(CM 1145) Book Review

      My reaction when I was told to write a book review for class was sheer horror. I had never written one before, well I mean I did write book reports in elementary school but that was ten years ago. While I was writing my book review, my feelings began to change. I forgot about the assignment aspect and I focused my attention on the book itself. After doing this book review, I gained tremendous respect towards Elie Wiesel and his memoir “Night”. It takes place during the 1944 War, best known as the Holocaust. Elie writes of his life during this time and all the tragedies he had encountered. He went through several liquidations and selections, he watched as babies were thrown into flaming pits alive, and he had to watch as everyone around him perished. He was torn from his mother and three sisters and he never saw them again. It was just Elie and his father. Their relationship is stupendous in my eyes. Elie gave his father his ration of bread several times, and this is amazing because that was rarely seen in the concentration camps. Bread was the way of life; it was the only way of life. Also, while fathers and sons turned against each other and abandoned one another, Elie stuck with his father till the end. Even though his father was growing ill every day, he stayed by his side. If that doesn’t show Elie’s unconditional love for his father, then I don’t know what will.

     Elie Wiesel is a magnificent man; he survived the War of 1944, that itself displays strength and courage. He didn't go against his morals once, he stayed true to himself and he didn't lose faith. I believe Elie survived so that he could tell the world about the cruelty that took place in the concentration camps, that way it would never happen again. Whatever the reason is for Elie’s survival, it is not relevant. The important thing is that out of the six million Jews that died, Elie survived. I wish that I could be half the person that Elie Wiesel is; he is now and forever, one of my heroes.

“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.”  

-Elie Wiesel