Krajnak

Night
Elie Wiesels memoir Night depicts the horrifying events of the Holocaust. Elies journey
through these terrible times changes his personality and his disposition towards events. The
mental traumas of the Holocaust are so great that Elie is never able to truly return to his previous
mental state. His adolescence and his development were shaped by the Holocaust. Constantly
being exposed to death and torture numbs Elies sense of empathy and muffles his emotional
responses.
Before going to the camps, Elie is quite an emotional boy. He values his family, but even
more his faith. His love of his faith is so great that he even weeps several times during his
reflections or prayer. I wept because-because of something inside me that felt the need for tears.
That was all I knew (Wiesel 2). He is extremely interested in his faith, so compassionate that he
asks his father for a teacher, even though he is considered far too young to learn the intricacies of
the faith. However strong his faith was in Sighet, it could not withstand the blows of the
Holocaust.
The horrors which Elie witnessed caused him to question, and ultimately lose some faith
in God. He watched countless innocent people die, and was separated from his mother and
sisters. This is why he questioned those who still worshipped God. Elie believes that God has
done nothing for him, or the other Jews, he does not deserve any thanks. 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? (Wiesel 31). This decline is his belief in God is representative of Elies
development as a whole. Elie is growing up in a solemn environment, with little to hope for. He
is losing what connected him back to his past, his faith, most of his family, and soon, his father.

Krajnak
Elies relationship with his father displays Elies progressive dehumanization as a result
of the Holocaust. In the beginning of his imprisonment, Elie is inseparable from his father. My
hand shifted on my fathers arm. I had one thought-not to lose him. Not to be left alone (Wiesel
27). He relies on his father for support and security. This gradually changes as Elies father
becomes more and more incapacitated by disease and physical abuse. When Elie watches his
father being beaten for the first time, he is stoic. His first thought is to be angry at his father,
rather than being sympathetic. I was angry with him, for not knowing how to avoid Ideks
outbreak. That is what concentration camp life had made of me (Wiesel 52). Although Elies
instincts of protecting his father never completely abandon him, he often finds himself
wondering how much better his life would be without his sick father as a burden. Its too late to
save your old father, I said to myself. You ought to be having two rations of bread, two rations of
soup Only a fraction of a second, but I felt guilty (Wiesel 105). His experience with the
Holocaust is causing him to value bread more highly than the survival of his father, if only for a
brief second.
Even in the solemnity of his fathers death, Elie realizes that there are positives to no
longer having to care for his father. And, in the depths of my being, in the recesses of my
weakened conscience, could I have searched it, I might perhaps have found something like-free
at last! (Wiesel 106). Elie has been released from giving part of his rations to him, and thus
increases his own chances of survival. This revelation displays Elies increased devaluation of
humanity. The Holocaust has caused him to desire bread more than companionship.