ipl-logo

Choiceless Choices In Night By Elie Wiesel

391 Words2 Pages

"Choiceless choices" is a term coined by Lawrence Langer to describe the no-win situations faced by Jews during the Holocaust. The Holocaust was an era of mass hatred against Jews that occurred before and during WWII. However, this hatred only began to pick up as Nazi Germany seized multiple countries in Europe and developed slogans dedicated to hating Jews. Not long after, Jews were gathered up, evicted from their homes, and forced into concentration camps, where they were subjected to mental and physical abuse. The relentless mistreatment and horrendous conditions in these camps posed a significant challenge to survival. In the book "Night," Elie Wiesel, the author, holocaust survivor, and main character, sheds light on the terror faced by many …show more content…

While enduring the harsh conditions in the crowded evacuation cattle cars, Elie observed the starving prisoners fighting over pieces of bread tossed by a German civilian. An older man, in particular, had obtained a piece of bread and hid it. Suddenly, another man threw himself onto him, and the old man pleaded, "Meir, my little Meir! Don't you recognize me... You're killing your father...? I have bread... for you too... for you too..." (101). Both the father and son had surrendered to their perpetual hunger, prioritizing food over family, which ended in a no-win situation since both died while fighting. Throughout Elie's forced imprisonment, he himself encountered "choiceless choices" that he never imagined would take over his mind. After bearing the dreadful conditions and witnessing terrible things in cattle cars, Elie and his father finally arrived at Birkenau, where they were given the chance to rest. Elie was ready to head to the barracks when his father suddenly collapsed onto the ground and said, "I can't anymore... It's over... I shall die right here..."

Show More
Related

Night Elie Wiesel Survival Analysis

228 Words | 1 Pages

Elie notices his father in hunger and asks, “Did you eat?” “No.” “Why?” Elie argued. His dad explains, “They didn’t give us anything…

Read More

Examples Of Loyalty In Night By Elie Wiesel

332 Words | 2 Pages

Throughout Elie Wiesel's memoir Night, Elie’s loyalty shines through the terrible horrors of the Holocaust, even when he surrounded himself in doubt. While reading, Elie explains the story of the Rabbi and his son. The Rabbi, who was in terrible condition, was left behind by his son on the journey to Birkenau because he thought that he would just hold him back. He later met back up with him when the hundreds of men were loaded into the cattle cars. Crumbs of stale bread were thrown into the carts, causing everyone to start fighting over them.

Read More

What Are The Similarities Between Farewell To Manzanar And Night

716 Words | 3 Pages

“And deep inside me, if I could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience, I might have found something like: free at last!...” (Weisel 112). When the Jewish people of Sighet, Transylvania were first being transported to concentration camps, Elie and his father were separated from the rest of his family, never to see eachother again over the course of the book. Elie’s strained connection is exemplified when his father, his only family member remaining with him, dies. Instead of feeling depressed, or even the tiniest bit of sadness, Elie does not feel at all.

Read More

Choiceless Choices In Elie Wiesel's 'Night'

956 Words | 4 Pages

Brenna Schultz College Intro to Literature Kraus 29 April 2023 Surviving the Impossible The memoir Night tells the story of Elie Wiesel, a studious Jewish teenager, living in Hungary in the early 1940s. He and his family are sent to Auschwitz, a concentration camp. In Auschwitz, Wiesel struggles to maintain his faith, while witnessing other prisoners lose their faith and humanity. While Wiesel was at the camp, he and the other prisoners were faced with many “choiceless choices”, which is a term coined by Lawrence Langer to describe no-win situations faced by Jews during the Holocaust.

Read More

Role Of Choiceless Choices In Night By Elie Wiesel

509 Words | 3 Pages

Lives reduced to choices without a possibility of a good outcome, the imminent and constant fight between life and death. Throughout the Holocaust Jewish people faced a multitude of choiceless choices induced by the terrible atrocities inflicted by Nazi Germany. “Choiceless choice” is a term fabricated by Lawrence Langer to better describe decisions lacking a bright side the Jews faced throughout the duration of the Holocaust. In Night, a memoir by a Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, he explains the terrible circumstances Nazi Germany and Hitler forced him and many Jews of Europe to suffer, and the choiceless choices he was forced to make in these situations. He was involuntarily put into situations where he needed to go against his morals to simply survive.

Read More

Father And Son In Elie Wiesel's Night

1225 Words | 5 Pages

Elie and his father had just arrived to Buchenwald and endless thoughts were running through Elie’s aged mind, such as, “The old familiar fear: not to lose him” (pg 104). Elie has relied on his father from the very first time they separated from their female family members. As time goes on one can see the emotional attachment Elie has to his father and the everlasting safeness Elie feels when being around him. Elie feels that he must fight to stay alive for his father, but the new tone in the quote above, reveals a more sarcastic side of him. Rather than having a die heart attitude, he expresses himself as being almost burdened with his father’s existence.

Read More

Figurative Language In Night By Elie Wiesel

418 Words | 2 Pages

When “a piece fell into [his] wagon, [he] decided not to move” (Wiesel 101), setting up a point of view in which Elie was able to spectate upon a specific moment of “an old man dragging himself on all fours.” Looking closer, “he was holding [bread] to his heart… a shadow had lain down beside him, and threw itself over him… the old man way crying: ‘Meir, my little Meir! Don’t you recognize me… you’re killing your father… I have bread… for you too…“ (Wiesel 101-102). The imagery in this scene shows the extent at which these people are willing to go for the smallest amount of sustenance. Wiesel makes the scene even more dramatically traumatizing when he informs the reader that “Two men had been watching him [the son], and jumped him…

Read More

The Most Important Events In Night By Elie Wiesel

613 Words | 3 Pages

Elie did not care if he was hungry, all he cared about was if his father was hungry, he cared for him much more than he cared for

Read More

Examples Of Choices In Night By Elie Wiesel

717 Words | 3 Pages

Choiceless Choices in Night Some decisions or choices may seem like there is no right answer like there is no winning in that situation. Choiceless choices are the name given to those unfortunate situations where there truly is no easy way out, only the lesser of two evils. In Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, Elie along with his father are faced with a multitude of choices, most of which can be classified as choiceless choices. However, many of those choices lead to Elie’s ultimate survival.

Read More

Examples Of Hope In Night By Elie Wiesel

155 Words | 1 Pages

Even in the face of his father's death, Elie remains determined to inspire and bring forth hope in his father, even if it requires him to make personal sacrifices. After the Nazi authorities forced Elie to leave the barracks whilst they are being cleaned, he returns to discover that the guards are withholding food from those who are deathly ill. Rather than leaving his father to die, Elie, now realizing that his father has little to no chance of survival, decides that all he can do is try to inspire hope in him. “I did all I could to give him hope.” (Wiesel 108)

Read More

How Does Elie Wiesel Change Throughout The Book Night

1044 Words | 5 Pages

It was only a fraction of a second, but it left me feeling guilty” (111). Elie starts to hope his father dies so he can focus on himself and not have to deal with the old man who was getting abused and was too weak to do

Read More

Bystander Effect In Night

774 Words | 4 Pages

I had watched and kept silent. Only yesterday, I would have dug my nails into this criminal’s flesh” (Wiesel 39). During the short duration of camp, Elie became a bystander and would not even stand up for his own father getting struck. However, when Elie and his father arrive in Birkenau,

Read More

Choices In Night By Elie Wiesel

561 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout the entirety of what we see in the novel Night we can observe the vastness of the struggle of life, death and decision. It is there in the camp that one decision, one action, one choice a person makes could dictate the outcome of their mortality for the future. How do you survive such a horrid period of agony? What choices can even you make to remain sane and alive? Eliezer, a young jewish boy, must make countless decisions in the course of his time at the concentration camp.

Read More

Inhumanity In Night By Elie Wiesel

606 Words | 3 Pages

As more people around him died, more lost faith, they starved, and succumbed. From time to time, Elie would think about leaving his father. When Elie’s father was first beaten with an iron bar, Elie wanted his father to stand up and fight for himself. Elie was mad at his father because he did not stand up for himself. The

Read More

George Orwell's Influence In Disguise

1190 Words | 5 Pages

For a moment Elie begins to understand the merit of this argument and when a guard advises him to keep his father’s rations for himself, he agrees thinking, “he was right. I though deep down, not daring to admit it to myself. Too late to save your old father…”(111). However, Elie’s true morals quickly resurface and he returns to his role of devoted son recanting, “it was only for a fraction of a second but it left me feeling guilty. I ran to get some soup and brought it to my father”(111).

Read More

More about Choiceless Choices In Night By Elie Wiesel

Open Document