Survival And Self-Preservation In Night By Elie Wiesel

Everyone is born with an inherent instinct to survive. It is human essence to do whatever it takes to survive, even if it indicates taking a life. Although you may not consider murder, when confronted with tribes and tribulations, your morals are the last thing you'll be regarding. In the memoir Night, Elie Wiesel recalls his time in the holocaust, the mass genocide of Jews generated by the Nazi party during WWII. One of this novel's persisting themes is survival and self-preservation. When possible, people will nearly always place themselves before others. As seen in Night, a Jewish Council President was capable of helping hundreds of Jews survive with the information he held, but instead, he chose self-preservation by staying quiet. “He would not tell, or could not tell. The Gestapo had threatened to shoot him if he talked” (Wiesel 13). This scene demonstrates how rather than being righteous and briefing the community on what would happen to them, the Jewish Council President only desired survival, not the good of the people. As displayed above, Night demonstrates how people only care for their self-interests rather than those of others. They find their life to hold more value over others and will do

In Nazi concentration camps, there was a certain quota of prisoners murdered every week. So when Wiesel underwent selection, he deceivingly appeared to be healthier when he had only got his blood flowing. “But you must try to increase your chances. Before you go into the next room, try to move your limbs, give yourself some color” (Wiesel 71). To outlast the others, prisoners gave themselves an edge over the competition - an instance of self-preservation. In brief, getting ahead is one of the only ways to survive, as displayed in Night. Morals regardless: the prisoners chose self-preservation over all other