"Night"- Overview/ final thoughts

Overall, "Night" was a very good book. It made me feel emotions about the Holocaust that i had never ever felt before. I felt angry and sad simultaneously. The fact that the Nazis killed 11 million innocent people (Jews, Poles, gypsies, homosexuals, disabled people, etc.) is just mind-blowing. I mean, how cruel can you be? I guess we have an idea...Nonetheless, "Night" definitely is a book that can sway your emotions to a new low. I felt deeply moved by the following quote on pages 61-62; "Where is God? Where is He?" someone behind me asked....And I heard a voice within me answer him: "Where is he? Here He is-He is hanging here on the gallows." To me, this is the most powerful quote in the book. It perfectly captures the loss of one's faith in their god and it also captures the loss of hope in a dark time. That was the case for the author Elie Wiesel. He had no faith in God. He felt that God had just let the Germans basically destroy humanity. In conclusion, i loved "Night" not just because it was a good book, but it had to ability to sway my emotions from neutral to sad and angry. Not many books do that to me... 

"Night" Chapter 3

Who was Moshe the Beadle? What made Eliezer (Elie) want him to become his mentor? What did he witness while in Poland that no one took his word for?


The first pages of "Night" talk about Moshe the Beadle. His answers to the questions asked by Wiesel, to me, sound like those of a philosopher. In my opinion, Wiesel wanted to have Moshe as a mentor because if his generosity and knowledge of the cabbala. 


*On pages 50-51 in chapter 4, Elie meets a "French" girl that works along side him at the Buna concentration camp. After he was severely beaten by Idek (part of the Kapo), the girl comforted him by putting her hand on his bleeding forehead and spoke to him in an almost motherly manner. Elie met the girl many years later. At first, she did not recognize him, but then Elie refreshed her memory. They were reminiscing at a cafe' when the girl admitted that she was actually Jewish and lied during the occupation. She would later escape the concentration camps. She told Elie that she knew he wouldn't "give her away". This is something i found really interesting.

Night-Chapter 2

The incident in chapter 2 with Madame Schachter really gave me an example of Jews going insane during the Holocaust. With her strange vision of flames, she seems to actually predict the Jews' fate. This is because on page 26, the end of chapter 2, the Jews get out of the train car and they see flames in front them, along with the smell of burning flesh. This left me wondering, "Do the Jews still not believe that death is near?" It was not just the flames that seemed to be foreboding of their death. It was also the threats of the harsh German officers and soldiers. They threatened to kill any Jew who didn't give up any gold, silver, or watches and if anyone escaped all of the Jewish prisoners would be shot. According to Elie Wiesel, " The Hungarian lieutenant...collected the last possessions from those who no longer wished to taste the bitterness of terror." It's pretty obvious that "the bitterness of terror" is death. It's also plainly seen that the Jews wanted to avoid death by following orders, regardless of the fact that they most likely will be brutally killed in the following stages of the Holocaust. I am expecting bad things to happen in chapter 3.

"Night"-Reflecting on chapter 1

The description of the incidents faced by Elie Wiesel and many other Jews of Sighet in chapter 1 is quite interesting. He is able to create the hopeful mood by using some descriptive quotes. One quote in chapter 1, on pages 9-10, Wiesel states that "The general opinion was that we were going to remain in the ghetto until the end of the war, until the arrival of the Red Army. Then everything would be as before. It was neither German nor Jew who ruled the ghetto-it was illusion." The people of Sighet were not yet convinced that death and torture were awaiting, and the fact that the Germans were taking control of their Jewish community was foreboding. The Jews still continued to live a ritual-guided life in the ghettos. Going back to when the Germans first arrived in Hungarian territory, the Jews were fond of the Germans at first. I believe that this is not just because of their acceptance principle of Judaism, but also because of the fact that both Jews and Germans were fellow Europeans. Wiesel states on page 7 that the first impressions of the Germans were "most reassuring...Their attitudes toward their hosts were distant but polite." They did not think about the duty of the German soldiers, and because of this (as I will discuss in my next blog), bad things occurred...

All Quiet on the Western Front: clip from the 1930 film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er2a5WhYU-4&feature=related
This is the scene which simulates the part in the book during which Paul stabs an enemy soldier and attempts to help him and comfort him. It may not be the entire scene, but it's the only clip that i could find interesting. This relates to the book not just because the scene is taken from the book, but the scene shows the occurrance in more depth. I wish the scene was longer so you could actually see the scene as it unfolds with Paul taking out the dead soldier's journal, but as it is, this is just a short clip. I actually would feel scared if i was in Paul's position. I mean, if i had to kill someone so suddenly that would've been my friend if the war did not take place, i would kill him if he were going to kill me, but if it were peace time or when the war was over, i would be his friend. This scene would be powerful if it were much longer, but it's still the same scene that makes you think about war as a whole.

All Quiet On the Western Front: final thoughts

Now i hope I don't spoil the end for anyone in this post. First off, let me just say that the book was still good, even if this was my second time reading it. It has a sad ending that makes you think about how war can ruin one's life and dreams. I mean if i had buddies in the war and all of them died, I wouldn't be able to carry the weight of the emotional hardships i would most likely encounter. I bet Paul felt the same way... I would recommend this book for any young WWI expert, not just because the book is about WWI soldiers, but because it paints a perfect picture about the causalities and opinions of the soldiers of World War 1.
Remember Kemmerich's boots? The ones that were worn by Muller when Kemmerich died? Well, Muller died in the end and guess who got the boots? Paul did. Now i see the importance of the reference to Kemmerich's boots. All Quiet on the Western Front is a good book that shows how WWI took its toll on a soldier emotionally and mentally.

All Quiet on the Western Front-Chapter 9: Paul's partnership with his comrades

Paul Baumer seems to be very comforted by Katczinsky, Tjaden, and Albert. This is obvious for two reasons. First off, of course he's comforted by them because if he didn't have them fighting alongside him, he would feel lonely and insecure on the front. Secondly, Tjaden and Albert have endured high school with Paul, so they've known him long enough to understand how he feels about things. The comfort level between Paul, Kat, Tjaden, and Albert is also evident in chapter nine, page 212. Paul tells the reader that he his friends are "more than motherliness and more than fear; they are the strongest, most comforting thing there is anywhere...".Paul also says that he and his friends are "nearer than lovers in a simpler, harder way". This gave me a whole new way of viewing Paul, Kat, Tjaden, and Albert's friendship. Nearer than lovers...Paul couldn't have been more serious and detailed on page 212 of the book when describing his partnership with his favorite comrades.