What Is the Theme in “Night” by Elie Wiesel?
There are multiple themes present in Elie Wiesel’s book “Night” including the struggle for Eliezer to keep his faith in a kind God, the inhumane treatment of humans by humans and the silence found in the lack of response from the victims in the concentration camps and the lack of God’s response to the atrocities. These themes are all shown through the eyes of the main character, Eliezer, as he struggles with his Jewish faith.
The struggle of Eliezer’s faith is at the center of the book. Eliezer begins the book believing in a God who loves His people unconditionally and his faith is strong. However, as Elizer sees all of the war’s atrocities, he begins to wonder where God is. How could God be in the concentration camps or in the hearts of these Nazis?
The inhumane treatment of humans by humans is seen when Eliezer sees what the Nazis are doing to people as they hunt down Jews. The war shows Eliezer that people are capable of terrible things and that the more hatred and inhumane treatment there is, the more of it there will be.
The silence is palpable in the book as Eliezer sees the way that the victims of the war are unable to move, specifically when Eliezer himself watched his father be beaten to death. Then, there is the silence he feels when he is unable to get God to respond in a visible way to his questions and his pleas.
