Survival In Night, And How It Impacts Different Characters Elie Wiesel’s Night is a true story, a memoir describing the experience of many Jewish people’s reality during the Holocaust. During this time, many people had to struggle with decisions to make, people to help, and understanding the harsh reality of what happened to them. In the end, everyone was simply doing what they needed to survive. The most impactful theme in Night is survival, demonstrated by the way certain people deal with surviving, physically, mentally, or emotionally. In Night, people are not given the chance to survive, some do things for others, while others self-preserve in order to survive. First, for some, survival was never an option. Upon entering the camp, Elie …show more content…
Wiesel gives many examples of people giving advice to others to stay alive. In the beginning, this shows the mindset of people feeling they could get through the horror of saving others along the way. To set the stage, Elie and his father have just been told to lie about their ages to avoid the furnaces, upon questioning Elie states “ ‘I’m eighteen’. My voice trembling” (Wiesel 33). Continuing with this, Elie, when asked by the SS. Men how old he is, he lies to ensure his survival. He and his father knew they had to lie to maintain their chance of survival. The man in the cattle car informed them to lie about their age, in doing this he allowed the survival rate to increase. We never hear what happens to the man after this encounter, however, he helped Elie and his father survive. Inferring from this we could also assume he informs others to lie, continuing to increase the survival rate. In addition, Elie was given the advice “Stop giving your ration of bread and soup to your old father. You cannot help him anymore. And you are hurting yourself. In fact, you should be getting his rations” (Wiesel 110-111). Like the circumstance above, Elie is given advice for his own survival. Elie has hope at this point that he can save his father's life through prayer, hope, and good omens. Elie does not take this advice out of hope for the survival of his father. Elie understands by giving his father his rations lowers his nutrition, but he would rather continue his fathers' survival. In doing so he saves his humanity and also the survival of his father's life as well. Wiesel is attempting to have people understand, helping others may lead to the survival of one’s humanity and greater survival numbers. Even though many people do good for another being, there was still plenty of betrayal, sacrifice, and selfishness involved with