Quote Analysis of "Night" by Elie Wiesel

by beaverdan (student)

Quote Analysis of Night

“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.” Pg. 32

This quote is very important and stunning to the reader. Eliezer and his father have just realized that they have survived selection. This took place at Birkenau on their first day there. This is one of the more famous passages from the book. In this quote he is reflecting on his experience in the camps and his first impressions of this. He talks first about how it has turned his life into one long night. This gives us insight into how even still he feels that he has not recovered from his time in the camps and that he is still feeling the “night”. Then he next speaks about smoke and children being burned, which in itself is one of the most horrible images one can imagine. I cannot pretend to understand how seeing these things would feel but only can speculate based on what he says throughout the novel. He next talks about how seeing these things and experiencing the things he had consumed his faith forever. It destroyed him and his faith with it. However we can see that his faith is not destroyed but that he is struggling with his faith. We can see this as he says that God is alive and that even if he is to live as long as god does, he would not forget. This is the first time in the book that he starts to seriously question his faith. This excerpt helps us to understand Eliezer’s struggle with his faith and his own mental being. Seeing these things is not healthy for your mind and would profoundly impact your view on life. I also chose this quote on the personal impact it had on me. Honestly, a child being burned is one of the things he sees that no one else but the people that saw it can possibly think to understand how horrible, repulsive, and terrible such an act is. This impacted me personally because of simply how awful the things he saw was and how I could never think to comprehend. Being a Christian myself I can certainly see how this would destroy your faith and that even to this day his faith is consumed forever. This quote is a main idea for the play because it both outlines the horrors of the camps and his personal struggle with God.

“I awoke on January 29 at dawn. In my father’s place lay another invalid. They must have taken him away before dawn and carried him to the crematory. He may still have been breathing. There were no prayers at his grave. No candles were lit to his memory. His last word was my name. A summons to which I did not respond. I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. But I had no more tears. And, in the depths of my being, in the recesses of my weakened conscience, could I ...

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This quote is near the end of the story and is after Eliezer’s father becomes very sick with Dysentery. He talks about how after his father has been struggling with his life the day before lying in his bed, today he is no longer there. He has been taken away to be burned. Eliezer talks about how he did not have the strength to either respond to his father’s last word nor to cry for his death. The last sentence he says that deep inside he was feeling something like free at last. This is very strange concept he introduces that many people cannot comprehend. To not have ones family to look after, to care for, to worry about, and to have them gone is a burden lifted off of your shoulders. To be able to solely look out for yourself, to survive. This is an extremely tough concept for the people who did not experience the camps to understand. This is what young people were faced with when they entered the camps; Eliezer on more than one occasion thought this and knew that it was a horrid thought but still, it was there. To be free of a burden, of someone that is slowing them down, limiting their chance of survival. Also to not cry when your father had died also is tough to comprehend. This quote and the lines before it effected me more than any part of the story. It made me feel sad that his dad had died the way he did and I really struggled with understanding how he felt the way he did. It is almost unimaginable to put someone in the frame of mind that losing their father would be a good thing. This is what the Nazi’s did never the less, I’m sure that this not the only case of this happening or of other atrocities occurring in the camps. One line gets me more than any of the rest; he may still have been breathing. This is crazy! To think that not only has your father suffered beyond comprehension but also to be murdered is absolutely unimaginable. The way he deals with it, to not cry and to think he is free from a burden is beyond belief. This is the defining moment for the story and the most emotional and inconceivable to the reader; and to me, truly describes the impact the concentration camps of Nazi Germany had on the people that were there.

“One day I was able to get up, after gathering all my strength. I wanted to see myself in the mirror hanging on the opposite wall. I had not seen myself since the ghetto. From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me. The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me.” pg.109

This quote appears at the end of the story when he is finally free and regaining his health. This is a fit ending for the story because this is finally the end of his suffering and is finally free. He in this quote separates himself into two individuals, his new self and the corpse that the Nazis killed, his old self. He has become older, more mature, and more importantly a completely changed person. His “corpse” represents his old self, his faith in god, and finally his family; everything that was taken away by the Nazi’s in the camps. Then he can also separate himself from his old self. This new self has found a new identity and while he will always remember his time in the camps he will not feel the way he did while he was there. It is also important because it is the first time he has seen himself in a very long time. We can imagine how he might have looked, pathetic, skinny, beat up, dirty, and almost dead. This imagery it implies gives us insight into what he might have been thinking during this time. It also gives us further understanding to what the Nazis did to him mentally. While they did not literally kill him they killed the younger innocent version of him. To me this quote speaks to me because of the way he describes himself when he sees himself. To me the metaphor of the corpse is very effective because I can visualize what he might have looked like and even what he might have been feeling. I can also rationalize the metaphor and how they really did kill a part of this man.