Night: Animal Instinct
How about we re-read Silence, but with ten times the brutality? Welcome to Night. If you like werewolf movies, you'll probably enjoy this book.
...No, really. This is what Wiesel's story makes me think of more than anything: night falls, the moon rises, and men become savage animals in spite of themselves, Nazis and Jews alike. Bear with me, because I just read the entire thing in one sitting (partly because it drew me in like that and partly because I forgot how far into it we were actually supposed to read). I'll avoid spoilers from the latter half of the book, but my thoughts, while first forming in the first half, are really cemented in the later chapters.
Everything starts out simply enough, considering it's the Holocaust: the Jews are mostly compliant as the sun goes down on their lives, easing into the segregation. They don't revolt, lash out at the Germans, or do anything of the sort. The first person they treat with violence? An old Jewish lady in a train car. Out of nothing more than annoyance, the other Jews tie her up and strike her a few times until her delirious cries are silenced. When they arrive at camp, Wiesel's mother and sisters are taken, never seen again, rarely mentioned again. They evidently don't often cross Wiesel's mind--the immediate horrors of the camp distract him until his affections are dulled completely. He immediately forgets about most of his own family, likely only remembering his father because his father is still there. Wiesel's hope vanishes next, as he very nearly makes a suicide attempt at the electric fence before the Nazis direct him away from the crematorium and confirm that he'll live a while longer. Then his faith takes a blow when his father prays and Wiesel can only demand in his mind where God is and why He should be glorified. It's like his human mind is taken apart piece by piece, all in one night; Wiesel comments that "My soul had been invaded--and devoured--by a black flame." An immortal soul is what separates men from animals. If a man's soul is burned away, what does he become?
The part of the story where Jews assist in executing a fellow prisoner in exchange for food was probably part of the reading, and things get much worse from that point onward. Receiving inhumane treatment from the Nazis made men inhuman. It reduced them to a basic drive for survival. We can discuss all we want about whether Rodrigues "really apostatized," but the results of this racial persecution are hardly open for interpretation as far as I'm concerned.
P.S. I commented on Natalie and Ty’s posts.
...No, really. This is what Wiesel's story makes me think of more than anything: night falls, the moon rises, and men become savage animals in spite of themselves, Nazis and Jews alike. Bear with me, because I just read the entire thing in one sitting (partly because it drew me in like that and partly because I forgot how far into it we were actually supposed to read). I'll avoid spoilers from the latter half of the book, but my thoughts, while first forming in the first half, are really cemented in the later chapters.
Everything starts out simply enough, considering it's the Holocaust: the Jews are mostly compliant as the sun goes down on their lives, easing into the segregation. They don't revolt, lash out at the Germans, or do anything of the sort. The first person they treat with violence? An old Jewish lady in a train car. Out of nothing more than annoyance, the other Jews tie her up and strike her a few times until her delirious cries are silenced. When they arrive at camp, Wiesel's mother and sisters are taken, never seen again, rarely mentioned again. They evidently don't often cross Wiesel's mind--the immediate horrors of the camp distract him until his affections are dulled completely. He immediately forgets about most of his own family, likely only remembering his father because his father is still there. Wiesel's hope vanishes next, as he very nearly makes a suicide attempt at the electric fence before the Nazis direct him away from the crematorium and confirm that he'll live a while longer. Then his faith takes a blow when his father prays and Wiesel can only demand in his mind where God is and why He should be glorified. It's like his human mind is taken apart piece by piece, all in one night; Wiesel comments that "My soul had been invaded--and devoured--by a black flame." An immortal soul is what separates men from animals. If a man's soul is burned away, what does he become?
The part of the story where Jews assist in executing a fellow prisoner in exchange for food was probably part of the reading, and things get much worse from that point onward. Receiving inhumane treatment from the Nazis made men inhuman. It reduced them to a basic drive for survival. We can discuss all we want about whether Rodrigues "really apostatized," but the results of this racial persecution are hardly open for interpretation as far as I'm concerned.
P.S. I commented on Natalie and Ty’s posts.
So you just stole my topic of how similar this is to Silence. Way to go (jk). It's an interesting analogy to compare this to a werewolf story. I suppose you could argue that their true natures come out when the sun sets and night falls.
ReplyDeleteIt's such a saddening thing to see that the horror of the camps did that to him and I'm sure many other people as well. The Nazis really did take away the humanity of these people, and it's so important for us to read Night and other books like it so we can keep these poor souls in remembrance.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI understand your pain in not talking about the ending Will, I finished it early too. This book obviously holds many similar themes to silence, there are several places where Elie directly comments on the silence of God. I do like your analogy of the werewolf though, I never thought of it that way before. If only it could end all happy and cheesy like those teen werewolf books....
ReplyDelete