Structure

In Night, Elie Wiesel makes a stand that atrocities of human history can never be forgotten because they have had a profound impact on who we are as a people. Reflecting on his own experience in a German concentration camp, he continuously uses the phrase “Never shall I forget” to describe his first night at camp and the impact it had on him. Wiesel starts personal, claiming that “never shall I forget that first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night” to emphasize that this is a night that he will never recover from. As he goes on, the continued use of “Never shall I forget” helps to progressively guide the reader from his experience, to the experience of humankind, and finally to a cosmic experience, and that none of these parties are allowed to forget. For instance, a few lines after claiming he shall never forget that first night, he discusses how he shall never forget “the faces of children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke” to connect his experience of the consternation camp with something that all of humanity should be concerned about. Later, he talks about how he shall never forget “the moments that murdered my God and my soul” to claim that what happened in those moments has a cosmic dimension, rejecting the possibility of a God in a world that could allow such atrocities to happen. Each “never shall I forget” in this passage intensifies the scope of how that night marked Wiesel, from his own experience to that of humans, to the death of a God. In this intensification, Wiesel not only emphasizes that this is something he shall never forget, he also claims that this is something the world can never forget because it concerns the world. By extension, he even challenges his dead God to never forget what happened in that space. For any of those involved—himself, the world, or God—to forget is to miss the ways that this moment has defined world history and the meaning of humanity. In the process, Wiesel turns his personal statement “Never shall I forget” into a command to remember. Appropriating the language of Biblical commandments, he seems to demand “Thou shall never forget.”

In NBC’s The Americas, the producers reveal how setting shapes the character traits and social structures of those living there by exploring how animals navigate competing conflicts and how their current characterization may not be suited to changes in setting. For instance, the Amazonian harpy eagles have adapted to live high in the trees so that they are able to hunt, a necessary part of survival. This high location, however, also exposes their young to the fiercest elements, such as Amazonian rainstorms or the exposed heat of the treetops, a threat the producers make evident in close up shots of the mother’s dry tongue or landscapes of rolling black clouds. These Man v. Nature level challenges create an internal conflict where mothers must stay with their young in order to protect them from the elements while also fighting their instinct to hunt for food. In response, the eagles have developed a lifelong pair relationship so that one is always available to protect the young while another is out hunting. In this instance, the unpredictability of weather becomes a constant change in their environment that introduces new conflicts to which the harpy eagles have needed to adapt over the generations. So far, they have been successful at this, illustrating how their setting has shaped the skills and relationships they have. However, there is also a new conflict from another direction. With the rise of deforestation from humans, large forestland with hunting lands available have shrunk. As a result, partner eagles may be away from the nest longer than in the past while hunting and may not return in time. The distance they must travel to find food is not currently something for which the eagles are adapted, and over time it may force them to change their character to better fit the new environment or go extinct. By pulling together moments of internal conflict around competing instincts, the external challenges of nature, and rising challenges from humanity, the producers reveal how deeply place has impacted us and that changes to place can be detrimental.

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