Question

The response should be 4-6 sentences and include textual evidence

There’s a bit of irony involved in the final threat to Wiesel’s life at the end of the book. After liberation, Wiesel and the other freed men gorge themselves with food. What happens that forces Wiesel to spend two weeks fighting for his life in a hospital?

Answer 1

After liberation, Wiesel and the other freed men were given an abundance of food and gorged themselves. The irony of this moment is that after surviving the horrors of the concentration camps, some of the prisoners died due to overeating. Wiesel himself became ill and had to spend two weeks fighting for his life in a hospital. As he writes in Night, "On the third day, some of the men from the hospital brought us soup. We thought it was wonderful. But later we discovered that the soup had been made from corpses." (Chapter 6, Night). The moment of overindulgence in food after being starved for so long resulted in unintended consequences, highlighting the complexities of survival and liberation.

~~~Harsha~~~

Answer 2

After liberation, Wiesel and the other freed men are given food by the American soldiers. Wiesel writes, "We thought only of that. No more. No more hunger. No more fear. No more anguish. We were given hot soup, coffee, tea, chocolate. There was a lot of bread. We ate. We ate everything. We were incapable of moving" (Chapter 6). However, the sudden intake of food is too much for Wiesel's weakened body to handle, and he becomes seriously ill. He writes, "I was in the hospital for two weeks. Dysentery. I was very weak. I was covered in sores" (Chapter 6). This situation is ironic because after surviving months of starvation and brutal treatment in the concentration camps, Wiesel's life is threatened by the very food that is meant to sustain him in his newfound freedom.