could have been easily killed in a
In the early 1940’s, Hitler started death camps. His goal was to kill all of the Jews because they were not pure Germans. He started concentration camps, where they would beat and starve the prisoners until they died. The prisoners went through selections to see what job to make them, and if they were not fit enough, to kill them. The Nazis used crematories in which they burned prisoners, in ovens, until they were ashes. One of the most infamous concentration camps was a camp called Auschwitz. Night is a true story, written by Eliezer (Elie) Wiesel, about his time spent in Auschwitz, and another concentration camp called Buna. He was deported from his home in Sighet, Transylvania when he was only fifteen, and in the concentration camps, saw more death than any boy should have to see. There was a lot of literal death, but there was also figurative death, too. There are several figurative examples of death in Night.
One figurative example of death was the death of freedom. In 1944, Nazis came into Hungary and started ghettos, where they held Jews in their own city. This also happened to Elie’s town of Sighet. They were fenced in by barbed wire, and the Germans came “to fetch men to stoke coal on the military trains” (Wiesel 9). In the concentration camps, if they tried to escape they were shot by the SS soldiers surrounding the camp. Everything Elie and the other prisoners did was controlled by the Kapos who would mercilessly beat them if they did not obey immediately. There was roll call every day and then they would be fed a thin soup and some bread, which the foremen could easily take away for the slightest reason. Elie was once beaten twenty five times, on a box, for “‘meddl[ing] in other people’s affairs’” (Wiesel 55), when he accidentally walked in on the foreman fooling around with a girl. So much had their freedom been taken away that when they were bombed, although they could have been easily killed in a
Cited: Wiesel, Elie. Night. Trans. Stella Roadway. New York: Bantam Books, 1982.