Fear Of Death In Night By Elie Wiesel

When death runs rampant, fear ultimately takes over. In the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, he recounts the daunting experiences with his father as prisoners in the Nazi concentration camps. Given the extensively harsh conditions that define the nature of the camps, the means of surviving prove to be exceedingly difficult. For instance, miniscule rations of food and strenuous forced labor lead to an immense prospect of death. As prisoners deemed unfit to work are relegated to the crematoria, the ability to persevere is crucial. The fear of death eventuates in an emergence of a significant matter due to the fact that it serves as a means of exacerbating competition in addition to eliciting desperate measures in an aspiration to attain self-preservation.

Due to the exhaustive labor tormenting the prisoners, a selection process is utilized in order to eliminate individuals considered to be inadequate for labor. Provided that passing the examination evades them from being sent to the crematoria, “it no longer mattered that the work was hard,” as “all that mattered was to be far from the block, far from the crucible of death” (Wiesel 74). Despite the grueling work tormenting the prisoners, it is considered to be substantially superior compared to being exterminated in the crematoria. In addition to the grueling selection process, severe competition ensues as “men were hurling themselves against each other, trampling, tearing at and mauling each other” due to the fact that “a worker took a piece of bread out of his bag and threw it into a wagon” (Wiesel 100-101). As the pieces of bread are considered to be an exceptionally valuable asset owing to the severe hunger afflicting the prisoners, the quest for survival is paramount. Given that death induces substantial fear into the prisoners, competing in order to survive proves to be a preeminent