In order to full grasp the reference, the entire quote has to be
analyzed. Consider Eliezer's words very carefully:
The night had passed completely. The morning star shone in
the sky. I too had become a different person. The student of the Talmud, the child I was, had
been consumed by the flames. All that was left was a shape the resembled me. My soul had been
invaded- and devoured- by a black
flame.
At this point in his
experiences, Eliezer's statement reflects one of the first moments where his change becomes
profound.
I think that image of fire is not a misleading one. From the fire of the
candle that accompanied Eliezer's studies of the Kaballah and his searching for a guru or
spiritual master, to the flames that Madame Scachter had been screaming about on the train, to
the experiences of seeing the chimneys upon his arrival into Birkenau, the presence of fire has
accompanied Eliezer through his narrative. In the idea of being "devoured," Eliezer begins to
indicate that his faith in God is disappearing. While he is nowhere near the bottom of human
cruelty and as things will progressively degenerate even more, Eliezer's reference to the "black
flame" also indicates the dehumanization of the Holocaust. When fire has torn through an object,
all that is left is the carbonized and blackened remain. Eliezer is suggesting that he has become
this remain in that his humanity has been extinguished. In some respects, the threat of the
crematorium is one made in vain, as Wisel seems to be suggesting that the Holocaust's true horror
is that it killed people without actually killing them. This emotional carbonization is what
indicates the change within Eliezer, and helps to bring out the idea of a "death" before actual
"death." It is from this point where Eliezer's relationship with God, or the lack of it, is going
to be critical in the formation of his identity.
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