Brief
At one point in Night, Wiesel writes: In one terrifying moment of lucidity, I thought of us as damned souls wandering through the void, souls condemned to wander through space until the end of time seeking redemption, seeking oblivion, without any hope of finding either.
Choosing two other texts, put them in conversation with this quote and its context in Night. Make sure to consider what Wiesel means by redemption and oblivion, and how these concepts are related to the project of humanism.
Theology. deliverance from sin; salvation.
atonement for guilt.
the state of being unaware or unconscious of what is happening.
The hoplessness expressed in the final words of this quote are lifting the vail of protention and accepting the true horror of the situation.
Freud is a blow to human beings egos because conscious and instincts are driven by irrational forces.
That this kind of human condition is literally a world dominated by hate and there is no escape from it.
The Human Condition (painting)
Night
abcWe have been fooling ourselves.
At one point in Night, Wiesel writes
A close-reading of this quote. Wiesel has had a revelation that the excuses they keep making for the captors and the hope they held that their condition would improve is never to be. Wiesel indicates that there is no hope of "redemption" or rescue and they are damned to suffer the hell of their current situation. He also resigned to the thought that "oblivion" is also forever beyond reach and they can never escape or forget the horrors being inflicted upon them by fellow humans.
I feel that this fatalistic statement not only reflects the current physical abyss but also the terror of the human condition that would allow perpetrate these atrocities on each other. Wiesel's statement represents an anti-humanistic view...