Night: The Secret's Out

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   Weird things happen in the middle of the night. Anyone who has stayed up past 3 am can testify to the fact that the deep conversations happen when everyone is so loopy that they don't even care. For some reason, you're comfortable about sharing the deepest, darkest secrets of your soul when someone asks you at 2 in the morning. Perhaps this is because you know that these people are really your friends when they are still awake with you in the middle of the night, or perhaps it is because you know no one is going to remember this conversation in the morning. Whatever the case, in my numerous experiences of Summer camps, class retreats, sleepovers, or even spur of the moment all-nighters, a person's true story comes out at night. If you want to really get to know someone, stay up with them until 4 am. You'll see.
   What does this have to do with Night? As Will pointed out in his blog post, night is when the raw nature these characters come out. The characters reveal what's really in their hearts once night falls. The German soldiers seemed nice at first, but then night fell and suddenly the Jews are told they must abandon their homes. The Jews are unified on their way to Auschwitz, until one woman loses her mind. It is easy for anyone to put up a front when they feel energized, but when the energy is gone, the walls are down and all that remains is a person's true character. I'm not judging the Jews for shutting up the lady (frankly she would have driven me crazy, too), I'm just pointing out that nighttime is the time to see a person's soul. Like a said before, if you want to get to know a person, stay up with them all night.

P.S. I commented on Will and Zelda's posts.

Comments

  1. Ethan LafontMarch 19, 2018 at 6:26 PM

    It seems like there was a mixture of the Jews being close to each other and opening themselves up, but also the same amount and eventually more of the loss of companionship with as they become desperate for survival. There's defintley a night to see the worst that I think some of them feared they would never see the end of.

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  2. Natalie SchulerMarch 19, 2018 at 9:01 PM

    There's a weird paradox with the way Elie views night. On one hand he hates it because it's dark and lonely, but on the other hand, he loves it because it's time to rest. To me it was strange how he could go from hating something to looking forward to it, but as someone who has night terrors, I can understand that! After a long day, I am exhausted and really want to sleep, but I'm scared of what will happen when I sleep. I'm not saying that having night terrors is anything compared to the holocaust, but I did pick up on the strange love-hate relationship he has with night.

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  3. UnknownMarch 19, 2018 at 10:07 PM

    I think this is an incredibly insightful point. I think you can even consider the whole of Elie and his father's holocaust experience to be a metaphorical night. As time goes on, it is harder and harder for Elie to be focused on taking care of his father as well as himself and is tempted on more occasions than once to abandon his father to his inevitable death and just take care of his own survival. These jews were torn down to a point of complete and utter vulnerability (more like a stripping of even their personhood) causing them to act in a way they wouldn't in the 'daylight'.

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  4. Zelda PeachMarch 19, 2018 at 10:09 PM

    You could not be more right Sophia. I agree with Natalie also, Elie’s view towards night is rather odd. I think one's own experience shapes his or her view on a particular thing and that is what changes for Elie throughout the course of the book. As the book continues, night becomes a different thing to Elie because it either saves him or haunts him in a new way. It is weird how something that one once loved can become their greatest nightmare or vice versa.

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  5. Brenna StringfellowMarch 20, 2018 at 12:02 AM

    Now that you say that night time is the best place to find out someone's true self it made this entire story come together for me. With sleepovers I can testify to what staying up late and secrets will do to you, but in this story it truly brings out how the characters really feel and how they are so deeply struggling to understand what is happening with them and their faith.

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