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Significance Of Light In A Long Way Gone By Elie Wiesel

666 Words3 Pages

When humans are surrounded in an endless chasm of darkness, they find it necessary to grasp onto whatever dim hope may be near them. They find it necessary to set their minds onto a mission or action, however feasible or relevant, and turn all thoughts away from death or despair. Light and dark are words commonly thrown about, usually to describe gradients of color. But humans need light in the sense of comfort, a way out, or the promise of salvation. They have to find this light in life, to turn away from the darkness. Whether the light they grasp be a bond with certain people or objects, as in A Long Way Gone and Eliezer Wiesel's life, or even the most improbable ideas of salvation as in The Worlds We Make, humans will keep focused on that light, which keeps minds away from the darkness that could consume them.
During his time in Auschwitz and Buchenwald, Eliezer Wiesel was plunged into the sadness and constant death that was common in concentration camps. Eliezer found solace in living for his father, . Nothing mattered, except for the fact that his father was alive and still with him. After his father died, Eliezer had lost the hope that he focused so desperately on. “I remained in Buchenwald until April 11. I shall not describe my life during that period. It no longer mattered. …show more content…

His lieutenant acclimated him and his fellow underage soldiers to death and destruction, convincing them to do exactly what the people they were fighting against were doing; ransacking villages, killing and stealing. “My squad is my family, my gun is my provider, and protector, and my rule is to kill or be killed”(Beah, 116). Ishmael’s mind was focused on doing whatever his lieutenant asked of him, no matter what the costs because he didn’t want to give up. He couldn’t stop, because if he did, and if he let go, there would be only one thing left for him. Death. His squad and his gun had become his light; his

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