Research Paper On Night By Elie Wiesel

The War Over Bread
In Elie Wiesel’s Night, Eliezer's family and the other Jews in Sighet, Romania, are offered the opportunity to flee, but they do not take it. The whole Jewish population of Europe was then sent to concentration camps. Eliezer remains with his father in a camp known as Auschwitz, separated from his mother and sister. The family witnesses things nobody would believe at the camp if they told anyone outside of the camp. In order to survive, the prisoners would do anything. It was possible that murdered their own kind just for a tiny snack. Wiesel's story, Night had many prominent themes to show how the Jewish communities lives drastically changed. There were multiple instances where self-preservation was shown, it is a very prominent

The starving, tortured, malnourished Jews of the concentration camp would’ve done anything to get food. They wouldn’t think twice about staying loyal to their family. “Meir, my little Meir! Don’t you recognize me… You’re killing your father… I have bread…for you too…for you too…” (Wiesel 101). Preserving one’s self can be brutal and harsh, the man in the quote had a piece of bread, and a boy fought him over it even though that boy was his son. The father was murdered by his son over a piece of bread. For someone to ensure their self-preservation, they will kill and destroy other people to survive. Even though the times were harsh, there is proof that decent people still exist. Eliezer was minding his own business when he accidentally witnessed Idek with a French girl. Eliezer was then beaten up for it. The French girl showed sympathy to Eleizer after he suffered. Then she comforted Eleizer and showed him she cared about him. “She was smiling her mournful smile as she slipped me a crust of bread. She looked straight into my eyes. I knew she wanted to talk to me but she was paralyzed by fear” (Wiesel 53). There are people out there who want to preserve the lives of people and try to help

The Jews did not expect to normally live, peacefully, or live healthily. They forgot about who they were, and how they took care of themselves before. Their trauma affected their idea of self-preservation. A sense of normalcy did not exist for them anymore. “The instincts of self-preservation, of self-defense, of pride, had all deserted us. In one terrifying moment of lucidity, I thought of us as damned souls wandering through the void, souls condemned to wander through space until the end of time, seeking redemption, seeking oblivion, without any hope of finding either.” (Wiesel 36). Self-preservation is something that everyone needs to survive. Without it, the Jews lost their idea of hope and human instincts. They forgot who they were and what it took to get to where they were. They lost their hope in life and what it