The Power of Love

Author's Note: Also in English, we read Elie Wisel's Night. This is the summative I wrote. It was a little rushed, so there still might be some mistakes, but it's not too bad (I hope).

Words are used to express ourselves and convey feelings. No matter what, all words can have an impact on people, whether it be a positive one that strengthens them or negative one that tears them down. Although hope has been known to give people a sense of purpose and motivate them to move forward, Elie Wiesel’s purposeful punctuation in Night reveals that the most powerful word is love, proving that we must preserve love or at the end of the day, when all hope decays, we will be left with nothing.

Someone may believe that hope is the most powerful word in the English Language, due to Wiesel’s use of exclamatory comments. In order to prove their power, the Nazis blamed the Jews for the loss of World War 1, and attempted to eradicate them. At first, they were mocked and Jewish stores were vandalized. Little did Elie know that it was the beginning of worst times. Jews were cut off from the world and put in enclosed streets, called ghettos. When the time came to come out, Elie and his family were ecstatic about being part of the world again. Except they were really being transported to concentration camps, shoved in extremely tight quarters on the trains. They were they dumped into huge camps, along with thousands of other Jews. Eventually, the prisoners were to transfer from Auschwitz to Gleiwitz. They were forced to walk for miles, but had hope that if they pressed on, they could survive. Elie states that the S.S. officers shouting at them gave the prisoners hope; “‘Hold on! We’re almost there!’ ‘Courage! Just a few more hours!’ ‘We’re arriving in Gleiwitz!’ These words of encouragement, even coming as they did from the mouths of our assassins, were of great help” (Wiesel 92). The officers’ optimistic words pushed the Jews forward. At first, Wiesel gives the illusion that hope is needed and powerful, however, Elie, along with other Jews, lose hope and cling onto love for survival.

Therefore, love is the most powerful word in the English language as demonstrated by Wiesel’s purposeful punctuation. After spending countless hours with no one to talk to except his father, Elie’s relationship with him grew. Before the camps, Elie hardly knew his father, but now they know each other inside and out. Now they are equal with understanding. Elie describes, “I felt a tear on my hand. Whose was it? Mine? His? I said nothing. Nor did he. Never before had we understood each other so clearly” (Wiesel 68). Of course, Elie had always loved his father, but with nothing else left- no possessions, no other family, no free will- Elie needs to preserve their love and make it grow to protect his father no matter what. If Elie doesn’t preserve his love for his father, when there is no hope and nothing else to live for, the battle for life will be lost.

Although hope can give the illusion of purpose, love is the most powerful word in the English language. If there is no love, only hope for love, then when all hope is gone, there will still be no love, and there will be nothing left to live for. However, if we love one another and create bonds and relationships, when all hope is lost, there will still be love.