For the past week, I have been reading a book about the holocaust called “Night” by Elie Weisel. Although many of you may already have read this short but influential book, I felt I should do a book review on it.
“Night” is a short and real-life story about a Jewish boy, Elie Weisel, who are one of the few Jewish people who survived the Holocaust. His main purpose for writing this gripping book is his attempt to prevent a devastating event like the Holocaust from ever happening again. The book desribes with terrifying detail the atmosphere of the concentration and death camps that existed in Nazi Germany and Nazi-occupied countries.
“Night” is a critically acclaimed novel due to its graphic description and also because it is written in the opinion of the author rather than a more documentary-type description. Something that I personally found to be influential is how the author frequently describes the perseverance of the Jewish spirit and religion. This can be shown in the novel and how even in times of great tragedy, he describes Jews still praying and hoping for the best, despite having the knowledge of the nightmarish “chimneys” where the Jewish people were cremated in masses. Although he does describe the fall of the Jewish spirit in some cases at the end of the novel, it does not cease to emphasize the tragedy of the Holocaust and how it has damaged the minds of even the ever-hopeful Jewish prisoners.
Something else that I find very interesting about the book is that instead of being very straightforward and depressing, Weisel adds several examples of irony. One of the most depressing examples of irony I found was when Elie is in the hospital and the prisoners are to be moved since the American and Russian front is moving closer. Elie is afraid that if he doesnt leave with the prisoners, they will execute all the patients instead of leaving them to be rescued. However, the patients are rescued while Elie escapes the hospital, as he is afraid of being executed. This turns out to be the most crushing piece of irony in the novel.
I strongly recommend this novel for anyone in Grade 10 or above, as it is not like many other novels about the holocaust that many youth often find tedious and boring. The moods, experiences and emotions of the author perform an excellent job of conveying the overall point across.