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  • Essay / Themes of Dehumanization and Despondency in the Night

    The Night is a story by Elie Wiesel that details his life in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. In Night, the themes of disconnection from religion/faith, the thought of constant despair, family, the will to survive, death and disarray, the loss of ego and the cruelty that reign in the concentration camps are evident throughout the novel. The constant dehumanization and discouragement that plagues the theme of this novel are evident. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Throughout the novel, Elie mentions his separation from his family and how his father still looks out for him (later in the book this changes). At the beginning of the novel, Elie was constantly on a tightrope when it came to his family, but everything changed when they arrived at Auschwitz. When Elie arrived at Auschwitz, he heard an officer shout: “Men to the left!” Women on the right! he then begins to contemplate: “Eight words spoken gently, indifferently, without emotion. Eight short, simple words. However, that’s when I left my mother. I had no time to think and I already felt my father's hand pressing against mine: we were alone. In a split second, I saw my mother and sisters moving to the right. Tzipora held Mother's hand. I saw them moving further and further away; Mother stroked my sister's blonde hair, as if to protect her. And I continued with my father, with the men. I didn't know that this was the time and place I was leaving my mother and Tzipora forever. I continued walking, my father holding my hand.” This shows that Elijah knew their fate when he saw Mother and Tzipora heading to the right. This is also when the tightrope he had between his family breaks, he wasn't even optimistic about what was going to happen for his mother and Tzipora. Later in the Memoirs, Elie sees how the sons abandoned their fathers (which Elie fears doing). “We started walking again. The dead remained in the courtyard, under the snow, without even a marker, like guards fallen in battle. No one recited Kaddish over them. The sons abandoned the remains of their fathers without shedding a tear. (p. 92) This shows the state of well-being between families in these camps, a well-being which the sons must give up in order to survive. This is a concept that Elie realizes later in the book as his father's health deteriorates. Throughout the novel, Elijah's faith begins to deteriorate. He went from being a devout believer in God to being a blasphemer. Throughout his bout of blasphemy, he shows the reader that God has abandoned his people, leaving them to suffer. Questioning the existence of God while questioning the presence of God. This is evident when he says, “Where is God? Where is he? » asked someone behind me. ..For more than half an hour, [the child with the noose] remained there, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony before our eyes. And we had to face it. He was still alive when I passed him. His tongue was still red, his eyes were not yet glassy. Behind me, I heard the same man ask, “Where is God now?” » And I heard a voice within me answer him: “Where is he? Here he is... He hangs here on this gallows. . . .”. This shows that Elijah questions the presence of the god and if the god he worships is even legitimate. Wondering why a god would even allow this to happen. Once Elijah's faith is no more and he becomes completely blasphemous, he becomes sarcastic/sardonic. “I have more.?