Thursday, September 15, 2011

What is the goal of the main character of the novel Night?

This is a very interesting question, as when we think of
Elie in this terrifying novel, we are not explicitly told what his main aim was. As he
begins his ordeal at Auschwitz, for example, the shock of what is happening takes every
instinct, thought and feeling away from them:


readability="17">

We were incapable of thinking. Our senses were
numbed, everything was fading into a fog. We no longer clung to anything. The instincts
of self-preservation, of self-defence, or pride, had all deserted us. In one terrifying
moment of lucidity, I though of us all 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.



However, in spite of
this moment of nihilism, Elie soon realizes how his father depends on him and how in
some ways he depends on his father, and thus we can infer that his motive is survival,
in spite of his desire to commit suicide that he has to conquer at various stages of
this novel.

No comments:

Post a Comment

How is Anne's goal of wanting "to go on living even after my death" fulfilled in Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl?I didn't get how it was...

I think you are right! I don't believe that many of the Jews who were herded into the concentration camps actually understood the eno...