Soto 1

Cia Soto

English 9b / Per 4

Mr. Boyatt

22 February 2015

Dialectical Journal Essay

What breaks when you say it? What gives the indication that something is wrong? What helped

fuel the slaughter of a race when it wasn’t broken to fight back against the single madman behind it all?

The one and only silence. In Elie Wiesel’s autobiography Night, the recurring theme of how the silence

helps the oppressor arises throughout different scenarios of the daily life of the hell in a concentration

camp.

The first act of an unbroken silence helping the oppressor occurs early in their arrival at the

concentration camps. Here the Jewish people passed up a chance to save themselves. With “a few sturdy

young fellows among [them that] had knives on them” could’ve begun a rebellion by “[throwing]

themselves on the armored guards… But the older ones begged their children not to do anything foolish”

(29). A perfect opportunity to revolt, down the drain. The elderly silencing of desperate instinct to avoid

risk dismissed a major chance to start taking back control of their own lives. The elders’ silence, the first

silence to contribute hand in hand with the oppressor.

It wasn’t long before the days morphed into the endless, dreading, dark nights with their

punishments. Just another three people to be hanged; wrong as that is, it wasn’t even the fact that there

were three people, but the fact that one of these three victims was a young boy. The hanging of the sad-

angel faced “boy infront of thousands of spectators was no light matter [,with] all eyes [focused] on the

child” (61). A great disapproval and vast disturbance swept through the audience of eyes, causing most of

them a powerful sense of unease. Despite it all, the heavy silence hung over them instead of an outbreak

of rebellions and protests. Once again, the faulty silence aiding he oppressor still as the horror and living

nightmares for the Jewish people dragged on.

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As Night continued on however, Elie and his father reached a dilemma in which the menacing

lurking quiet strikes again to glorify the oppressor. Elie’s camp was required to evacuate, but he was still

recovering from a recent surgery on his foot, so the question arose whether for both he and his father to

go on the evacuation march or to both stay at the hospital as the Russians drew nearer and nearer. The

troubling decision conflicted Elie into staying silent and letting his father decide what to do, with the

simple exchange of “‘Do you think you can walk?’ and ‘Yes, I think so,’” did the father seal his own fate

while “those who had stayed behind in the hospital… were quite simply liberated by the Russians two

days after the evacuation” (78). Elie having passed up that chance to just say to stay threw away his

opportunity to see a free day for a long time and permanently for his father- them both being restricted

still to the cold clutches of the concentration camp.

Overall, the display of silence helping the oppressor does not only advance the treacheries of the

camps, but also hints to a valuable role it plays in everyday life. There are many times where the lack of a

voice ultimately leads to more tragedies, more suffering, more loss, so that’s why in Elie’s autobiography

Night, this theme is used to express the idea to learn from the past and create a better future. To help

prevent the world from spiraling down into another endless night.