Does the Book Night by Elie Wiesel lead to hope or despair?

Night

By Elie Wiesel

Hope or despair?

The book "Night" by Elie Wiesel is a first-person narrative about the Holocaust. The Holocaust was the genocide of over 6 million European Jews and others by the Nazis during World War II The book tells the story of the time when the author was taken to a concentration camp by the Nazis. At the time he was only 14 years old and lived in Sighet, Transylvania. He tells us all of his horrifying experiences as a Jewish prisoner. Even though he tells us this gruesome story I believe he is trying to tell us that even though terrible things may happen, you must always have hope that things are going to get better.. It must have been very hard for him to narrate this memories that probably still haunt him so we must be thankful to him for giving us this chunk of history that was missing.

Eliezer had many reasons to become hopeless. He was how other Jews killed each other very selfishly over a piece of bread. "Here, every man has to fight for himself and not think of anyone else.... Here, there are no fathers, no brothers, no friends. Everyone lives and dies for himself alone." If mankind is this disgusting then God must be this way or may not exist. When Eliezer first got to the concentration camp he didn't have any hope. " Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust." He saw how many people killed each other so this made him think there was no hope for him. Throughout the story other than the conflict Eliezer has with the Nazis, he also has a conflict with himself: He started questioning his own faith. He started wondering how could God permit such cruelty to take place." Where is God now?" God didn't keep up with his promise to take care of people. When all the Jews called for him and prayed for him there was no response, only silence. The only one to keep his promises was Hitler.

Eliezer also had a reasons to have hope. One of the major reasons is human kindness. Many people in the camp are very helpful to him. At first a prisoner ask him and his father how old they are. The prisioner ask them to lie because if they said their real age they might have gotten killed. When he got beat up by a German officer, a French girl comforted him. If Eliezer hadn't fought all the time with all his might to survive, I'm sure he would have died. Many people who start having problems in their life immediately lose their faith and become pessimistic so they don't struggle to achieve their goals and that is why many times they don't. In the movie the pianist, Wladek Spilzman also is very persistent. Even though his family was murdered by the Nazis in a similar situation than that of Eliezer, he continues living whichever way he could and at the end he also survived.

When Eliezer was running with the crowd, he continued running because he had hope he could survive. If he had a little doubt in his mind then he would have hesitated and in situations like that it is very important to be confident in what you want. The major reason for Eliezer's hope was his father. He had to keep on living in order to continue protecting his father from the dangers of the camp. I believe Eliezer's hope was the only thing that saved him. The hope of surviving always got smaller because dying became a "casual" thing. "We were without strength, without illusions." The Jews saw everyone else around them dying so they got accustomed to seeing it. They accustomed themselves to this savagery. Nazis treated Jews like animals. They thought they were superior to all other races. Really, all races are equal and should be treated so. The novel makes people remember how important their life is because they don't have to live in a concentration camp and people shouldn't take things for granted. They should be thankful for all of the opportunities they have in life.