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Possessions From The Past In Elie Wiesel's 'Night'

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Paige Dispalatro

Ms. Lammers

English Honors II Period 2

12 April 2016

Possessions from the Past

Remember the saying that a picture can tell a thousand words? Well, so can a possession; a possession can describe someone’s life and even what they went through as a child. In the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, Eliezer loses his home, his family, even his identity during the Holocaust. He loses almost everything but some possessions that link him to his family and to his life before the war. From having possessions while in the camps, Eliezer was able to hold onto his past and his family, even though he knew he might never see them again because he was able to keep a possession which allowed him to remember who he truly was.

During …show more content…
Those possessions can be from a friend, a family member, even a stranger. Irene Zisblatt’s mother sewed diamonds into the hem of her daughter’s skirt, hoping they will help her daughter live. Irene knew that “They’re the only thing [she held] that [her] mother ever held” (Zisblatt). So, repeatedly, Irene swallowed the diamonds and waited for them to pass through her. She could have easily turned them in when the officers asked for valuables, but she knew she had to keep them. They were the last thing from her mother and those diamonds reminded her of her that those were the only thing left from her family. She lost everything but those diamonds, those diamonds which were her most important possession, because they remind her of who she is, of whose daughter or sister she is. Similarly, Renee Firestone kept her favorite bathing suit as she was being taken to the concentration camps. She put it on underneath her other clothes before leaving her house because she knew that everything else would be taken. She chose to take that bathing suit because it reminded her of her past, when she “would hang out at the pool with her sister,” when she felt young, when her life was normal (Firestone). And as her bathing suit was taken away from her, so was her past life. That possession she kept tied her back to her family and as it was taken away, her hope diminished as well. …show more content…
Some possessions could remind someone of a memory while others could remind someone of family. No matter why that possession is important to someone, it matters. Because that possession helps someone to be strong, to be kind, to be happy. No one should be stripped of their possessions because once they are, they lose the importance of those values that are carried within their possessions. Once their possessions are lost, so are they because to them, their possessions were everything to them, they were a part of them, and they always would

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