Elie Wiesel writes of a broken past where his personal experiences as a Jewish man relate strongly. He is straight forward and gives history in a whole new way. He tells how he feels through the character and express what he wants to. He completely develops not only the main character but all of the supporting cast. Creating an in depth personality of all the characters Elie tells how he feels through them. Theme plays a major role through everything that Elie Wiesel writes. His ideas are straight forward and the theme almost comes right out with little thinking involved. He writes with connections and when reading what is on page 10 it could effect what is on page 75.

The sole purpose of Wiesel’s books are to warn the general public of what has happened in world history. The Holocaust is an event that many try to cover up. Elie Wiesel tells his stories with honestly for the reason being that he never wants something like the Holocaust to happen again. He instils fear in the eyes of the reader and makes their jaw drop with reality all at the same time. By completely developing the characters, theme ,and setting of the story, Elie Wiesel creates a full of life book with meaning to anyone and everyone.

The main character in the book who is also the narrator is a boy named Eliezer. He talks in detail about the way that he feels about everything that is going on around him. When God is brought into the book He brings much emotion with Him. “I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.” (page 44). This is something that Eliezer says in regards to his first night at the concentration camp. He then goes on to reflect the way that he was treated. He was very afraid when the German officers divided the group he was in into two groups. He had no idea what family members he was going to be with and more importantly whether he would be slaughtered or put to work.

Eliezer was a character in this book that the reader immediately grew attached to for no real apparent reason. He had a solid life as a child and then everything slowly was ruined as the Holocaust came about. Names were something in this book that were scarcely mentioned. Elie Wiesel wanted no one in the book to have a real identity besides the main characters. Even their names were not mentioned very much at all. For example, Eliezer’s name was only mentioned maybe five times throughout the whole book and his fathers name was said only once. The story was odd in this respect but as the book progressed into the second half the characters names were much less important. The story was real life so as names did not play a part in the real Holocaust they also were unimportant in this book. Names would just make the book choppy and they would pile up to the point that the reader would not even bother reading them. The Holocaust was a time of terror and a time that everyone’s name was unimportant along with other common everyday things (like your appearance or clothing). People at this time had a number, no name. This book was so real life that a detail like this was so obvious.

Another very sad part in the book is when Eliezer and his father are separated from his mother and sisters. “Yet that was the moment when I parted from my mother. I had not time to think, but already I felt the pressure of my father’s hand: we were alone. For a part of a second I glimpsed my mother and my sisters moving away to the right. Tzipora held Mother’s hand. I saw them disappear into the distance: my mother was stroking my sister’s fair hair, as though to protect her, while I walked on with my father and the other men. And I did not know that in that place, at that moment , I was parting from my mother and Tzipora forever. I went on walking. My father held onto my hand.” (39). This is one of those parts in the book that is almost written with such simplicity that it makes it even more emotional to read. This part in the story was key because you knew that Eliezer and his father were now going to be alone. The reality of the way that this quote was said was very true to the Holocaust. When a family was separated, there was no time to hug good-bye. Chances are that there was not even a chance to say good-bye to a family member. People where just tore apart and this scene illustrated the harsh ways well.

When Eliezer’s father got up and asked one of the gypsies when the bathrooms were, a tough point was proven to Eliezer. “The gypsy looked him up and down slowly, from head to foot. As if he wanted to convince himself that this man addressing him was really a creature of flesh and bone, a living being with a body and a belly. Then, as if he had sudden woken up from a heavy doze, he delt my father such a clout that he fell to the growing, crawling back to his place on all fours. I did not move. What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, before my eyes, and I had not flicked my eyelid. I looked on and said nothing.” (48). This scene was a shock to the reader as much as it was to Eleizer himself. At this moment it felt as if Eleizer had lost all faith in what he knew was right and wrong. He was right not to help his father but the way he acted like he did not care was amazing. Then the way that he describes how he did not even do a thing and if this had happened a month earlier he would have jumped up and fought the man. It was a very good technique that the author used to make the reader see how drained Eliezer really was.

A normal part of the Jews life was God. He was something that they all had present in there life. One of the most real ways the Wiesel made theme play a part was by getting inside the characters head and giving their feelings on God. Eliezer would often reflect on his dissatisfactions with God. “One has no right to say things like that. I know. Man is too small, too humble and inconsiderable to seek to understand the mysterious ways of God.......Where is the divine Mercy? Where is God? How can I believe, how could anyone believe , in this merciful God.?” (81). The reader of this book must also keep in mind that this is a long way through the story and Eliezer had been through a lot. He did not just come right off and not believe in God. This is a sad part in the book because the character is doubting the way of God and His mysteriousness. Wiesel really has a way of getting a reader into the head of the character created. By imagining the confusion that went on in peoples heads about what they should and shouldn’t believe in is terrible. Not only were the characters hurt in this book physically but also emotionally. This symbolises the way that characters thought of nothing to be more important than there life. No possession or not even God ment more to them. Everyone gave up hope in what they had frequently believed. No one object or believe was more important to them then there life and food.

The manner of Eliezer which he portrays so well is that he and his father are one. He is a person who often fights with the intention of helping his father. Through the book he sees many other people that he loved leave him not by their own will. He sees people that are close to each other die everyday and it seems as if he and his father will never be apart. He vows never to leave his father like so many other people that he knew did and to never give up hope on his fathers life. Even in the two characters dimmest moments they are rescued because they stay together. The feeling of helping each other out is mutual and Eliezer’s father helps Eliezer as frequently as possible. The ongoing theme in this book is that when two stick together they are bound to survive.

Almost all of the Jews were split up from the ones that they loved. At many points characters did not even try to help a brother or father that they had once been so close to. The burden seemed very heavy on Eliezer because he would give up food for his father. As opposed to being one person to take care of it was like Eliezer had to be two people. He watched many sons desert their old fathers and even some fathers desert there sons. It was everyone for themselves and fighting for two was always harder. Eliezer even got advice from one hospital attendant to let his father die and do nothing at all about it. Basically it was a comment saying “save yourself”. The one night that Eliezer does leave his father is the one night that his father dies. “Then my father made a rattling noise and it was my name: ‘Eliezer’...........Then I had to go to bed. I climbed into my bunk, above my father, who was still alive............I awoke on January 29 at dawn. In my father’s place lay another invalid. They must have taken him away before dawn and carried him to the crematory. He may still have been breathing......His last word was my name. A summons, to which I did not respond. I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. And, in the depths of my being, in the recesses of my weakened conscience, could I have searched it, I might perhaps have found something like- free at last!” (112-13) Once Eliezer’s father was dead the book went by quickly and it proved that he was the only thing keeping his father alive. When he left his father he died and then he was just like all the other sons that deserted there fathers. The man he was once so close to was now gone and no tear could be shed. That is what the Holocaust is all about.

This book is what tough times are all about and when reading it a taste of the Holocaust is what you get. It is a tough book to handle and to think that this is the history of the world is sick. People dying and sons leaving there fathers because they only have enough energy to take care of themselves. The Holocaust should not be covered up and people who have or know of experiences like Elie Wiesel should talk about them. Wiesel writes with such emotion because a world event of killing like this is something that he never wants to happen again. The book is full of small bits of hidden messages which are not hid in tough places. The way that many boys left their fathers throughout everything was a major sign that eventually Eleizer would also leave his father.

The way that the book ends is just a way to let the reader continue thinking about a terrible thought. “One day I was able to get up, after gathering all my strength. I wanted to see myself in the mirror hanging on the opposite wall. I had not seen myself since the ghetto. From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me. The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me.” (116). This has to be one of the most meaningful parts of the book. As Eleizer looks into the mirror and the reader feels very happy for him that everything is over it is realised that nothing is over. The memories that Eleizer has is all that he needs. He does not know what happened to his mother or sisters and he felt no emotion when his father died. He watched many others plead for there life and he saw his own life flash before his eyes many times. He might not have any physical scars but the scars that are right in his mind are all that he needs. Imagine closing your eyes at night and being able to see nothing but men and women screaming for there lives. The Holocaust should have never happened in the first place and Elie Wiesel certainly does not want it to happen again. This book should instil fear in you. The characters are developed with thought and the theme is present everywhere. Let this be the first and last Holocaust.