Question

Optional Reflection



This book is narratively interesting in how it is structured and the elements the author uses to create a story.

We have Elie Wiesel as the author, who lived through the Holocaust.



We have tween Eliezer Wiesel as the narrator, who has yet to be a victim of the Holocaust. He is 12 when the story begins and very focused on what is important to him.

While easy to mix up, the author and narrator are not the same people in this story. The author, Elie Wiesel, did change a few things and characters to create a clear narrator, centered around a theme. One of his creations is Eliezer Wiesel, the narrator.

Based on what we have read so far, what do you think is Elie Wiesel's, the author, opinion about 12 year old Eliezer Wiesel, the narrator, before the events of the war?

Answer 1

Elie Wiesel (the author) presents 12‑year‑old Eliezer (the narrator) with a mix of affection and critical distance: affectionate because he’s portrayed as sincere, devout, and deeply curious; critical because he’s also innocent, narrowly focused, and unprepared for the world’s political danger.

Evidence and how it shapes the author’s view:
- Devoutness and yearning for knowledge: Eliezer’s single‑minded desire to study the Torah and Kabbalah is shown sympathetically—he’s earnest, passionate, and almost childlike in his religious hunger. Wiesel gives the reader clear access to that interior life so we feel the authenticity of the boy’s faith.
- Naivety and tunnel vision: at the same time, Eliezer’s concentration on spiritual matters makes him blind to looming threats. His and the community’s failure to grasp or act on the warnings (for example, from Moshe the Beadle) is presented matter‑of‑factly, even a little tragically, which signals the author’s critical awareness of how vulnerable that innocence leaves them.
- Tone of nostalgia + foreshadowing: Wiesel’s narration carries warmth and memory but also an implied distance—he’s created Eliezer as a character to be remembered and judged. That distance lets the author both mourn the lost innocence and prepare the reader for the moral and spiritual disintegration to come.

Overall: Wiesel seems to regard pre‑war Eliezer with compassion—respecting his faith and earnestness—while also seeing his youthful narrowness and unpreparedness as tragically significant, setting up the dramatic arc from innocence to the catastrophic loss that follows.