The best way to summarize the novel Night, by Elie Wiesel, is to use the word “humanity” because of the way that Ellie struggles to preserve his own humanity as he experiences death camp, Auschwitz. Humanity is best defined as “the quality of being humane; kindness; benevolence.” Throughout Night, Elie display’s and contrasts how humanity and inhumanity are both key elements at the camp. This is the most effective way to summarize Night, for a multitude of reasons. Elie’s choices to include stories about the young boy’s hanging, his own father’s death, and the young boy who runs away from his father, are great examples of why humanity is one of the key principles in the book. As Elie writes about his brutal experiences in Auschwitz, he recalls stories that demonstrate how sometimes the most difficult struggle that he had, was the preservation of his own humanity, while the world around him was in complete chaos and disorder. Humanity is the most appropriate word to describe Night, because of Elie’s experiences of both humanity and inhumanity as he writes about his experience in Auschwitz. One of these experiences he recalls is …show more content…
When Ellie first finds out that his father has died and was taken away, he says “No prayers were said over his tomb. No candle lit in his memory. His last word had been my name. He had called out to me and I had not answered.I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. But I was out of tears. And deep inside me, if I could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience, I might have found something like: Free at last!” This story told by Elie demonstrates how though Elie was somewhat upset, the first thought that occupied his mind was that there would be one less hungry stomach, and one less mouth to feed. This greatly shows that although Elie wanted to mourn over his father, his current mindset of self preservation and instinct would not allow