Night: Man’s Strength All throughout Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, he speaks of the wretched horrors of his experience in the shoes of a Jewish prisoner during the Nazi occupation in World War II. For every horror he speaks of, he depicts the madness, savagery, and depression of the atrocities he had been exposed to. These very depictions are the foundation of the idea that man’s strongest instinct is not the need to help, to raise a family, to fight, but to sacrifice morality for the right to survive. To begin to examine this factor of behavior, we must begin with the initial crimes committed when he arrived at the camp. “I was leaving my mother and Tzipora forever (pg 29)… ‘you will be burned (pg 30)’… ‘you should have hanged yourselves …show more content…
As cruel as this horrid heinous act may be, the true crime against humanity can be viewed with a little examination. Under the surface was Elie’s mention to the fact he was changed. Shockingly, he displayed his surprise to the fact, and how he was different. This was his way to strengthen the fact that he was being changed by this place. Of course, the change was towards his priorities, that being survival. Instead of helping his father as he would have, he was more inclined to stand by and watch, proof that in a place of horror, a human would be more likely to choose the beauty of survival over …show more content…
Elie had just found out his father was alive. He obviously would have been somewhat happy, realizing that his father, the figure in his life to help him through this hell and stay with him, was still in his life. But yet, the facts prove just the opposite. Elie simply asked a question, “So? Did you pass (pg 73)?”, and continued on with his day. Without showing a shred of emotion, he simply asked if his own father survived. He did not embrace him, he did not show happiness that he was still living. He has now thoroughly expressed just what these camps can do to a human