The Little Pipel is mainly about a young boy that is stripped of his innocence while he is in the concentration camp. In the end of the passage, he is hung. The passage mainly focuses on all of the prisoners’ loss of innocence, faith, and the dehumanization that takes place while they are in the camp.
The first sentence of the passage, “I watched other hangings”, is straightforward and sets the mood by showing that Elie Wiesel is serious. He speaks about never seeing a victim weep. They were all victims that “had long forgotten the bitter taste of tears.” This specific sentence not only shows loss of innocence, but also, dehumanization. These victims had endured so much pain, that they were numb to it. They could no longer weep or cry out for help. A normal human being in a situation like this would cry, but these victims were no longer treated as humans. Therefore, they could not do anything but wait…show more content… Many times throughout the passage Elie Wiesel describes the little pipel in ways to show his innocence. He was said to have had a “delicate” and “beautiful” face. Elie Wiesel, and many other prisoners in the camp, also start to question God. As the young boy is being put to death, a man calls out for God. Elie Wiesel also has an inner voice that is looking for God and is wondering why he is not showing any mercy to the innocent boy. Dehumanization is also emphasized in the passage, but mainly in the beginning when Elie Wiesel talks about the “withered bodies” that had “forgotten the bitter taste of tears.” He uses these specific words to emphasize how tragic the events the victims had gone through. They were so tragic that once they were to be hung they could no longer weep. This is a key passage in the book because it emphasizes much of what is talked about throughout the book- loss of innocence, loss of faith, and
