How I feel about what happened to Joe?

"Joe committing suicide"


I think that Joe took the easy way out, which kind of made me angry. First of all, he should've owned up to his faults so an innocent man didn't have to go to jail instead of him. It really made me mad because he kept talking throughout the whole book like he was innocent and made Annie's father sound like the coward not owning up to his mistakes. I could kind of tell that he was going to admit it mid-way through the book, because he was defending him all the time. I upset me that he thought the only way was to kill himself. What mainly pops into my head is that he is going to hell for that. Also it may be harder for Annie's father to get out of jail since Keller wasn't there any more to confess.

Night

photo from www.dynamicaqua.com

This picture represents in the novel a world without God, because in the beginning there was nothing but darkness, and God's first act was to dispel of it with light. Elie named this book Night because throughout being in a concentration camp he didn't have God. He felt that he was alone with no one to help him. Also everything seems to happen to Elie for the first time in the darkness. Him arriving at the concentration camp, seeing burning babies, and the horrible run from Buna are a few examples. It also doesn't just represent physical darkness but the darkness of the soul as well, from being around evil for so long.

Fire

Photo from www.alaska-in-pictures.com

This picture represents the evil that the whole novel talks about. At the beginning for example, it talks about a women on the train showing visions of fire, giving them an incite of what was to come. Also when they get there they see babies being thrown into a ditch of fire, people being burned alive in the crematorium, people being beaten and shot, and also being put to work with laborious activities with hardly no food or water. Fire also represents God's wrath, but the Nazis turned that around and used it on innocent people, confusing Elie about God's existence even further.

Father-Son Bond

Photo from jeffandjer.com

This photo represents the bond that a father and son have. No matter what they will be there for each other, for love and companionship. In the novel Elie's love for his father is strong. I think that he learns to love his father a little more throughout it though. Everyone around them are showing that their survival skills are more important than family. There were three different times in the novel that three sons abandoned their fathers to survive, but Elie and his father keep together until the end. Elie even feeds his father his ration of bread and soup when he's sick.

Inhumanity Toward Other Humans

Photo from smallsharpobjects.com

This picture represents the torcher the Jews had to put up with day after day. It shows how someone could commit a murderous act just like that, without feeling anything. If you look at this picture it shows blood already on this man, so swinging the knife to end this poor mans life with just be nothing to the murderer, since he already beat this man. I also think about Doctor Joseph Mengele, carrying out experiments on innocent people, just to study the human body.

Silence

Photo from wellspring1.wordpress.com

Elie is troubled by the silence from God. He wonders why God is remaining silent after millions and millions of his people are dying for their faith in him.

This picture obviously represents silence. The women's hand is being placed on her lips relates to Elie's book in numerous ways. The silence from God, and also the silence from the whole world. When I see this picture after reading the book all I can think about is the termoil each and every Jew had to endure, the cruelty, the beatings, and the hard brutal work, but remain silent.

Eliezer’s Struggle to Maintain Faith in a Benevolent God

Photo from Jag Photo Space

Eliezer’s Struggle to Maintain Faith in a Benevolent God

At the beginning of the book Elie's faith in God is unconditional and couldn't think of a world with his divine power. But then his faith took a startling blow when he comes face to face with the Holocaust.

This picture with the text on it represents to me the huge question all the Jews in the camp were asking themselves day after day. It's not even just the Jews. A lot of people around the world are always asking themselves the great mystery of why we can't hear or talk to God. It goes with the theme very well because it's one of the struggles that Elie's mind endures.