Examples Of Loss Of Innocence In Night By Elie Wiesel

Black 1
Alanis Black
Mrs. Jones
World Literature
02 May 2013
Loss of Innocence in Night by Elie Wiesel
Is there ever the possibility of the loss of innocence? How can one lose their innocence?
What is innocence? The loss of innocence can happen after certain events. These events make kids have to grow up and get independant quickly, if not, well they can’t survive. That is the loss of innocence. When kids must grow up quickly and learn the truth about the real world and how cruel it can be. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel there are a number of examples of loss of innocence of Elie himself like: Elie watches his own dad get hit for just asking a question, Elie himself gets beaten up for seeing he wasn’t supposed to, and Elie at one point actually gets
Then he suddenly stopped and simply sent Elie back to work as if he was bored with beating him up or maybe he was pleased with how much damage he made to the poor boy. “Suddenly he calmed down. As if nothing had happened, he sent me back to work. It was as though we had been taking part together in some game where we each had our role to play.” (Wiesel 50). This caused Elie a lot of pain, but as before, he was used to violence against himself, his dad and others by this point in his own life.
Elie also gets whipped painfully because he caught Idek doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing and something he could get in deep trouble for. Idek sent all the workers somewhere else. Idek saw that Elie noticed his act with the Polish girl and that he stayed behind.
He was very angry about this. He wanted to teach Elie a lesson to keep his mouth shut. “You wait and see, kid... You’re going to pay for this pretty soon.. and now, go back to your place.”
(Wiesel 54). He was sent back before he heard his number called out and he knew it was because of before. They get a box and tell him to lay down on his stomach on it. He does so and all
See, there are various examples of loss of innocence in the book and those are just three of them. Most kids don’t see their own parents attacked in front of them. Not so many kids get beat either. Also barely any children get whipped in their lifetime. All of these examples destroyed his innocence some more and it showed how he actually got used to the treatment. It was a big wake up call to him and probably others like him in the camp. He realized how cruel, frightening, and unreasonable people can truly be. The world doesn’t always treat you the right way. It can be a very dark and very cruel place to you, you just have to deal and cope with it.
Elie, as just a teenager, faced death, starvation, beatings and cruelness all in one setting all the time. All of these things made him have to grow up quickly, become independent and fight for himself so that he could survive. If he didn’t do these things he probably would have perished with a lot of the others. He survived because he could put up with the destruction that surrounded him and what was left of his family. So yes, there is a possibility of loss of