Night

Pathos Essay Sample Paragraph:

The heart-wrenching end of Weisel’s memoire demonstrates not only the changes Eliezer has

experienced, but emphasizes the pain experienced, as well. This sentiment is best expressed in Eliezer’s

final moments with his father, after he has been taken from the barracks to the crematorium. After

recounting the brutality Eliezer’s father confronted at the hands of the other prisoners (who complained

of his presence because he could not carry himself outside to relieve himself), and how he did not

respond to his father’s calls for help, Wiesel reflects:

“I awoke on January 29 at dawn. In my father’s place lay another invalid. They must have taken
him away before dawn and carried him to the crematory. He may still have been breathing…There
were no prayers at his grave. No candles were lit to his memory. His last word was my name. A
summons, to which I did not respond. I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. But I
had no more tears…” (106)

In this final moment of the story, Eliezer has lost everything—his home, possessions, and more

importantly his mother, sister, and now his father. Eliezer has experienced so much pain and so much

regret that in his universe of obligation, it is only himself. The reader cannot help but empathize with the

profound sense of loss experienced by this no longer “young” 15 year old boy at the hands of the Nazis,

and this truly exemplifies the way that the evil of the German nation destroyed everything that was good

in his life. Eliezer had no other choice but to ignore his father’s incessant calls, and had no room in his

pain-filled world to cry. He has been made numb by the brutality of the Nazis.