Night Essay

Codi Mitchell
Mrs. Bosch
English Honors 10
6 January 2009
Night
The novel, Night written by Elie Wiesel, had many emotions that changed through out the book. The book started at what seemed semi decent. Elie was a young boy who lived in Transylvania. He lived with his parents, and sisters. His family was Jewish along with their village. A big event happened in Elie’s life, which made it change drastically. The Nazis rushed Elie and his family out of their village. They were put on a train and going to some strange place, the place they arrived at as Auschwitz. Once they got of the train Elie and his father were separated from his mother and sisters, they never saw each other again. Elie and his father went to many concentration camps, and did lots of work. After awhile Elie’s father became weak and was beaten. While he watched his father, get beat, he said, "I had watched the whole scene without moving. I kept quiet. In fact, I was thinking of how to get farther away so that I would not be hit me. What is more, any anger I felt at that moment was directed, not against the Kapo, but against my father. I was angry with him, for not knowing how to avoid Idek’s outbreak. That is what concentration camp life had made of me." Staying in the concentration camps and being worked so hard, Elie’s attitude had changed. That had made him be selfish, angry, and upset. He started to think how his father couldn’t avoid being beaten or how he let this happened. He soon became disappointed, but not only in his dad, but also in himself.
Over the period of the time that Elie and his father have been pushed around and put into different concentration camps, his attitude had change drastically. He had gone from being a son who would help his father out with anything and do anything his father needed. He had prayed not to be separated from his father, it was the only family he had, and he loved his father more than anything. But soon his attitude changed. He became upset and angry with his father. When Elie saw his father beaten, he was overwhelmed. Over the time that Elie and his father had been together, without his mother and sisters, he had watched his father become weak. He had watched him struggle but Elie helped him to keep going. But once he saw his father being beat, his attitude went from loving his father, to being anger with him. He was angry that his father didn’t know how to avoid this horrible situation. He had seen his dad become weak and Elie was angered to see his dad in such a state. Elie had also become selfish. He would have done anything to try to stop his father from being beat in the beginning of the novel, but now he just sat back and watched as his father was beaten to death. He didn’t even try to help his father; instead, he was becoming angry with him for letting this all happen.
Not only had Elie became selfish and enraged with anger, he had soon became disappointed with the whole scene. He wasn’t only dissatisfied with his dad, but with himself. He was disappointed in his dad because he didn’t do anything to try to avoid the attack. He saw him become weak and that made him feel let down. Elie became disappointed in himself. He couldn’t believe that he was sitting there trying to escape, while his father was being beaten. He saw that he had let down his father and himself. The concentration camps had made him into a person he couldn’t even recognize. He would have gone and tried his hardest to help his dad, but he had turned into a person he didn’t even know. In the end of the novel, Elie is able to look into a mirror, he stated “From the depth of the mirror a corpse gazed back at me. The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me.” Elie himself said that he didn’t recognize who he became, or what he even looked like.
Night, a novel written by Elie Wiesel, had many emotional changes in it. Elie, a young boy, who was separated from his mother and sisters and left with his dad, was in and out of concentration camps. He and his father had done lots of hard work, and over that period of time, Elie watched his father grow weak. Elie had helped his father when he struggled and prayed everyday that they would not be separated. When Elie’s father became so weak he was beaten to death, Elie did nothing but watch it happen. His attitude had changed. He became angry with his father, and selfish. He soon then became disappointed, not only in his father, but in himself. He didn’t even recognize the kind of person the concentration camps had made him into. He had let himself down, and couldn’t believe it.









Works Cited
1. Wiesel, Elie. Night. Hill & Wang edition. New York: Hill & Wang, 1960.