Elie Wiesel's Epiphany In Night

Many people will have an epiphany at some point in their life. It could be the smallest of epiphanies, like finally understanding a joke, to larger epiphanies that completely transforms someone's way of thinking and their viewpoints on life. The authors of these excerpts both experienced something very traumatic; the holocaust and death marches. The holocaust was when many, many Jews were killed. They were taken on death marches transport them to a more suitable place of death. Victor Frankl, the author of Man's Search for Meaning was placed in four different concentration camps between the years of 1942-1945. Although he went through terrible events, he was still able to find a reason to go on. Elie Wiesel, the author of Night was put into concentration camps at a young age. He endure many horrible things as a teenager. Such as, watching his own father die a sickness that could've been avoided if the death marches had been avoided. He had to build himself up, only to be torn down in a death …show more content…
Wiesel, when this quote takes place is talking about how all the prisoners were tired, hesitant, and giving up during their death march. “A hesitant light began to hover over the horizon. We were exhausted…” The quote shows that, like the prisoners, the sun was hesitant to show. The sun holds more of a symbolic meaning to them. They were getting tired, as was the sun, signaling winter. In another quote, Elie is describing how all the prisoners are stronger than the elements and fear. “We were stronger than cold and hunger, stronger than the guns and desire to die.” This quote gives a tone to show that they are stronger than the elements in order to give them the power to stay alive. THis epiphany is quite dark showing that the illusion of survival has now