"Night" Wiesel's Changes, By: Stanley Suter

 How has Wiesel changed through the book?

          In the beginning of the book, Wiesel could be seen as a perfect person. He was religious, devoted to his family, and dedicated to education. Proving both that he was religious, and that he was dedicated to school, "By day I studied Talmud, and by night I would run to the Synagogue to weep over the destruction of the temple." The Talmud being a religious teaching, religion was his life. His father supported him in his studies, but when Elie want to study the Kabbalah, his father explains that "First you must study the basic subjects, those you are able to comprehend." Regardless of what his father tells him in the beginning of the book, he finds a master to guide his studies.

          The middle sections of the book are really where we see change in Wiesel's personality. He had just arrived at Birkenau and he sees the German cruelty through the crematorium, "Never shall I forget the small faces of those children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky." This first camp was when Wiesel started to lose hope. He practically gave up on his religion and turned on a mindset of only his survival. Wiesel explains that an SS officer "was striking my father on the head: 'Be quiet, old man! Be quiet!'" Wiesel had stood still, afraid of the blows and angry at his father . He had a mindset that he was alone, there was no God and that he had to fend for himself. Still, he is very ashamed for abandoning his father.

          Towards the end of the book, Wiesel seems to regain many of his morals and values back. I think this is because he learns to cope with the constant abuse in the camps, and he no longer can only fend for himself. "Elizer, my son, come here... I want to tell you something... Only to you... Come, don't leave me alone... Elizer..." Elie even pretended to be sick, and gave his dyeing father his rations so that he may live longer. Even when an SS officer said that he should be receiving his father's rations, he dismissed the idea and continued to aid his father. Over the course of the book, Wiesel lost his morals and religion. He only managed to regain his sense of charity and life, but his religion was lost to him after he discovered the cruelty that humans could commit against one another.