Discuss Madame Schachter’s son in his response to his mother and to others around her in the train in Night.

Madame Schachter starts scream in an uncontrollable manner
about seeing “fire” and forewarns the end of all of those in the car.  It is interesting
to note her son’s reaction.  At first, he, like the other passengers, are trying
desperately to quiet her.  Part of this is out of pure concern for his mother screaming
at a level of volatility.  Yet, Wiesel brutally points out that part of this was done
out of sheer embarrassment.  The son wishes for her to be quiet because it is a moment
of social discomfort and awkwardness for his mother to be screaming as she does.  It is
here where a subtle statement about the Holocaust is being made.  Wiesel’s fundamental
argument about the Holocaust was that it was a moment in history where everyone
dehumanized everyone else.  The Nazis dehumanized those who were Jewish.  Those who were
Jewish dehumanized one another, making it easier to sacrifice others and allowing more
carnage to happen.  This is what is demonstrated with Madame Schachter’s son.  In the
end, the other people in the car physically silence her, muffling her mouth so that her
screams are no longer heard.  The son merely watches.  It could be argued that the son
was overmatched and watched because he had no choice.  Yet, Wiesel might be using the
moment to foreshadow Eliezer’s own betrayal of his father and the fact that the
dehumanization that was such a part of the Holocaust happened on so many
levels.