Night Essay

Compare the hanging of the â€Å"youth from Warsaw† and the hanging of the â€Å"sad eyed angel† and explain, using evidence from there and elsewhere in Night, why Elie Reacted differently to the two hangings. Elie Wiesel’s Night is a memoir of his horrifying childhood experiences of suffering as a Jew in the concentration camps. Eliezer was found to suffer in many camps, and during this time he witnessed the daily sufferings and deaths of many humans. His faith faltered as a result, and after so much pain he grew apathetic to the withering away of mortal life. By the end of the book nothing really surprises Elizer anymore because he knew anything could happen at any moment. However, Eliezer’s reaction towards hanging of the â€Å"youth from Warsaw† was different from the hanging of the â€Å"sad eyed angel. † Eliezer’s faith faltered daily when he witnesses the death of many innocent lives including the hanging of the youth from Warsaw, but he never loses his hope or questions the existence of God until he witnesses the hanging of the â€Å"sad eyed angel. † Eliezer witnesses many death during his time in concentration camps, and he never wept once, even when he witnesses the hanging of the youth from Warsaw. This young boy is described as tall and strong. Supposedly, he had stolen something during the alert in the concentration camp. Looking back at his execution, Eliezer expresses his feeling about the hanging saying that it â€Å"upset him deeply† (Wiesel 62) in a way quite distinct from his knowledge of the thousands who died daily in the camps. Elizer was disturb by the hanging because he did not lost all of his faith and hope, he still have humanity so that’s why he feels upset when he witness people die, deep in his heart faith and hope were just broken, now after witness the hanging of the youth from Warsaw he found the broken pieces of hope that is why that evening after the execution he finds â€Å"the soup tasted better than ever† (Wiesel 63). Another reason that Eliezer finds the soup taste better is because he was actually grateful that it was not him or his father toward the execution. Elizer realize that death is everywhere in concentration camp, and it could be either him or his father next time standing on the gallows. He is thankful that he still alive at that moment and can is still eating his ration of soup, although he knows that he could be in line next to get hang in the gallows. Eliezer also felt the youth from Warsaw brought the death on themselves. He realizes that there are rules in the concentration camp that you can never disobey, if you break the rules in the camp, you will be killed. Where is merciful God, where is He? †(Wiesel 64) It was another day when Eliezer return from work and roll call begins. There were three gallows for three prisoners that are going to be hang on the gallows for conspiring to blow up the electric power station, but among the three prisoners there is a little pipel in the middle, the sad eyed angel. At every hanging, no one in the audience will ever shed a tear or weep, but the hanging of the sad eyed angel affected not only Eliezer but many others. During the execution all eyes were on the child, the two men died immediately, but the child was too light â€Å"and so he remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death. † (Wiesel 65) The hanging pained Eliezer so much and it makes him wonder how God can be present in a world with such cruelty, he question the present of God and when he heard a voice saying â€Å"For God’s sake, where is God? † (Wiesel 65) he answers â€Å"Where He is? This is where –hanging here from this gallows†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Wiesel 65). Following the death of the sad eyed angel Eliezer thinks that was the death of God as well. â€Å"That night, the soup tasted of corpses† (Wiesel 65), after witness the hanging of the sad eyed angel Wiesel finds the soup tasted like corpses and also like death, the death of God. The sad eyed angel represent a symbol of silent which God is presents as in the novel Night. God was a symbol of silence in the novel because when Eliezer and the other Jewish people cries out for God’s aid and mercy, their please were left unanswered. The God in Night did not save them from cruelty and death, God has remained silence throughout the novel, so when the angel was hanged Eliezer’s relates the death of angel to the death of God, as he meant that God was hanging upon the gallows and had abandoned them. Eliezer realizes that the Nazis were coming closely to destroy his faith in God and so he was unable to enjoy anything because he thinks that life, hope, and joy could not be reach because all goodness had been destroyed. â€Å"I’ve got more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He’s the only one who’s keeping his promises, all his promises to the Jewish people† Wiesel 81) Hitler the ultimate evil was conquering the good Jewish people every day through death and destruction. To Eliezer there was no hope for life and no chance for survival. He thinks God had abandoned them because there seems to be no end to evil. After witness the hanging of the sad eyed angel, Eliezer was constantly being reminded of death, he feels like death was everywhere in the camp, and when he were forced to watch the hanging of the sad eyed angel, which appeared to be innocent and full of hope, he feels that he was forced to watch innocence and hope die in front of him. As Eliezer watched the young pipel struggle between life and death he felt that the boy was innocent and he did not deserve to suffer. Eliezer and the young pipel were around the same age, so when he witnesses the hanging of the young pipel he felt as he shared the pipel’s pain and suffering and that he was suffering from a slow painful spiritual death as well. The hanging of the young pipel pained Eliezer so much because he knew he could not rescue him. In Elie Wiesel’s Night the author present a significance of the hanging and the brutal elements of the surroundings in the concentration camp. He express that evening â€Å"the soup tasted better than ever† (Wiesel 63) after he witness the hanging of the youth from Warsaw, and yet after he witness the hanging of the sad eyed angel â€Å"the soup tasted of corpse. † It was trying to present how Eliezer’s slowly loses his hope and faith in God. Eliezer’s faith was being challenged under such brutal condition, and many do not get their beliefs put to the test in such extreme condition as Eliezer did, and this leads Eliezer to question his faith. The meaning of hanging in this novel represent the bad conquers good, death and evil become apparent. The goodness that had been present prior to concentration camp had been destroyed through death, evil and abandonment. Every killing that Eliezer witness deteriorated his faith and finally after witness the sad eyed angel, it was the end of hope for Eliezer, he finally understood the murderous nature of concentration camp, and he could not walk away unaffected by the hanging. At last, Eliezer walked away as a completely different person than how he entered.