Customer Reviews

Night Trilogy Night Dawn the Accident

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This collection consists of a biography and two novels by Elie Wiesel, who survived the horror of the concentration camps in World War II.

Dawn:

Dawn is perhaps the most thought-provoking and reflective of all of Elie Wiesel's novels. It is a beautifully written but disturbing novel about an Israeli terrorist waiting to assassinate a British officer in retaliation for the hanging of an Israeli. This novel inspires a great deal of thought about stopping violence with violence and hate with hate. When the nation of Israel was established after World War II, for the first time in centuries, the Jews were not trying to appease their opressors, but they were fighting back, and fighting effectively. Reflecting on the persecution the Jews have suffered, the young assassin Elisha says: "Now our only chance lies in hating you, in learning the necessity of the art of hate." However, Elisha cannot make himself hate his enemey, as much as he desires to. The novel ultimately suggests that hatred is not the answer, that it must be fought, or man will be lost. Wiesel asks the poignant question, "Where is God to be found? In suffering or rebellion? When is a man most truly a man? When he submits or when he refuses?"

Night:

Night is a powerful, beautifully written autobiography of a concentration camp survivor. Elie Wiesel deals with his loss of faith during the holocaust, and relives the horrors of the concentration camp. Perhaps most importantly, he shows how such a life affected the people in the camps--how it changed many of them into something less than human. The question of injustice is indeed an unsettling one, but Wiesle's loss of faith--and the seeming impossibility (at the end of the book) of his ever regaining it--is deeply saddening.

The Accident:

Wiesel's writing style makes this novel, a mixture of biography and fiction, interesting to read. The story itself, however, is often obscure and stubbornly depressing. The narrator of the novel refuses to admit any happiness to his life, even when it is quite possible to do so. The Accident is the most consistently pessimistic of Wiesel's three novels, and the least thought-provoking, but still well worth reading.

This is a case where the whole is greater than the sum of its' parts. Although all three books are very good to excellent, the way they fit together creates an excellent story from beginning to end. We start with "Night" which creates the understanding of the Holocaust through the perceptive eyes and ears of the youthful story teller. We then move to the book "Dawn" in which we find the main character as a young man who is involved in a moral dilemna. How he resolves the dilemna makes him realize that there is evil in all of us. His attempt to rationalize his actions are not sufficient to redeem himself in his own mind. We finish up with "The Accident" where we find the main character as a middle-aged man whose anger at the world makes him incapable of love. Certainly all that has preceded in his life helps us to understand his feelings but his anger is uncompromising and a dead end in and of itself. The problem resolves itself in a solution that brings an impressive closure to essentially all three books.

As a matter of clarification, each novel is a seperate story in itself. There is no "common Character" to all the novels. However, we get a sense that this all happens to one person. This is how well these stories fit together. Essentially, these works would appear to be autobiographical which adds to their meaning. Although Wiesel writes extensively about the Holocaust, there is certainly a special common thread to these stories. Read all three and make sure you read them in their proper order. Despite their brevity, it is as good an overall explantion, evaluation and summation of the Holocaust as you will find.

Wiesel commands the heart and soul of his readers in The Night Trilogy. There are a certain number of books that reach a person at the most elemental level and show them light and also unforgettable darkness. The Night Trilogy does this without pretense, without effort and without excuse.

Many people have read Wiesel's account of Auschwitz and Buchenwald through his short novel, Night. If anyone is going to read Holocaust literature they should not limit themselves to a concise focus on the camps, but also what happens to the survivors after the events.

When you combine Night, Dawn, and The Accident together, you as the reader can assemble a true and purer understanding of what Holocaust survivors went through and more importantly what they continue to go through.

The collection is a must read for anyone who considers themselves socially aware. The Night Trilogy is a work that you will go back to time and again. Readers will lend this out to friends not simply to be nice, but because they will feel a yearning for all those in their lives to know what happened and is still happening to Holocaust survivors.

Read this collection until your heart bleeds and pass it on to a friend so that compassion and understanding will bloom.

NIGHT was written back in 1962, and its story about a Jewish family deceptively taken from a Hungarian town into Auschwitz may seem a little "old" now that we have heard so much about this this through TV, movies, etc. But it's story is still a shocker,and always will be. DAWN is the most devastating and shocking, since it's history is not nearly as well known, and the question of who is willing to be an executioner is just as current today as during the 1948 Israel independence era. Also the facts of the period are not as known today as they should be. THE ACCIDENT may be a slight let down, but only in comparison to the prior tales. The interactions between the patient and his doctor are unforgettable, but the love story is not quite as interesting. The overall picture of gloom here may be lifted a bit when it seems that the narrator has possibly chosen to live for the living, instead of the dead, and to honor the dead. Though this interpretation is definitely subject to controversy.

This novel was informative. It is made of three sections of false and true acounts of the Holocaust.

The first part, Night, is a truthful autobiographical account of a consentration camp. It definately helps a person understand how to feel about survivors and vitims of the Holocaust. You will have a new respect for these people after reading a first hand account of what they went through.

Dawn is a fictional story about a young man of 18 after his experience in a camp. The symbolic meaning between the two books, Night, being symbolic of death, second, Dawn, a re-birth, is another way to make one think about what happened not only during, but after the war. It may not be a first hand account, but it did happen. Things like this still happen today.

The Accident. This is the third book, also fictional. Mostly symbolic, as the others, it is different than one may think. It contains symbolism of death and dawning. It shows how the conditions of war affect a person's being. Just as fighting in a war affects someone, so does being a victim of war, a representitive.

Things like this still happen today. People need to be aware of these things. Discrimination, war, and for the most part hate and intolerance. This book will help to open your eyes and your mind.

Elie Wiesel gives you a wide range view of the Holocaust and the continuing lives of the survivors. The story Night was the best of the three stories in the book. Night was the best because Wiesel wrote the story with more passion and emotion. The horrific incidents described in the book were so real that reader could connect with the author's pain. "I've got more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He's the only one who's kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people." These words were spoken by Wiesel because he feels that God abandoned him. Incidents such as the Holocaust lead Wiesel to speak these words and loose his faith in religion. Any book that can capture this emotion should be indulged.

Both Dawn and the Accident showed a great deal of symbolic meaning. They both made refrences to Night a number of times. This showed that even though the Holocaust ended, Wiesel still continued to suffer. An example of symbolism in the book is Wiesel's transformation from the death in Night and the rebirth in Dawn. If there is to be a book required to read in school The Night Trilogy should be it.

"The Night Trilogy" brings together three Elie Wiesel Holocaust-related short novels. The volume begins with perhaps Wiesel's best known work "Night," a deeply personal and autobiographical account of a young boy's extended stays in three different concentration camps. In under 120 pages, Wiesel tells the harrowing tale of being swept up by Nazis to the eventual liberation of the camps.

In "Night," Wiesel writes "A dark flame had entered my soul and devoured it." This stunning sentiment could easily summarize the tone and themes of the final two works, "Dawn" and "The Accident." Both are examinations of the psychological impact of being a survivor of the Holocaust - which one can debate is even a worse fate than being killed in the camps. Both protoganists struggle with death in relation to their pasts. In "Dawn" a young man, now a part of a Jewish terrorist gang in Israel, in an ironic twist must execute a British hostage, while "The Accident" explores the protagonist's will to live and love after the incident simply stated in the title.

Originally published in French, the translations are stylistically very easy and quick reading. Needless to say, the themes and struggles of the each man's story are neither. Haunting and thought-provoking, "The Night Trilogy" give readers a more complete picture and understanding of the Holocaust experience.

I have never read another book quite like this one. All I can say is it is incredible. It is not a book with happy ending. Though this book is fiction it is at the same time an account of the authors feelings and experiences. He was a survivor of Buchenwald concentration camp. The way he uses words keeps you reading and unable to put the book down. I have not given a great description, because that is difficult. I can say it left me wanting to re read it and to find as many other books by Elie Wiesel as possible.

The Night Trilogy was a very difficult book to read emotionaly. Eile was able to discribe his horrific experiences in such great detail it almost made you feel as if you were there. Elie was able to draw in readers with Night and to keep them wondering with Dawn and The Accident.

Night was by far the best of the three books since it was very facual and provoked your thoughts in ways they have never been provoked. I enjoyed reading this book for its historic value along with it's high emotional content.

Dawn and The Accident were also very good books but they streched the symbolic phrases to a point were you didnt want to hear them any longer. "Eyes" was a phrase heard all to often in the three books. It was a very significant phrase but used to much.

All in all it was a very good novel that I enjoyed reading. I recomend that anyone interested in the Holocaust or for just an enomtional read might try The Night Trilogy.

Dawn is the second of a three book trilogy that tells the autobiographical journey of Elie Weisel's life. Weisel is the only survivor of a family that experienced the horrors of the Holocaust, after which, he travels to Palestine to fight for the independence of Israel as a separate state after his recruitment by a terrorist, Gad. Weisel is faced with the fearful task of executing a British soldier, Joh Dawson, for the sake of the Movement. The British have taken Ben the Moche hostage and are to kill him at dawn, the motive behind Dawson's execution. The book takes place in one evening, several hours. The thoughts and emotions behind having been ordered to end a man's life are the focuso fthe book, it's depth and intensity wil take yout othe last page in time sooner than what ethe plot covers.
Weisel sees the sun begin to rise, and walks down to the prisoners condemnation. The time spent between Dawson and Weisel is unimaginable, and the ambiance so dark and saturated that it is nearly destructive to quit reading before the end.
Dawn is an extremely good book; it was very intense and mature. Not everyone would be able to handle some of the events in this book or interpret a phrase or character in the story. The book is a fast read and ou almost experience the torture along with him, your hear aces at the end along with his. It is an emotional book, not for those weak of heart or mind, but over all it ws awe-inspiring. I would recommend it to any one who has read Night, if not, read that first.