Blog Post #1- Taryn

One of the parts that affected me most in the first pages of Night was the cruelty towards the kids. I feel lucky to live in a world where I don’t have to worry about that happening to me or my friends and family. But, I also feel sympathy for the people who experienced this, though not empathy because I can’t relate to them. When Moishe the Beadle came back from his being transported, he told the town of his experiences when under German control, “Without passion or haste, they shot their prisoners, who were forced to approach the trench one by one and offer their necks. Infants were tossed in the air and used as targets for the machine guns. Wiesel, 6” The part about the infants really stunned me because here there are these babies, who are too young to have done anything, and they are being killed mercilessly just because they are Jewish. Also, when Elie’s father tells Elie that his youngest sister, Tzipora, is fine because she is a big girl, he is saying that because she is not an infant or toddler, she should still be alive. Elie’s language when describing emotions and feelings is very accurate and would be relateable if you were in that situation. When describing how quickly they had changed from compassionate people to self-preserving individuals, the text reads, “. . . I thought of us as damned souls wandering through the void, souls seeking redemption, seeking oblivion, without any hope of finding either, 36.” This to me sounds very soul-wrenching, yet I can completely imagine them feeling this way. The way he uses metaphors to describe things and explain to us readers feels like it is in this way because we wouldn’t be able to comprehend the amount of pain they were going to if put into figures. Elie is showing us his world through a memoir without breaking us as well. Elie’s pace also affected the story. He talks of the first few years very broadly, but once he gets deported, time seems to slow down. For example, in the crematoria, time goes so slowly, pace by pace. But I think he slowed this part down partly because that is how it felt to him, as well as this part stuck with me more than other parts because of the amount of detail and how he built up to it.

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 13, 2019 at 12:56 PM

    Taryn,
    This is a great first response! I share many similar views to the ones you mentioned, along with an array of emotions that somewhat resembles your own. Although I understand your train of thought concerning Tzipora, I have trouble seeing the connection between your emotions from the first passage, and this statement. Perhaps another quote, or a line describing the importance of the hope given by this knowledge might have made this a little bit clearer? Otherwise, a compelling piece! Good job Taryn!

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