Examples Of Survival In Night By Elie Wiesel

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Fight For Survival

There have been many defining moments in history that highlight the brutality that people inflict on one another. One of these moments was the Holocaust. The Holocaust was a horrific event that affected many Jewish families in the 1930s and 1940s. This event is still talked about to this day and continues to be shocking to many people because of the level of cruelty people endured throughout it. In his autobiography, Eliezer, a young Jewish boy who was a victim of the Holocaust, illustrates his personal experience in concentration camps. From the beginning to the end of his book, Eliezer recalls his involvement in witnessing and partaking in selfish survival. In Night by Elie Wiesel, selfish survival is developed through first-person narration to establish that trauma and tragedy influence an individual's identity and choices.

When Eliezer and his father arrive at …show more content…

These decisions are initiated because of Eliezer's evolving identity that favors himself over others. Upon the arrival at the final camp, Eliezer is unable to find his father among the other people and begins to think “If only I didn't find him! If only I were relieved of this responsibility, I could use all my strength to fight for my own survival, to take care only of myself” (Wiesel, 106). Eliezer imagined the possibility of not having to take care of his father even though he had stood by his father since the beginning of this tragic event. Eliezer’s thoughts evolved over the course of the book to become heavily influenced on his own survival and this caused his choices to become