Humanity is the sole quality that gives people individuality and morals and without it, there would be no hope for the human race because we would take what we want and not care about who gets hurt in the process. In the novel, Night, Elie Wiesel and his family are taken captive by SS officers and are then placed in concentration camps where they have to survive the unforgiving torment from the Nazis. Elie and his father become separated from Elie’s mother and sisters when they first arrive at Auschwitz and fight through bitter winter nights with little to no warmth, food, or water. Living in these conditions will undoubtedly change a person, and these experiences will not change them for the better. When placed in that position, people will …show more content…
If a group of people are stranded on an island for years, the group will start to turn on each other and will use each other to save themselves, no matter the cost. Desperation is the biggest reason for people committing inhumane acts because people will do anything when they are in a desperate situation. When staring into the soulless eyes of Death, most anyone will do whatever it takes to tear away from his gaze. People who have caught a glimpse of Death wish to never see his face again, for the sight is too terrifying to witness. These inhumane acts are inevitable in the death camps, it is even expected. When the prisoners in the death camps experience vile acts every day, they are bound to commit them as well, to ensure their survival. This is most expressed in chapter seven, where the son killed his father for a measly piece of bread, only to be killed by other prisoners who were just as starved. The prisoners needed to eat survive and the only way to eat at this time was to kill others to steal their food. This is not ethical or right, but it was the only thing that the prisoners could do to survive. It is surprising that Elie and his father did not succumb to these malicious acts because they also experienced terrible trauma. I believe that Elie and his father chose to not act in such cruel ways because they still had pieces of their humanity within their souls. Most of the prisoners were too far gone, but Elie and his father held on dear to their humanity because they would rather die as a human, than live as an animal. It is difficult to decide when it is acceptable to act in an inhumane way, but for the person in the situation, they only care about survival. Night, by Elie Wiesel has changed my way of thinking about humanity and how it is difficult to make the right decision while in a desperate situation. Elie and his father were able to hang on to their humanity because they
For most people, you have a feeling or need to help others. When someone is bleeding or hurt you wouldn’t just leave them. Caring for others and being compassionate comes naturally to most. Despite how most people would react it’s not what Elie had witnessed. Forced out of the Ghettos, thrown into a train full of people where you couldn’t move or sit.
When they first arrived at Auschwitz Elie and his father looked to each other for support and survival, Sometimes Elie’s father being the only thing keeping him alive. In their old community Elie’s father was a strong-willed and respected community leader, as the book went on you could see how the roles were becoming reversed he was becoming weaker and more reliant on Elie to take care of him. Their father son bond had always been strong and only grew stronger with the things they had to endure. “My God, Lord of the Universe, give me strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahou’s son has done” Elie was disgusted when he saw Rabbi Eliahou’s son abandon his father to help improve his chances of his survival he prayed he’d never do such a thing, but as his father becoming progressively more reliant on Elie he started to see his father as more of a burden than anything else.
In Night. People in concentration camps tried to protect each other but struggled very hard to do so. Sometimes, they barely had a chance to begin with. For example, Elie witnessed someone kill himself because they already committed all he had left to taking care of a family member and was stuck. “A terrible thought crossed my mind: What if he had wanted to be rid of his father?
The severely cruel conditions of concentration camps had a profound impact on everyone who had the misfortune of experiencing them. For Elie Wiesel, the author of Night and a survivor of Auschwitz, one aspect of himself that was greatly impacted was his view of humanity. During his time before, during, and after the holocaust, Elie changed from being a boy with a relatively average outlook on mankind, to a shadow of a man with no faith in the goodness of society, before regaining confidence in humanity once again later in his life. For the first 13 years of his life, Elie seemed to have a normal outlook on humanity.
World War II had been raging for two years and was bout to enter Sighet. The Germans attempted to commit genocide on the 'lesser ' races, particularly Jews. Through the brutality witnessed, acts of selfishness, the death of his father, and the loss of his faith, Elie changed. Elie became a young man with a strong sense of mortality through it all. By the end of the war, Elie claimed to see himself as "A corpse contemplating me."
Humanity is capable of doing many things, both good and bad. Humans are selfish, we prioritize what is important to us and what is not. Brutal situations such as the Holocaust show the extent that a human being will go to survive. Elie and his fellow prisoners go through many hardships, such as starving and leaving loved ones to die. Each day for them, is a blessing because they do not know when they are going to die, it could be the next day or even the next hour.
In the beginning, Elie and his father serve as a source of support and empathy for each other. At this point they don’t yet know the full devastation of what’s going on, and possess a sense of hope. They spend a lot of this portion confused, and only progressively become more fearful. After arriving at the camp, however, the real fear sets in.
Imagine being a young 15 year old boy barely fed, dehydrated and at a camp that was created for the purpose of killing thousands of people and immediately once you arrive losing your mother and sister. Elie shows extreme mental strength during this event, rather than trying to stop it from happening
The best way to summarize the novel Night, by Elie Wiesel, is to use the word “humanity” because of the way that Ellie struggles to preserve his own humanity as he experiences death camp, Auschwitz. Humanity is best defined as “the quality of being humane; kindness; benevolence.” Throughout Night, Elie display’s and contrasts how humanity and inhumanity are both key elements at the camp. This is the most effective way to summarize Night, for a multitude of reasons. Elie’s choices to include stories about the young boy’s hanging, his own father’s death, and the young boy who runs away from his father, are great examples of why humanity is one of the key principles in the book.
Humanity takes form in many different ways throughout o society. Many argues that society does not have any humanity, but they are very mistaken. Humanity is very common in society people just show it in different ways this can go from helping someone to just being there for one another. Humanity can be shown through safety,hope, and reuniting people.
The human condition is a very malleable idea that is constantly changing due to the current state of mankind. In the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, the concept of the human condition is displayed in the worst sense of the concept, during the Holocaust of WWII. During this time, multiple groups of people, most notably European Jews, were persecuted against and sent to horrible hard labor and killing centers such as Auschwitz. In this memoir, Wiesel uses complex figurative language such as similes and metaphors to display the theme that a person’s state as a human, both at a physical and emotional level, can be altered to extreme lengths, and even taken away from them, under the most extreme conditions.
Eli Wiesel, the author of Night, demonstrates dehumanization by illustrating how the Nazis tortured the Jews. The foreign Jews of Sighet were being deported out of their homes. Moshe the Beatle tells Elie of his time in Galicia with great emotion. Elie shares what the Nazis did to the Jews, “Without passion or haste, they shot their prisoners, who were forced to approach the trench one by one and offer their necks. Infants were tossed into the air and used as targets for machine guns” (Wiesel 6).
Elie Wiesel, the author of Night, describes the horrors of focusing on your own survival. Certain acts provoke inhumane acts throughout the ordeal. A central theme in Night is, even though it’s difficult, people should value compassion over their own survival. For instance, the evil of a lack of compassion affects thousands of prisoner lives.
Chapter One Summary: In chapter one of Night by Elie Wiesel, the some of the characters of the story are introduced and the conflict begins. The main character is the author because this is an autobiographical novel. Eliezer was a Jew during Hitler’s reign in which Jews were persecuted. The book starts out with the author describing his faith.
Lack of Humanity, Loss of Identity In Elie Wiesel’s “Night”, Elie begins the novel living a normal life in the small town of Sighet in Transylvania. He lives with a family of six, with his mother, father, and three sisters. The story picks up quickly after the Nazis move in, first taking away the town’s rights to own any gold, jewelry, or any valuables, then no longer have the right to restaurants, cafes, synagogues, or to even travel by rail. Soon the town of Sighet then came the ghettos. It was prohibited from leaving their homes after six o 'clock in the evening.