ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Identity Videos 37 videos
Have you ever pretended to be super happy for your BFF when they win an award when, really, you just wanted to rip it out of their undeserving, ung...
Written in Anglo-Saxon, or Old English, sometime between the 8th and 11th centuries, Beowulf is an epic poem that reflects the early medieval warri...
In Markus Zusak's The Book Thief, Death narrates the story of one girl who lived during the Holocaust. Not surprisingly, it's kind of a downer—bu...
Night (Wiesel) 48371 Views
Share It!
Description:
In this memoir, Eliezer struggles with his relationship with his father during the Holocaust.
Transcript
- 00:00
Night, a la Shmoop. There have been many powerful books written
- 00:08
about the Holocaust.
- 00:10
They remind us of a tragic time in human history...
- 00:13
...and cause us to reflect on our own fears and insecurities.
- 00:19
More than anything though, they remind us that, not only can our bodies be tortured...
Full Transcript
- 00:24
...but our souls as well.
- 00:27
Long-standing beliefs can be rocked to the core...
- 00:29
...and our faith in humanity can be severely tested.
- 00:36
Consider the relationship you have with your father.
- 00:39
You two may have your highs and your lows...
- 00:41
...but imagine having to go through something like what Eliezer and his father experienced
- 00:47
in Elie Wiesel's Night.
- 00:49
Could you choose between helping your ailing father and acting to ensure your own survival?
- 00:56
We can read about what happened to the victims and survivors of the concentration camps.
- 01:01
We can get a general idea of their daily routine, and how their captors treated them.
- 01:06
But can any of us really come close to understanding the utter despair they must have felt?
- 01:12
How can someone continue to believe that humankind is basically good when they see such atrocities
- 01:18
being committed on a daily basis?
- 01:21
And if they give up on humanity, what reason do they have any longer to show mercy, kindness,
- 01:27
or compassion? In Night, one prisoner actually kills his
- 01:32
own father for a loaf of bread.
- 01:34
Certainly, we can't blame something like that purely on hunger.
- 01:38
He had been reduced to an animal, systematically broken down, day after day.
- 01:45
We can imagine that all sorts of beliefs were tested by the unfortunate prisoners of the
- 01:50
camps.
- 01:50
How did their experiences affect the way they viewed their own religion?
- 01:54
Would their God allow such horrors to befall them?
- 02:01
Surely there were many in Eliezer's company at Buchenwald who felt compelled to renounce
- 02:06
their religion after being subjected to such a living Hell.
- 02:10
And what about their feelings toward race?
- 02:12
Clearly the Nazis had their own issues when it came to ethnicity...
- 02:16
...but Jews who previously exhibited no animosity toward others...
- 02:20
...might have suddenly developed resentment, distrust and... plenty of hatred... toward
- 02:25
pretty much every gentile.
- 02:26
This was Eliezer's struggle... to preserve and hold onto whatever shreds of decency and
- 02:32
virtue he could...
- 02:33
...as he fought at the same time to simply stay alive.
- 02:36
So... put yourself in Eliezer's shoes for a minute.
- 02:40
How would you have dealt with the horrors he faced?
- 02:43
Shmoop amongst yourselves.
Related Videos
This video defines utopias and dystopias, and investigates how a utopia might become a dystopia. Can a seemingly perfect world actually be a dystop...
They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we...
Ever wish you could remember everything that you ever studied? How about everything that everyone has ever studied? Yeah, pretty sure our brains ju...
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is an American classic. Hope you're not expecting any exciting shower scenes though. It's not that kind of book.
Do not go gentle into that good night. In fact, if it's past your curfew, don't go at all into that good night. You just stay in your good bed and...