Night and Dawn - A Comparison of Elie Wisel's writings

Essay by ToheqJunior High, 9th grade May 2004

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Night and Dawn

Night and Dawn, both written by Elie Wiesel, are two books that have changed the way people view life and death. Night is a story of the Holocaust that occurs in the time frame of the mid-1900s. Elie, the author and the main character of Night, tells of the horrific years he spent in Germany's concentration camps. During this time period, millions of Jewish people were shot by merciless Nazis. Dawn focuses on a young boy Elisha who is recruited into a terrorist organization after the Holocaust. He eventually finds himself caught in the middle of the war between the Jewish and the British fighting for freedom. Both of Wiesel's stories involve poignant emotions. Night shows the reader the horror of being murdered. Similarly, Dawn is about the horror of murdering someone. It is interesting to note that in Night, the Jewish is in front of the gun; in Dawn, the Jewish man is behind a gun.

Both situations contain the predominant emotion of fear. The two stories vary, but behind their covers, these stories deal with the same topic--cruel murder. Elie Wiesel deals with this topic through the characters, the character's histories, and their similarities and differences.

Elie Wiesel's journey begins in Sighet where his family believed strongly in their religion. The Nazis have set the goal -- genocide of the Jewish citizens. He is sent to a concentration camp in Germany where he must endure the harsh brutality of the Nazis. It is only at these concentration camps that Elie discovers the truth about himself. Dawn is about a scarred Jewish man Elisha who is recruited to join an extremist group that is fighting for their freedom against the English. One of the terrorist party members, David, is captured by the...