Abstract

Under the rubric of the problem of dirty hands, Sartre and Camus explored a new approach to political necessity. Yet it has always been difficult to translate the powerful dramatic image of dirty hands into a coherent account of a philosophical problem. Many Anglo-American philosophers have argued that such an account is impossible. In Dawn, however, Elie Wiesel resolves the relevant paradoxes by imaginatively exploiting the religious consciousness of the novel’s main protagonist. Specifically, Wiesel adapts a traditional Jewish image of ghosts as a means of responding to the problem of dirty hands and then suggests a striking conception of God to complete this response.