Essay Topics for Night
1. Compare and contrast Elie’s attitude towards God and religion at the beginning and at the end of Wiesel’s Night. How does his faith change during the book and what do these changes show about his character and experience? Use specific quotations to support and focus your writing.
2. Analyze the process of dehumanization throughout Wiesel’s Night. How does Elie lose his sense of self through his suffering and despair? Use specific quotations to support and focus your writing.
Prewriting: Reflect on the topics, choose one and make an outline for your essay. Look for quotations before you begin writing.
Sample Thesis statements:
In his autobiography, Night, Elie Wiesel shows his complete loss of faith during the Holocaust and then its resurrection once he realizes that he must testify to the true horrors of his experience in order to help the world recover.
In his autobiography, Night, Elie Wiesel depicts the process of dehumanization as he shows his young self lose all compassion, love for family, and ultimately the desire to live. The Holocaust grinds every bit of humanity out of Elie and the other victims of the Holocaust. Only once he survives, can Elie begin to . . .