Night by Elie Wiesel

As my work of art that represents Night by Elie Wiesel, I painted Juliek's crushed violin. I think Juliek played a very symbolic role in Night and so did his violin. The violin represents two things to me in the book. The first would be anything that those in the Holocaust loved dearly and how easily it could be taken or destroyed be the Nazis. That thing could be a family member, friend, or an object like the violin. The second and last thing I think it could represent is a reason or motive to keep going and to survive. To Juliek, I think the violin kept him somewhat sane and grounded. It reminded him of the life he had before the Holocaust. Sometimes you have to focus on something else to get through another. If that motive is taken away or destroyed, some people didn't see any reason to keep going. That wasn't necessarily the case with Juliek's situation. Juliek took care of his violin and kept it away from harm for as long as possible. Only when he and his body could no longer survive another day of the Holocaust, did he let his violin get destroyed. In a way, Juliek was to his violin as Elie was to his father.