In Night by Elie Wiesel, the memoir ends abruptly with a description of Elie’s reflection. Elie had not seen his reflection since he was in the ghettos, so when he finally looks at himself in the mirror he views himself as a corpse. He uses the description of his appearance to show how he survived through the holocaust but he did not live through it.

Living and surviving are very different ways of life. We see these changes through the action of crying. In the beginning of the memoir, Elie states “I cried because something inside me felt the need to cry. That was all I knew.” (Wiesel 4). Elie didn’t know why he was crying while he prayed, but he still allowed himself to cry. He wasn’t drained, he was aware of himself and his emotions, even