Reading In Elie Wiesel's Night

Reading allows for one to drift away from reality and opens a new door of an alternate fictional world. Once the reader has developed an emotional connection to the book and finds it intriguing, it is impractical to close the book. Reading allows a person to think creatively and take a break from life's stresses and worries. Whether one is reading for pleasure or for academic reasons, if enjoyable, the difference should be indistinguishable. Gratifying books teach lessons and try to get the reader to think deeply about a topic. Readers look for specific qualities in books such reader's interest, an opportunity for vocabulary, and the appropriate reading level for their age. Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare Night by Elie Wiesel and Red Queen
by Victoria Aveyard are all exceptional reads, but Romeo and Juliet and Night are more developed than Red Queen. “Romeo and Juliet” is a play by Shakespeare set in Italy during the late 1500s. The play follows a forbidden love between Romeo who belongs to the Montague house and Juliet who belongs to the Capulets. These bickering houses are sworn rivals and their rancor fills the streets in Verona. Because of the hatred between houses, this appeals my interest to see how Romeo and Juliet's love can remain. In the infamous balcony scene, Romeo sneaks over to the Capulet house to talk to Juliet and swears his life on their love. He says “And, but thou love me, let them find me here. My life were better ended by their hate than proroguéd, waiting of thy love” ( II. ii.80-85). Although Juliet urges him to flee because of the nearby guards, he would rather live a shorter life in love with her than a long life separated. This constant theme of love and death captures the reader's attention because in every scene, danger is present. The animosity of death that constantly surrounds them makes the reader want to see how the play will end. The play challenges one to think about how love can unite people who are drastically different. The play teaches the reader to not judge a person by their background or where they came from, but rather their personality and morals. To Romeo, the Montague house is only a title for him. Romeo believes that a simple name could not be something that would stop Juliet from loving him, and if he is willing to denounce his name for the sake of love. Juliet as well feels as if titles are innocuous as she says to Romeo “What’s Montague? It is not hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face,...What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet.” (II.ii.43-47) Juliet believes that the name for a rose would not change the flower if its name did not exist. Although a rose could be called many other things, the smell of a rose would be the same and the rose would remain exactly the same as it was before. Although both Romeo and Juliet are aware that the titles are sinecure, unfortunately their families would never be able to think the same as they would. Although the reading level of Romeo and Juliet is strenuous, the play is exquisite for a high school classroom because it allowed me to understand shakespeare's iambic pentameter style of writing which opens up another possible style of writing. Because I have a high interest in tragic love stories, Romeo and Juliet is the most appropriate play for me read. The most powerful text for me this year was the memoir, “Night”.
Throughout the memoir of Elie Wiesel, he explains his experiences living and fighting to survive in multiple concentration camps through vivid imagery. Elie deliberately calls himself by the name Eliezer as metaphor of the shell of his former self in the concentration camps. Once Eliezer and his family were placed in the camps, quickly the realization of the true horrors of where they were at came true. Desensitization changes Eliezer as a person, he has witnessed babies being thrown into the fire alive, multiple hangings, starvation, disease and much more atrocious events. Even seeing his own family become hurt had not affected him. “What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, before my eyes, and I had not flickered an eyelid. I had looked and said nothing.. Had I changed so much, then? Now remorse began to gnaw at me. I thought only:I shall never forgive them for that” (pg. 36) This quote, amongst many others establishes a sense of pathos for the reader by establishing an emotional connection to Eliezer. Even though his father had been badly struck by the Nazi soldiers, he had done nothing to try to help save his own father from the beating.The two themes of desensitization and loss of faith are intertwined because one does not exist without the other. Because he is inure to the horrible daily occurrences, Eliezer begins to believe that this is the life God had intended for the Jewish people
to live. “For the first time, I felt revolt rise up in me. Why should I bless his name? The eternal Lord of the universe, The All-powerful and terrible, was silent. What had I to thank him for?” (pg 31) Eliezer explains his loss of faith by explaining that if God was all powerful, he would take them out of the current hell he is living through right now. Night teaches the reader to not lose faith even in extraordinarily hard times. Night retained my interest because I found myself intrigued as to want to know what is going to happen every chapter. The memoir
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard takes place in a dystopian futuristic world where superhumans have the ability to possess powers such as controlling water, making fire out of their bodies, and control lightning.
Although following the love triangle between Mare, Cal, and Maven was interesting, the novel was very similar to many other dystopian books such as The Hunger Games and Divergent. In the book just as in many other dystopian books, there is an oppressed group of people being the ones with red blood and there is the minority powerful group being the ones with silver blood. The book did not give me an opportunity to learn new vocabulary words and was at a middle school reading level. Red Queen does not give valuable lessons, but rather repeatedly emphasises “anyone can betray anyone” (pg. 59) throughout the whole story. About halfway through the book, my interest lowered because I already could predict how the ending would play out. To me, predictable books are one of the worst qualities a book can contain. I did not feel a connection with the main characters and did not care as to what was going to happen to them. Usually, in a book I enjoy, I care when a character is killed or badly injured because the emotional connection developed to them. If Red Queen made me challenge my previous thoughts like Night and Romeo and Juliet it would have been a much more
fascinating.