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Fear And Indecision In Elie Wiesel's 'Night'

1765 Words8 Pages

Abina Ananthakumar

ENG 2D1

Mrs. Coutu

June 21, 2023

Fear and Indecision can Undermine One’s Courage

Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, and Hernando Tellez’s short story, Lather and Nothing Else, respectively follow the influential lives of Elie Wiesel and a Barber. Nonetheless, Elie from the memoir Night, is a young Jewish teenager who must navigate his way through the ghastly atrocities of the Nazi regime amidst the infamous Holocaust. Whereas the barber portrayed in Lather and Nothing Else possesses the title of a “revolutionary” during a horrific civil war. Analogous to Elie, the barber faces many challenges when the revolutionaries’ greatest enemy, Captain Torres, enters his shop. Thus, one of the most crucial challenges facing Elie, …show more content…

For instance, near the end of the memoir, Elie’s father tends to get brutally beaten by SS officers for constantly asking for water. Elie who witnesses the situation firsthand wishes to fight against the unjust the SS officers display. Nonetheless, he is unable to speak up for his father because the SS officers have greater legal and social power than his father and himself. He fears the oppositions’ significant power amongst the concentration camp and so decides to remain hidden and quiet while they cold-heartedly beat up his father. Elie’s fear of these opposing powers results in his inability to defend his father verbally. As a result, he loses courage and self-confidence because he does not possess the power to fight against the SS officers’ wrongdoing and save his ill father from such horrifying acts. Further, the barber himself experiences a similar feeling of fear as well. For example, the barber and Captain Torres engage in a small conversation. In which Captain Torres talks about capturing and persecuting rebels. The captain’s words make the barber’s blood boil as he himself is a rebel. He wishes to speak up against the captain’s sinful action but is unable to do so due to the powerful influence Captain Torres has over the legal and social system of their country. The barber who possesses extremely low status in the area based on his profession, fears the higher status of the captain and the overthrowing power he has. As a result, the barber is not able to disagree with any of the captain’s claims and instead continues along with the conversation as if he agrees with Captain Torres. As a result, the barber loses a significant amount of courage within himself as he wishes to speak up for what is right but is unable to do so because his fear of the captain’s power dominates the bravery he initially has. Additionally, both Elie

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