Night Blog

   Throughout Elie Wiesel's memoir, I noticed various examples of times when the Holocaust changed him as a person in many different ways. He went from a regular person, to in theory, a walking skeleton. As much as Elie changed physically, he changed greatly emotionally. As you could imagine, an experience like the holocaust could leave large emotional scars on a person. When reading his story, it made me think how he changed, from the religious young boy, to he person he is today.

    One of the largest changes I noticed in the book was his views on religion, and God. At the very beginning of the story, Elie was a devout Orthodox Jew. As many have noticed, his religious belief slowly drifted away as the story carried on. One example of this was mentioned by Elie when he said, "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 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." This quote teaches me how Elie was starting to think differently about God, because in his eyes, he believed that God would not allow him to go thought a situation like that, but he did.

   Another change that I noticed in Elie while the story was developing, was his special bond with his father. When they first arrived at the camp, they tried hard to stick together, and not lose each other. Later on, Elie's father got sick, so Elie gave him part of his ration. A fellow prisoner commented on this by saying, "Listen to me, kid. Don't forget that you are in a concentration camp. In this place, it is every many for himself, and you cannot think of others. Not even you father. In this place, there is no such thing as father, brother, friend. Each of us lives and dies alone. Let me give you good advice: stop giving your ration of bread and soup to your old father. You cannot help him anymore. And you are hurting yourself. In fact, you should be getting his rations..." After Elie heard this, he realized his father did not have much time left.