Examples Of Hope In Night By Elie Wiesel

A man decided to take a leap to the other size of a broken bridge. He closes his eyes in fear; and in hope. The idea of hope has helped people survive for centuries, but has it ever hurt humanity? Without hope, cavemen surely wouldn’t have been able to survive their horrible conditions, but what if these cavemen had too much hope? Would they have hoped to survive a 100 foot fall, then imminently fallen to their death? Hope is an essential part to survival, but too much hope is also very dangerous. Throughout Night and They Called Us Enemy, the characters are hopeful for their futures, which is the main reason they were able to not only survive, but live to their fullest. Night by Elie Wiesel tells the true story of young Elie and his journey

There are many parts where being hopeful helped Elie survive and keep his father alive. In one event in particular, officers are throwing dead bodies off of a wagon to make more room. Elie’s father isn't moving and presumed to be dead. When one of the officers tries to take Elie’s father, Elie yells, “‘He’s not dead! Not yet!’” (Wiesel 99). After this, Elie tries his best to wake his father, and his father comes back to consciousness. Elie’s determination is the reason his father is alive. In this case, Elie’s hope is very essential as it is the only reason his father wasn’t thrown off with the other twenty corpses. His strong belief, shown by the exclamation marks, emphasizes his want and need for his father to live. But not only does having hope keep people alive, it lets them live the lives that they want. In They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, George’s father has hope that their old home in Los Angeles is still a good place to live, despite the extreme discrimination on the West Coast. Geogre’s mother wants to move somewhere that will be good for her kids to grow up, recommending Salt Lake City. His father makes a strong point saying “‘But Salt Lake City isn’t home. Los Angeles was our

In Man’s Search for Meaning, Victor E. Frankl, the author, experienced the events of the Holocaust camps first hand. He got to see how people survived, and how they didn’t. Frankl tells the tale of a man who believed that on March thirtieth, he would be saved. Frankl recalls that “When F---- told me about his dream, he was still full of hope and convinced” that it was true (Frankl 79) The man’s hope of this day kept him alive in a time when he might have given up. He longed for the day to come, only living to see it happen and be free. Up until March thirtieth, his hope was his rope to survival, and it worked effectively. Suddenly, the day came. Frankl writes “On March thirtieth, [...] he became delirious and lost consciousness. On March thirty-first, he was dead” (Frankl 79). The man died due to grief and not being able to bear the fact that he wouldn’t be saved. By putting so much faith onto one day, he risked his entire shot at survival. Too much hope, in this case, is what got him killed, although having a little less hope would have had a very different outcome; a more positive one. Although without hope the reason for survival becomes a question, relying too heavily on hope can also have a horrible