In the memoir, Night, written by Elie Wiesel, the author discusses the struggle to survive during the Holocaust. A major theme illustrated throughout the memoir is survival. The two types of survival that are predominate are survival of the fittest and family commitment. The theme of survival through self-preservation is seen in the memoir Night the situations of Madame Schachter being beaten in the cattle car on the way to Auschwitz, the Rabbi’s son leaving him behind on the death march, and the son killing his father over a crust of bread.
In Night, Elie witnessed people beating another person because they wanted to survive. While Elie and the other people of Seight were in a cattle car on the way to Auschwitz, Elie saw some of the people
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Elie saw that after time family members can become a burden that you have to get rid of in order to survive. “But then I remembered something else, his son had seen him losing ground, sliding back to the rear of the column. He had seen him. And he had continued to run in front, letting the distance become greater” (Wiesel 91). When Elie realized this, he realized that people will leave behind their family members just to survive until the next day. When family members turn on each other they no longer care about others, only themselves.
By age sixteen, Elie Wiesel has witnessed the extent some prisoners will go to just to survive the conditions of the Holocaust. “The father said, ‘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). When this happened Elie saw a boy, kill his own father for a small slice of bread, sadly a few moments later the boy was also killed by a few other prisoners who had seen what he did to his father. Because of this Elie truly saw what people would do just to survive for another day.
Throughout the memoir Night, Elie Wiesel illustrated the lengths that people will go to just to survive. Some of those ways to survive were by sticking with your family and fighting for your own