Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night is an enticing story of a young 15-year-old’s journey through the horrific stages of what he calls the Kingdom of Night (118). Elie uses his story to argue that if “this conflagration [were] to be extinguished one day, nothing would be left in the sky but extinct stars and unseeing eyes” (21), exemplifying why people must be empathetic, tolerant, and aware of the world around them. Elie’s use of gruesome and emotional language in order to detail his expansive story of suffering creates a memoir perfect for high school students to use as a foundation for Holocaust education.
In order to prevent the world from forgetting the horrors of the Holocaust, students should read Wiesel’s memoir, which details the stages of the Holocaust and the pain Jews went through during World War II. While other Holocaust memoirs share different—yet equally important—stories Elie faces situations that unfortunately lead him into a deeper, darker Kingdom of Night, setting his story apart from other less diverse Holocaust memoirs. When the war begins affecting life in Sighet, the Jewish community is too hopeful to realize what truly happens to them. This delusion keeps a multitude of families, including Elie’s, from escaping the horrors of the concentration camps, adding to Elie’s increasingly expansive story. Even when the Nazis place the Jews of Sighet into ghettos, they find a silver lining, but Elie sees through the optimism and realizes that “The ghetto was ruled by neither German nor Jew; it was ruled by delusion” (12). Much later in the memoir, Elie and his father have to decide whether they will stay in the infirmary or evacuate with the majority of the prisoners: “For once. We could decide our fate for ourselves. To stay, both of us, in the infirmary” (82). Elie and his father have no way of knowing which is the better decision; Unfortunately, they decide to go, assuming the infirmary will be bombed once everyone evacuates. This choice leads Elie and his father to even worse suffering. Students need to learn about the Holocaust at large before delving into the specifics; Elie’s memoir offers a diverse yet detailed description of the differing stages of the Holocaust, producing a story that properly educates students on the subject as a whole.
Elie relays his story truthfully and describes his horrific scenes boldly, without holding back any gruesome details. While some people might believe that Night is too intense and inappropriate for high schoolers, Elie’s graphic descriptions are necessary for young students to grasp how truly awful the Holocaust was. Elie’s uninhibited story demonstrates his vulnerability; when they first arrive at Birkenau, inmates warn him of the tortures he will endure, saying “Over there will be your grave. You still don’t understand? You sons of bitches. Don’t you understand anything? You will be burned! Burned to a cinder! Turned into ashes!” (31). Elie is not embarrassed by the other Jews of Sighet’s naivety, and instead embraces his own vulnerability in order to share his honest experience, which encourages students to trust his story. When they arrive in their barracks at Gleiwitz, a mob of inmates tramples Elie: “I scratched, I fought for a breath of air. I tore at decaying flesh that did not respond. I could not free myself of that mass weighing down on my chest, Who knows? Was I struggling with a dead man?” (94). Elie’s writing style is alluring because he does not divulge the worst parts of his story in one short, unembellished sentence. He creates anticipation and suspense regarding how the memoir might end. For example, instead of saying that Elie fought for his life with dead men, he uses the phrase “that mass weighing down on my chest” leaving the meaning of the word “mass” open to interpretation. In order to prevent any false conceptions of the Holocaust, Elie clarifies by using the phrase “flesh that did not respond,” elucidating that the “mass” is the weight of dead people. Elie’s use of language turns the memoir into an educational piece of literature allowing students to actively engage with the text to deepen their understanding of Elie’s story, as well as the Holocaust as a whole.
Elie’s use of emotional language makes it easier for student to feel connected to Elie on a personal level because it helps them develop empathy while still in adolescence. Elie’s emotional side starts to reveal itself when they first arrived at Birkenau. Elie realizes “this was the moment in time and the place where I was leaving my mother and Tzipora forever” (29). The heart wrenching prospect of never seeing ones family again fosters empathy. Getting in someones head in such a personal way, makes the Holocaust more real, taking it out of history and bringing it into the present. As the memoir progresses, the desire to reach out to and comfort Elie becomes stronger. Elie nearly surrenders to death multiple times in the memoir: “I saw myself in every stiffened corpse. Soon I wouldn't even be seeing them anymore; I would be one of them. A matter of hours” (89). Elie’s writing style evokes a distressed feeling because they are incapable of helping. His emotional language engages high school students by teaching in a way that ignites the emotions. High school students tend to have dynamic emotions, taking advantage of this, Elie’s goal is to pluck the readers’ heartstrings in order to gain a higher level of engagement. This results in students who not only want to learn more about the Holocaust, but also have a greater respect for the concept of never forgetting it.
Elie uses Night to educate the “unseeing eyes” (21) who do not understand the gravity of the Holocaust, and to make sure that the future does not forget the six million who lost their lives. It is vital that all high school students read Night as a prerequisite before learning about the Holocaust in a more specific way because not only does it cover the necessary foundational knowledge that everyone should know about the Holocaust, but it also gives students an emotional attachment to the Holocaust. Furthermore, it conveys the horrors of the Holocaust through graphic language that guides students toward a more developed comprehension of the Holocaust. Elie’s emotional vulnerability throughout the memoir enables students to feel just a small fraction of the oppression that the victims felt by relating their lives to and creating a personal connection with Elie as another human being. Not only do high school students gain invaluable information about how horrible our past is, but they gain a sense of responsibility. Elie argues that the worst outcome of the Holocaust is forgetting; by reading this book high school students inherit Elie’s will to pass on the world's history of intolerance and hatred to the younger generations, and to radiate unprejudiced, accepting, and compassionate thoughts in to the world, rather than hate.
Edit of Night essay: specific edits to check if all the points connect to the thesis