College America Phoenix The Night Book Analysis
250 words
At the very end of Night, after surviving his ordeal, Wiesel is finally liberated from Buchenwald, only to become very sick and end up in a hospital for two weeks. When he is finally well enough, he looks in a mirror for the first time since leaving his home in Sighet. He writes, “From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me.” Then, the book abruptly ends.
Let’s talk about the importance of these final words. Why does he call himself a corpse? What about Wiesel has died, and what does he have left? Why does he use the more loaded word “contemplating” instead of something more simple like “staring” or “looking”? And why has the look never left him? What is the significance of that look and its lasting impression on Wiesel?
