To Night
I don’t really know how to start this blog post. I have finished reading about half of Night (I read up to p.66), and I feel utterly heartbroken. Did we really have to read a book on the Holocaust directly after reading a book on the Christian persecution in Japan? Like, COME ON!!!
As far as the book itself goes, it is very well written. In the Preface to the copy of the book I have, (I have the bookstore copy) the author talks about rewriting it and how meaningful it is to him. I don’t personally know how he could stand to write it again. I understand the meaning that a book like this has, but I myself cannot get over the chilling image of the smoke and would not make myself write about it had it been my experience. The idea of a truck dumping babies into a pile on a ground to be thrown into the fire is too much for me. The fact that someone could be so inhumane as to perform such an act is beyond me. I feel like the man standing behind Elie when the teenage boy is being hanged on page 65, “For God’s sake, where is God?”. It is almost as if I am reading Silence all over again. Both books seem to ask the exact same questions, where is God and why is he silent? I am afraid that I will never be able to answer that question.
Lastly, I would like to think about what Elie Wiesel said in the preface regarding the purpose of his book, “What I do know is that there is ‘’response’’ in responsibility. When we think of this era of evil and darkness, so close and yet so distant, “responsibility” is the keyword. The witness has forced himself to testify. For the youth of tomorrow, for the children who will be born tomorrow. He does not want his past to become their future.”. These words are extremely powerful to me and I think they can apply to so many different situations in past and in present. People are always saying to forget the past and to look towards the future, but I think that is a mistake. Looking back is sometimes the only way to understand and grow from mistakes. As Elie Wiesel said himself, “to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time”.
(Again there is no pun of the week because of subject matter)
P.S I commented on Will and Sophia's blog posts!
P.S I commented on Will and Sophia's blog posts!
But Zelda, your title is the pun! It is hard to see these characters struggle with their faith. We know that God is all-good, all-powerful, and all-knowing, and we would like to think that we would stay strong in our faith, but if a catholic priest and a Jew are having serious doubts, who's to say we wouldn't either?
ReplyDeleteAt least these books being read back to back make it easier to compare their themes. And the preface quote you added is so extremely powerful. If a witness can't testify, what's the point of the trial?
ReplyDeleteI don't think I'll ever be able to answer that question in its fullness either.
ReplyDeleteWhat a calling for Elie to have and hold to. I think it take great boldness and drive to recall not once, but twice the hells and nightmares of one's personal experience (especially with something wrenching as the holocaust) for the purpose of saving people from their ignorance-seeking enlightenment, even when it's not pretty. Elie doesn't hide his ugly thoughts from the world that he succumbed to in the concentration camps. He presents himself as an open book so that we can learn. What sacrifice!