SOURCE: Lazarus, Joyce B. “Expanding Time: The Art of Elie Wiesel in The Gates of the Forest.” Modern Language Studies 24, no. 4 (fall 1994): 39-46.

In the following essay, Lazarus analyzes Wiesel's treatment of time in his novel The Gates of the Forest.

Master teller of tales, witness testifying to the human condition as seen through the Jewish condition, Elie Wiesel writes with an urgency that summons his readers to respond. For Wiesel, the world has still learned nothing from Auschwitz; barbaric cruelty and oppression of humanity are evident everywhere. Using one of his favorite metaphors, Wiesel describes humanity as riding a train that is about to reach a precipice. “And we, the survivors (of the Holocaust) are trying to pull the alarm. They won't listen. Even today, those who listen don't really listen.”¹

To transmit his view of a world radically transformed by Auschwitz, Wiesel turns to unique narrative...