Dawn
by Elie Wiesel
On This Page
Tags
Member Reviews
Dawn: A Novel (Night Trilogy, Book 2) by Eli Wiesel
1961,2006
"Dawn is purely a work of fiction, but I wrote it to look at myself in a new way. Obviously I did not live this tale, but I was implicated in its ethical dilemma from the moment that I assumed my character's place."
"So I wrote this novel in order to explore distant memories and buried doubts: What would have become of me if I had spent not just one year in the camps, but two or four? If I had been appointed kapo? Could I have struck a friend? Humiliated an old man?"
"And yet, this tale about despair becomes a story against despair." -Elie Weisel
Elisha is a young 18 year old Jewish man, Holocaust survivor and Israeli Freedom Fighter who is ordered to execute John Dawson, a middle show more aged British soldier. As the day passes into night, Elisha is given the order that he must perform the execution of the British hostage. As he awaits dawn, the hour of execution, he ruminates over his life and what it means to kill someone. With memories of his family and religious beliefs, he struggles with the ethical dilemma of how death occurs. He is a soldier and obligated to carry out orders so does that exonerate him from being labeled a murderer?
I wanted to like this story more than I did. On some level, I'm unsettled with the anguish experienced by the young soldier. It has been many years since I have read, Night, but recall a similar eerie feeling. How does one justify his actions which seem to contradict his internal beliefs? show less
1961,2006
"Dawn is purely a work of fiction, but I wrote it to look at myself in a new way. Obviously I did not live this tale, but I was implicated in its ethical dilemma from the moment that I assumed my character's place."
"So I wrote this novel in order to explore distant memories and buried doubts: What would have become of me if I had spent not just one year in the camps, but two or four? If I had been appointed kapo? Could I have struck a friend? Humiliated an old man?"
"And yet, this tale about despair becomes a story against despair." -Elie Weisel
Elisha is a young 18 year old Jewish man, Holocaust survivor and Israeli Freedom Fighter who is ordered to execute John Dawson, a middle show more aged British soldier. As the day passes into night, Elisha is given the order that he must perform the execution of the British hostage. As he awaits dawn, the hour of execution, he ruminates over his life and what it means to kill someone. With memories of his family and religious beliefs, he struggles with the ethical dilemma of how death occurs. He is a soldier and obligated to carry out orders so does that exonerate him from being labeled a murderer?
I wanted to like this story more than I did. On some level, I'm unsettled with the anguish experienced by the young soldier. It has been many years since I have read, Night, but recall a similar eerie feeling. How does one justify his actions which seem to contradict his internal beliefs? show less
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel was born in Sighet, Romania on September 30, 1928. In 1944, he and his family were deported along with other Jews to the Nazi death camp Auschwitz. His mother and his younger sister died there. He loaded stones onto railway cars in a labor camp called Buna before being sent to Buchenwald, where his father died. He was show more liberated by the United States Third Army on April 11, 1945. After the war ended, he learned that his two older sisters had also survived. He was placed on a train of 400 orphans that was headed to France, where he was assigned to a home in Normandy under the care of a Jewish organization. He was educated at the Sorbonne and supported himself as a tutor, a Hebrew teacher and a translator. He started writing for the French newspaper L'Arche. In 1948, L'Arche sent him to Israel to report on that newly founded state. He also became the Paris correspondent for the daily Yediot Ahronot. In this capacity, he interviewed the novelist Francois Mauriac, who urged him to write about his war experiences. The result was La Nuit (Night). After the publication of Night, Wiesel became a writer, literary critic, and journalist. His other books include Dawn, The Accident, The Gates of the Forest, The Jews of Silence: A Personal Report on Soviet Jewry, and Twilight. He received a numerous awards and honors for his literary work including the William and Janice Epstein Fiction Award in 1965, the Jewish Heritage Award in 1966, the Prix Medicis in 1969, and the Prix Livre-International in 1980. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for his work in combating human cruelty and in advocating justice. He had a leading role in the creation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D. C. He died on July 2, 2016 at the age of 87. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Some Editions
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 3
- Popularity
- 4,735,752
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.67)