Night by Elie Wiesel Chapters 5 through 6...
Jon, even though in your last post you said hatred would be a very big theme in this book and it has been seen in and against the Jewish community before, these chapters show a bit more hope for the Jewish spirit. The hatred of the Nazis is not able to take away the beliefs of their Jewish prisoners, and this shows when the Jewish community comes together in the end for the celebration of the Jewish New Year. The will-power of the prisoners in these camps inspires the reader to know that discrimination against one's values is not something that should compel one to change his or her beliefs. It is good to be different as well as an individual right to follow through with your beliefs, and to see that a power such as the Nazis is not able to suppress a group of people from following through with their religion is exciting. One should never back-down from what he or she thinks is right just because someone is threatening him or her.
The theme of holding onto one's values through thick and thin can be illustrated at an even deeper level since the choices of the main character affects how the reader may see this theme. Eliezer starts to think during the time of Jewish celebrations that nothing is true about the Jewish people being "God's chosen" since he has experienced so much hatred for his fellow Jewish. The young boy has been through so much, and he has started to lose hope for ever being free again, meaning that it won't be long until a lot of the other prisoners begin to drift away from their values as well. In fact, there are many within the camps already that say things which have made Elie doubt his beliefs in the first place, although these few haven't been abundant enough to stop the fasting of Yom Kippur. Elie's life becomes more and more lifeless as he starts to drift away from the idea of God, and he soon can be portrayed as a boy who expects nothing good to happen to him; his life drags on with nothing for him to look forward to but more torture, "Yet another last night. The last night at home, the last night in the ghetto, the last night in the train, and, now, the last night in Buna. How much longer were our lives to be dragged out from one 'last night' to another?" (pg. 79). Even though it is not yet said in these chapters, Elie's changing beliefs are most likely what makes his experience within the camps even worse since he has nothing to look forward to anymore. Even though people can argue that diminishing values are what keep the young boy's feet stuck to the ground, they may also turn out to be the reason he expects to die throughout his experiences in the camps. Elie dropped the thing that had gotten him stuck within the Nazi camps, and this is something that most would do, but those who fight until the end are the ones who die for a true cause, and Elie was not even able to stand up for his people as a living boy by separating with his religion because of the pain it had caused him.
Jon, even though in your last post you said hatred would be a very big theme in this book and it has been seen in and against the Jewish community before, these chapters show a bit more hope for the Jewish spirit. The hatred of the Nazis is not able to take away the beliefs of their Jewish prisoners, and this shows when the Jewish community comes together in the end for the celebration of the Jewish New Year. The will-power of the prisoners in these camps inspires the reader to know that discrimination against one's values is not something that should compel one to change his or her beliefs. It is good to be different as well as an individual right to follow through with your beliefs, and to see that a power such as the Nazis is not able to suppress a group of people from following through with their religion is exciting. One should never back-down from what he or she thinks is right just because someone is threatening him or her.
The theme of holding onto one's values through thick and thin can be illustrated at an even deeper level since the choices of the main character affects how the reader may see this theme. Eliezer starts to think during the time of Jewish celebrations that nothing is true about the Jewish people being "God's chosen" since he has experienced so much hatred for his fellow Jewish. The young boy has been through so much, and he has started to lose hope for ever being free again, meaning that it won't be long until a lot of the other prisoners begin to drift away from their values as well. In fact, there are many within the camps already that say things which have made Elie doubt his beliefs in the first place, although these few haven't been abundant enough to stop the fasting of Yom Kippur. Elie's life becomes more and more lifeless as he starts to drift away from the idea of God, and he soon can be portrayed as a boy who expects nothing good to happen to him; his life drags on with nothing for him to look forward to but more torture, "Yet another last night. The last night at home, the last night in the ghetto, the last night in the train, and, now, the last night in Buna. How much longer were our lives to be dragged out from one 'last night' to another?" (pg. 79). Even though it is not yet said in these chapters, Elie's changing beliefs are most likely what makes his experience within the camps even worse since he has nothing to look forward to anymore. Even though people can argue that diminishing values are what keep the young boy's feet stuck to the ground, they may also turn out to be the reason he expects to die throughout his experiences in the camps. Elie dropped the thing that had gotten him stuck within the Nazi camps, and this is something that most would do, but those who fight until the end are the ones who die for a true cause, and Elie was not even able to stand up for his people as a living boy by separating with his religion because of the pain it had caused him.
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