Elie Wiesel’s Night

Alysia Lee

12/6/17

English 10

Hershberger                                                   Night

            Elie Wiesel’s Night shows that the survival instincts of an individual living in horrific conditions can overpower even the strongest human loyalties. In the book Night Elie Wiesel struggled with wanting to keep relationships and wanting to survive. “I soon forgot him. I began to think of myself again.”(Weisel 86) At this point in the story, everyone is running to get to the next destination and Elie sees Zalman struggling to go on and tries to motivate him. But once Zalman falls down Elie almost immediately forgets about him and focuses on himself so the same doesn’t happen to him. Elie staying in his bed, not wanting to get hurt, does nothing as he listens to his father cry out for him on his death bed. “The officer came closer and shouted to him to be silent. But my father did not hear. He continued to call me. The officer wielded his club and dealt with him a violent blow to the head. I didn’t move. I was afraid, my body was afraid of another blow, this time to my head”(Weisel 111) This quote shows that even with his father on his death bed, with his last dying wish for his son to be by his side, Elie was not willing to give up his own survival, even for his own father. Elie has forgotten all about his family and now only focuses on one thing. “I spent my days in total idleness. With only one desire: to eat. I no longer thought of my father or my mother. From time to time, I would dream. But only about soup, an extra ration of soup.”(Weisel 113). At first all Elie thought about was his mom and sister, and all he cared about was not losing his father. Now with all of them gone, he didn’t even think about them. He only thought of eating and making it to the next day. Elie Wiesel’s Night shows that the survival instincts of an individual living in horrific conditions can overpower even the strongest human loyalties. This was shown in the book when Elie quickly forgot about Zalman, when he didn’t do anything while his father cried out to him on his death bed, and when he removed his family from his mind because his only thoughts were about eating and making it to the next day.