The Significance of Loved Ones “‘The only thing that keeps me alive,” he kept saying, “is to know that Reizel and the little ones are still alive. Were it not for them, I would give up’” (Wiesel, 45). This is said by a Jewish man attempting to fight an onerous and exhausting fight against death. His family was his will to live. In the graphic novel Maus II, Art Spiegelman reveals what hardships his father had to go through to survive his time during the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel depicted what him and his father went through to withstand the suffering in the concentration camps during the holocaust in his autobiography, Night. The connection between these two works from contrasting genres is the relationships and loyalty to family and friendships shown throughout these accounts. When facing critical situations, remaining loyal to your family and friends is more essential to survival than self-preservation and resourcefulness. Having close relationships with friends and family could benefit you by granting you opportunities to receive support, resources and other components to survival. Family and friends can also serve as your motivation to persevere through difficult times. If in the end you do survive alone, who left would there be to share your victory with? If you left your friends and family to suffer alone and focused on self-perseverance, all that you went through to survive would be inconsequential. It is beneficial to have relationships with family and friends when