Early Warning Signs in Elie Wiesels Night - 1088 Words

Denying Life As a son watches his mother take her last breath on her deathbed, an overwhelming grief sets in. Although knowing that his mom smokes and drinks, he never told her to quit or ease up because he thought his mother can never die. In this case, the offset of this denial is his mom’s early death but, the denial by the Jews during 1942, caused a far more superior calamity, six million deaths! Alas, just like the boy who lost his mother, the Jews have signs and warnings to escape the invasion and Elie Wiesel does a superb job of incorporating that in his book, Night. These overlooked chances, or motifs, are Moshe not getting the respect for his word, uncomprehending the news that is given to the Jews, and the misjudgment of†¦show more content†¦One resident exclaims â€Å"What an imagination he has,† (Wiesel 4-5). This sheds some light on why the people of Sighet don’t trust Moshe’s word, and classifies him as a mad man, but still does not give enough j ustification for his word to go completely ignored. If the townsfolk did some investigating and found all the foreigners dead or if the news reported it, a number of the Jews would have fled Sighet in fear of genocide, but this incident goes unseen. This transits to the next subject on how The Jews tend to trifle news that is given to them. In the 1940’s, the typical way to attain News is by radio, so it is a mistake if one takes the only news source he or she has lightly. In Night the Jews of Sighet perform this mistake by ignoring the change of power to Fascist. During the time Germany invaded Hungarian territory, Ellie and his family received terrifying news of how the Fascists are treating the Jews. The Budapest news reported this: â€Å"The Jews in Hungary are living in an atmosphere of fear and terror. There are anti-Semitic incidents every day, in the streets, in the trains. The fascists are attacking Jewish shops and synagogues. The situation is getting very serious† (Wiesel 7). Here and there, anxiety begins to stir up, but in a while, confidence begins to settle right back in. Accepting that their Hungarian brothers were being persecuted may have led the Jews to escape but they deny that anything of major significance could happen to them. An additional form of