Wiesel's short story, The Night, can be labeled as a 'religious book' if considered in the light of the indisputably religious text, the "Gospel according to Mark" of the "New Testament" of the Holy Bible of Christianity. This turns out to be the case when one considers the central parallels that can be drawn between the two works. A comparable narrative structure, the consistent use of light and dark images (indicating "good" and "evil" respectively), and the constant theme of questioning faith serve as central similarities. However, the works part ways when the reader tries to answer the questions of faith that the characters in both works raise. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The narrative structures of the two texts are quite similar. Both are biographies (The Night in the first person, the "Gospel" in the third person) of the life (or an aspect of his life) of a strong and admirable individual told in the form of a story. Both of these individuals, Wiesel and Jesus, experience an employment reversal in their lives. Wiesel, a "student" at home, says that he is a "peasant" when he is taken to the concentration camp to make the SS officer who interrogates him believe that he will be a good worker (Wiesel 29). Likewise, Jesus, who by birth was a carpenter, chooses to lead his life as a teacher and healer. The strangeness of this reversal is emphasized by the people of Jesus' "hometown", who ask "isn't this [Jesus] the carpenter?" (Mark 6.3). Their question implies the absurdity of his teaching of the word of God and his healings when he is "supposed" to be a carpenter. Furthermore, in both texts, the narrator's perspective is limited. Mark's limitation is revealed by the other three gospels, which are part of the "New Testament" canon, as his testimony is not entirely consistent with theirs. This is shown most explicitly in the difference between his gospel and the gospel of John; “Mark's Jesus will neither confirm nor deny that he is the long-awaited king…[but] repeatedly throughout John's gospel, Jesus declares himself to be the means of salvation” (Oxtoby 211). Mark does not tell the definitive version (or perspective) of Jesus' life. Wiesel's limitation is admitted by himself. He is a prisoner and therefore does not know what is happening in the larger world, or even who is winning the war. Another similarity within the narratives is the active expression of a natural kinship between those who are human (this excludes both Jesus, who is divine, and the Nazis, who are demons). Wiesel describes the first relief he has in the concentration camp as the words of the leader of the prison block when he says, "Let there be camaraderie among you. We are all brothers... Help each other" (Wiesel 38). Wiesel also regularly uses the word "we" throughout his story to reinforce this sentiment. Mark postulates the same idea. He says that Jesus has "compassion" for the people gathered "because [they are] like sheep without a shepherd" (6.34). The use of this metaphor indicates that all people are equal in the eyes of Jesus just as all sheep are equal in the eyes of humans. They are equal because they are all "brothers and sisters", they are all human beings (Mk 10.30). The similarity of Wiesel's narrative to Mark's causes there to be similar tones in the works as a whole and this causes the reader to "hear" the works in similar ways. In this case, the fact that the "Gospel" is a religious piece, and must be taken as such by its readers, implies that Wiesel's piece would also be "heard" and understood in the same way by its readers. There aremany images in both manuscripts of light and darkness. These images indicate an underlying sense of the existence of good (light) and darkness (evil) from the narrators' point of view. Mark verbally quotes both the prophet Isaiah and Jesus himself expressing light/dark imagery to illustrate the good/bad distinction. A quote from Isaiah opens the "Gospel", saying that the "messenger of God [Jesus]" will be sent "before you", his will be the "voice of one crying in the wilderness" (Mk 1,2-3) . The "desert" represents darkness and the lack of God, while the "voice" represents the sound that will bring people out of the desert and into the clearing where God's light shines. Jesus, in the parable of the lamp, also reveals this distinction . He says, “There is nothing hidden except that which must be revealed; there is nothing secret except that it comes to light" (Mk 4:21). Again, the light represents God's truth, knowledge, and goodness. God's "light" will reveal all. In Night the distinction is drawn, but less clearly. The last moments that the Jews of the city of Wiesel spend in their home are accompanied by "a blazing sun" (14). The light that such a sun gives off represents the goodness of being in one's home. "A Glimmer of Light" also brings "joy" later in the book because the living (including Wiesel and his father) are allowed to throw the dead from the train on which they are being transported. In contrast, it is "pitch dark" when most of Wiesel's fellow prisoners are "dying and dead," including his violinist friend, Juliek. The darkness represents the pure evil that caused that situation. Even the title of the book, Night, falls into this vein. The book as a whole is a terrifying tale: dark and evil. The evil, illustrated by the darkness of the images in the pieces, is also illustrated by the presence of explicit, physical, non-human "bad guys" in the pieces. Along the same lines, the good, illustrated by the images of light in the works, is also illustrated by the presence of the main character as a model of righteous behavior in the works. The demons, or “unclean spirits” of the “Gospel” are equivalent to the Nazis of Night. The unclean spirit, “Legion,” enters a herd of “swine” and causes the pigs to “run down” and be “drown in the sea” (Mark 5.8-5.13). In the same way that an unclean spirit makes the pig act wildly, an unclean spirit also makes a boy act wildly; it causes him to "convulse" and "foam at the mouth" (Mk 9.20). The Nazis are shown in a remarkably similar "savage" manner when Wiesel first reaches the concentration camp. They jump on the bandwagon in “black pants” with “flashlights and truncheons… and [begin] to strike left and right” (Wiesel 26). Advice on how to get rid of these "bad guys" is also similar. Jesus says that "everything [even the expulsion of unclean spirits] can be done for those who believe" (Mk 9:23). The "older ones", faced with the Nazis, advise their children: "You must never lose faith, even when the sword hangs over your head" (Wiesel 29). In contrast to these demons, the main characters of the works serve by models of what is considered right behavior in works. Some fundamental statements about what is right are the same in both texts. One in particular is primary in both texts. This is expressed succinctly when Jesus says «you know the commandment: Honor your father and your mother" (Mk 10,19). Jesus spends his whole life actively honoring his Father, who is God, serving him and spreading his word, and God is pleased with him (Mk 1,11) . Wiesel also spends much of the time in the book honoring his father. He eats on Yom Kippur "mainly to please his father, who had forbidden him to do so" (66)..