Question

Excerpt from Night by Elie Wiesel

Answer 1

Answer:

The statement that best describes the effect of Wiesel's choice to describe the soup in the excerpt is:

It shows that Eliezer has become so numb to death that he can enjoy food after looking at a hanged man.

Explanation:

In "Night", Elie Wiesel recounts his horrific experiences living in a concentration camp as a prisoner. In this particular excerpt, he describes the hanging of another prisoner, and how German soldiers forced him and the others to march while staring at the body. Elie does respect the hanged man. He admires his courage - the fact that he did not cry, that he did not want to be blindfolded, and that he even screamed, cursing the Germans, before he died.

Why, then, does Elie say the soup was delicious that night? Because he was still alive. People of all ages died all around him, all the time. That was bound to numb him up to a certain point. He was living the cruelest of experiences. But he had survived another day. That's what the soup meant that night - that Elie himself had not been killed.