Ms. Taravella
Accelerated English 9A
12th January 2012
Night - Final Exam Theme Analysis
Night may be a peaceful time for some, but for holocaust survivors, it was a horrific memory. The novel Night by Elie Wiesel is an autobiographical account of a teenager in the early 1940’s being forced to move into a ghetto and then into a concentration camp by the German Nazis. Nazi occupied Eastern Europe was ruled by the dictator Hitler. Adolf Hitler was predatory, and he was trying to create a super race of people who had blonde hair and blue eyes. He also thought Jewish people were the cause of Germany’s economic downfall. This book is like a roller coaster with its ups and downs. There were many themes conveyed throughout the book. Three themes explored in the novel Night are night, indifference, and survival. One theme is night or darkness. Throughout the entire novel, almost every bad event takes place during the night hours. The Death March, which was the time when the remaining prisoners were moved in horrible conditions for over three days, began at night. The captives were forced to run over 20 kilometers in freezing temperatures and then were crammed 100 people per cattle car (Wiesel, p. 85-103). They were moving away from advancing enemy lines, from Buna to Buchenwald. As they started to embark on their journey, Elie confesses, “Night was falling rapidly.” (Wiesel, p. 66). This makes everything more mysterious as they run through the dark. Wiesel later reveals, “We had been a hundred or so in this wagon. Twelve of us left.” (Wiesel, P. 103). Another theme displayed in the novel Night is indifference, or not caring. Through the book, Elie changes. In the beginning of the book he is a very self-willed person, but as things progress, he becomes more and more indifferent. Once, when Elie and his father had only been in the camp for a short time, Elie’s father asked another older prisoner