NIGHT

SMRITI
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We have all heard the story of Anne Frank, which familiarized us with the atrocities on jews in Nazi Germany. In the ranks of those war time classics, is NIGHT by Elie Wiesel. This little known Nobel Prize Winning book is a horryfying account of a time when the world watched the cruelty as silent spectators. 

 Elie Wiesel, author and narrator of NIGHT, a true story of the Holocaust, managed to live through Hitler’s criminal atrocities and write down his experiences in the concentration camps. He begins his dramatic stories in 1941 in the small city of Sighet located in Transylvania. Elie, a young boy , along with his family of four, found them selves bombarded and split up by the Hitler lead Germans and deported to nearby concentration camps. Throughout the book, Wiesel explains his experiences with the belief in God, what provides for him and others a will to live, and the important realities of life. 

An important theme and aspect of Night to me is how beliefs and ways of thinking can change during a person’s life and how these ways change throughout the book. It is easy to understand that such an awful experience to a young child can change his ways of thinking, especially about life in general. How can seeing so many people die in such harsh ways not make a child around the age of fifteen see life as unfair and worthless?  As I read through the book, I slowly began to realize, due to Wiesel’s amazing descriptions and ability to allow the reader to feel how he was felt, how a person could go through this drastic change in faith. Elie begins his horrible journey with a complete faith in God, and an amazing will to learn as much as possible about his own religion. He even goes against his father’s rules to find a person, Moshe the Beadle, which can help him accomplish this. However, when in the summer of 1944 he is deported to Aushwitz and his encounters begin to add up, he slowly starts to question the truths about God and even God’s own existence. Young Elie first begins to question God when he states, “What are You, my God, compared to this afflicted crowd…What does Your Greatness mean, Lord of the universe…” As the story proceeds, he goes on to explain how he was “the accuser,” and “God the accused…terribly alone in a world without God” .In another instance he imagines God as the one on the podium, being hung, instead of the Jews. Furthermore, Elie even begins going against his religion’s rituals and does not fast during the proper week. He is forced to believe that the only way he could live is not with God’s help, but with his own gut feelings. 

After reading and examining Wiesel’s written work, I definitely began to understand young Elie’s reasoning on religion, and even understood how he could almost put more faith and trust in to Hitler due to Hitler’s ability to keep a promise, even though Hitler’s loyalty is what ultimately lead to millions of deaths. Without Wiesel’s incorporation of dialogue from characters and his own thoughts of religion, I do not think I could have been so persuaded
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 Now that Elie’s will to live was not under his faith in God, another theme arises in his search for a will to live and survive.. I feel like Night stands for the only actual good part of their imprisonment at the concentration camps. Sleep was always a necessity and need for the imprisoned Jews. It was part of the hope for survival; therefore, a will to live. Next, being a child, his initial basis and reason for survival was because he is never separated from his father. Being able to stay in close quarters with his father allows him to remain strong and have a helping hand to fall back on. However, as the story progresses, his father begins to become ill and Elie is obligated to not only fight for his own survival, but also his father’s. This situation begins with Elie’s fight to stay with his dad, but turns out to become his will to survive. Instead of placing his mind on surviving through Hitler’s wishes, he puts his thoughts and energy on keeping his father alive, which ultimately leads to his own survival. To further create this theme, Wiesel introduces two characters that portray the extents people will go to in order to survive. Nearing the end of the novel, the Jews are forced to run for forty-two miles to Gleitwitz. During this expedition, Elie watches as two characters, the Rabbi and his son, lose each other due to the son running away to drop the dead weight of his old father. At first, Elie is appalled of this nature, but slowly begins to realize the same with his own father.
 
Another huge example and theme that Wiesel emphasizes as a will to live is the fight for food throughout the account. Inside the concentration camps, the prisoners are rationed very small amounts of food, if not deprived. Young Elie along with all of the other prisoners yearns for as much soup, bread, and water as possible. The imprisonment begins with people wanting to aid in the survival of other prisoners with the sharing of their personal supplies. It was their need for survival. However, as time passes, Elie witnesses many horrible accounts of almost animal like behavior. From Meir beating and stealing from his father on the train to masses of people killing each other to obtain the last bite of bread, Elie could not believe how such a situation could change the actions of civilized people. 

 With the shock of feeling it would be okay to let his father die for his own survival to the realizations of how people can change under intense circumstances, other themes are incorporated when Elie begins to find many astonishments about the truths, realities, and harshness of life. Along with these realizations, Elie most importantly finds out the truth of death, and at only the young age of fifteen. Elie witnesses more deaths than most people could even imagine. He not only sees corpses lying in snow and being smothered by other dying people, but he also witnesses the brutal death of innocent people through cremation, hangings, starvation, beatings, and even pure sadness. He also observes how and why people could not maintain the will to live, even though he is able to maintain it the whole time. He learns about inhumanity through the actions of the Germans. This goes right along with death, but he could not believe how he and the others were treated like animals. At one point, Elie states how he felt like “cattle or merchandise” as the prisoners were lined up, pointed at, and “selected.” 

 
In the preface to the book, Robert Brown describes how some people either do not believe in the horrific mass killing or do not care about it. Night was created to give an account that these awful events did occur, and Wiesel does a great job to get the effectiveness of the event across to his readers. To manage this, he is able to include characters like his father, who represents Elie’s main hope of survival and will to live; Madam Schachter, who represents the scary, psychological, but honest aspects of the event; and Elie’s friends (the brothers), who represent the need to work together; which all are apparent themes of the novel. Wiesel also used these characters to show how others were feeling, enabling readers to understand that everyone maintained different feelings and beliefs of the situation. Because of the ability to incorporate all of these measures, Wiesel intended for all people to be able to read and learn from his experiences. Sometimes people can be ignorant to the aspects, feelings, and events in life. Wiesel created this book so that for years to come, people will be able to believe and understand the cruelty, harshness, and reality not only of the Holocaust, but other events that could possibly occur in life.

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A WALK TO REMEMBER

SMRITI
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I am a sucker for romance and romantic novels, no denying that fact. That is probably the reason why Nicholas Sparks finds his way into the list of my favourite authors.  I happened to watch the movie first then read the book.


Nicholas Sparks begins this book, A WALK TO REMEMBER, by promising that "first you will smile, and then you will cry --- don't say that you haven't been warned".  A WALK TO REMEMBER is a heart wrenching account of a young, first love and the choices and steps a person will take to provide another with happiness.   

Devoted readers of Nicholas Sparks are already familiar with his earlier works, THE NOTEBOOK and MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE, as well as his extraordinary ability to accurately illustrate his characters and the setting around them.  He finds the perfect words to describe the nature of the characters, so much so that the reader can identify with the feelings in their hearts. This book is no exception, it lets the readers explore their own feelings and memories of love.  

Nicholas Sparks writes about a young man and woman in 1958 on the coast in Morehead City in Beaufort, North Carolina.  Landon Carter is a seventeen-year-old high school senior whose father is a United States congressman.  He and his father are strangers --- his father is on the road quite a bit of the time and he spends the majority of time being raised by his mother.  His father insists that he needs to run for student body president to increase his chances of getting into a good college.  His father believes that "We Carters always win" and he wants to mold Landon into a miniature version of himself.   

Landon wins the election and one of his responsibilities is attending the homecoming dance.  Due to the fact he has just broken up with his girlfriend, he doesn't have a date and in a panic, he pulls out his yearbook and scans the pages for someone available.  He finally decides on Jamie Sullivan, a junior, who is the minister's daughter, knowing that nobody else will ask her to the dance.  Jamie wears old sweaters, plaid skirts and her hair up in a bun.  She carries the Bible wherever she goes and believes that whatever happens in life is according to the Lord's plan.  She is obviously not your typical high school student and not someone in whom Landon or his friends would be interested. 

Both Landon and Jamie star in the school Christmas play that Jamie's father has written.  The play details the personal story of his life after his wife's death and his search for love and the meaning of life within his daughter.  Jamie plays the angel and Landon, the lead male role.  Over time, in rehearsals and occasional talks together on her front porch, Landon starts to like Jamie.  As a result, he becomes a better person, helping her do good deeds and accompanying her to the orphanage.  The opening night of the play, he is amazed when he first sees her walk on the stage dressed as an angel, with her hair loose and flowing down her back.  She glitters onstage and he falls for her true beauty. 

With plot twists and turns and an untold secret that will change their lives forever, Landon and Jamie fall in love.  Pain and sorrow lie ahead  but the story lets you believe in the power of love and that dreams do come true.  Their story is unforgettable and as you wipe your tears away, you come to an unbelievable end --- the sort of story that only Nicholas Sparks can tell. 

Though the plot seems somewhat cliched and nothing new, it is the trademark Nicholas Sparks treatment that makes you fall in love with this one. The movie version of this book is somewhat different in its execution, but it is a good read nevertheless. A recommended read if you love romantic novels. And watch the movie too :)


P.S. Since i had wanted to put up the review as soon as I could, most of the content of this one has been taken from bookreporter.com. This review is not my work entirely, and I promise to write up another one here for this one, sometime in the near future.

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SYBIL

SMRITI
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I have been ignoring my book blog for quite a while now, despite reading a lot of books lately. My initial aplogies to my book blog. I want to make up to you by making you feel a little special this year and dressing you up suitably with a lot more posts and a better look.

So, coming to the review part. I've read a few good books in the last four months. I think it is high time I posted a review on those. I choose the most recent book I read, for my review.

My mother does not read. Anything. Even a newspaper. And not certainly English. Hence I was surprised when she told me about this amazing book she's read many many years ago. SYBIL. I kept hearing on and off about it from her and decided to pick it up for my collection. After many trips to book stores and being told that the book is out of stock, I finally managed to find it at Odyssey, about a month back. And I started reading it with immediate effect. I am glad I did.

SYBIL is a book published in 1973, written by Flora Rheta Schreiber about a true-life story of a woman suffering from multiple personality disorder. I had never heard of the book, and until I finished reading it, I didnt know that SYBIL is actually a pseudonym of a woman named Shirley Arden Mason. Hers is perhaps the most famous case of multiple personality disorder. The pseudonym was given to protect her privacy.

SYBIL, was born on 25th January, 1923 in Minnesota. She had a history of blackouts and emotional breakouts, and finally entered psychotherapy with Dr Cornelia Wilbur a Freudian Psychiatrist. Their sessions together form the basis for this book and its narrative. After extensive therapy, it is discovered that SYBIL has 16 different personalities, which disassociate themselves from the central personality. The biggest task is to integrate these disassociated ones with the central one in order to have SYBIL lead a normal life. The book is based on the therapy, treatment and triumph of this woman to overcome a mental disability, which would take several years of determination and sometimes hopelessness. 

It was a shocking read for me, in a way scary, when I thought what would I do if I were in that situation. Would I recover from it? How would I feel when unknown people come up to me and claim to know me? It was an eerie read, but surely engrossing.

I find it difficult to write a review on this true-life story. I would recommend it as a must read, though.  I found it hard to put down and the case of 16 different personalities to a woman are perplexing and baffling. It is scary, but still, it is definitely worth a read.


Instead of giving just the excerpts, I'll attach a sketch of the 16 personalities of SYBIL ISABEL DORSETT. 

Sybil Isabel Dorsett (1923): a depleted person; the waking self.

Victoria Antoinette Scharleau(1926): nicknamed Vicky; a self-assured, sophisticated, attractive blonde; the memory trace of Sybil's selves.

Peggy Lou Baldwin (1926): an assertive, enthusiastic, and often angry pixie with a pug nose, a Dutch haircut, and a mischievous smile.

Peggy Ann Baldwin (1926): a counterpart of Peggy Lou with similar physical characteristics; she is more often fearful than angry.

Mary Lucinda Saunders Dorsett (1933): a thoughtful, contemplative, maternal, homeloving person; she is plump and has long dark-brown hair parted on the side.

Marcia Lynn Dorsett (1927): last name sometimes Baldwin; a writer and painter; extremely emotional; she has a shield-shaped face, gray eyes, and brown hair parted on the side.

Vanessa Gail Dorsett (1935): intensely dramatic and extremely attractive; a tall redhead with a willowy figure, light brown eyes, and an expressive oval face.

Mike Dorsett (1928): one of Sybil's two male selves; a builder and a carpenter, he has olive skin, dark hair, and brown eyes.

Sid Dorsett (1928): one of Sybil's two male selves; a carpenter and a general handyman; he has fair skin, dark hair, and blue eyes.

Nancy Lou Ann Baldwin (date undetermined): interested in politics as fulfillment of biblical prophecy and intensely afraid of Roman Catholics; fey; her physical characteristics resemble those of the Peggys.

Sybil Ann Dorsett (1928): listless to the point of neurasthenia; pale and timid with ash-blonde hair, an oval face, and a straight nose.

Ruthie Dorsett (date undetermined): a baby; one of the lesser developed selves.

Clara Dorsett (date undetermined): intensely religious; highly critical of the waking Sybil.

Helen Dorsett (1929): intensely afraid but determined to achieve fulfillment; she has light brown hair, hazel eyes, a straight nose, and thin lips.

Marjorie Dorsett (1928): serene, vivacious, and quick to laugh; a tease; a small, willowy brunette with fair skin and a pug nose.

The Blonde (1946): nameless; a perpetual teenager; has blonde curly hair and a lilting voice.

The New Sybil (1965): the seventeenth self; an amalgam of the other sixteen selves.


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