After reading Night and watching Hotel Rwanda, we are able to find many comparisons along with differences between the main characters Paul Rusesabagina in Hotel Rwanda and Elie in the book Night which reveals that no matter a person’s position in society, events such as mass genocide cause great affect on people, but based on their position or class in the environment their ability to show gratitude to others is deeply impacted. Both Paul and Elie fought through horrific and terrifying mass genocides in their home countries. In Hotel Rwanda, Paul is not being directly oppressed as he is Hutu and the genocide was attacking the entire Tutsi population, while the Holocaust directly targeted Jews they yelled at Elie, ‘‘Lie down on it! On your …show more content…
It had to be the Kapo. I began to distinguish what he was shouting:‘Stand up!’[…]‘You shall receive five times more if you dare tell anyone what you saw! Understood?”(Wiesel 57) Because of the Germans and the SS, Jews watched their rights get taken away from them ultimately because of hatred towards their religion, but Paul is only at risk because he is staying alongside his targeted Tutsi family. The unjust torture that Elie experienced caused him to be afraid to stand up for himself and others in fear of worse consequences, but Paul was able to stand up for the people and test the limits as he was not as directly in danger. Even though both characters lived to see awful nauseating events take place, they have varied experiences, and reactions, caused by their different positions in the society. Another comparison seen is both main characters, as protagonists, are giving up their personal property and supplies, along with putting their own lives at risk in order to help others. In Night, Elie is constantly concerned about his father’s safety, even when he could be making sure he survives himself instead, as he explained after talking to the Blockalteste, “He was right.