(1/10/2008)
Elie Wiesel is a survivor of the Holocaust, and he retold his experiences in the book Night. This is a story of how the small Jewish country of Sighet, was deported and the Jews were forced to work at labor camps.
The way that Wiesel tells the story of his life made me understand more of what went on during the Holocaust. This book made me think about what it would be like if I had lived during these times and had to try and survive the labor camps.
During his ordeal in the camps and the selections, he made many friends, such as the French girl that he meets at the warehouse. He also meets a young boy by the name of Juliek who plays the violin, but later dies on night in his sleep.
For most of the story Night a father and son use each other to survive. They help each other stay awake , because they say "falling asleep in this cold would kill a man." If these two paople would have been separated right away, they may not have survived as long as they did, because they pushed themselves to survive and stick together.
One of the main themes of the story is the fact that Elie tries to maintain his faith in God, even though all these bad things are going on around them, and happening to them, like Elie and his father being seperated from his mother and sisters.
I think that in the story, Elie was a type of hero for his father. Without Elie his father would have died a lot sooner than he did. At the same time Elie's father was also a hero to his son, because Elie said that once he thought about trowing hiself into a pit of dead bodies. His father told him not to. Another hero in this book is the American Army. The reason that I thought that the American Army was a hero is because they save all those people and they stopped the Nazis from killing more people than they already had killed.
Overall I liked this book and it was a good choice. I would recommend reading this book to anyone that is interested in the Holocaust and the events that occured during this period. If you want to find out what happens to Elie and his family more in depth you need to read the book!!!