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Role Of Human Nature In Night By Elie Wiesel

Decent Essays

“Night exposes much that is wrong with human nature and reveals little that is right.” Discuss. Night, written by Elie Wiesel, is a real life story of the hardships faced by a 15 year old Jew during World War 2. Elie Wiesel’s account of the genocide he faced embodies human natures at its weakest. Night illustrates the selfishness and indecencies that human beings are capable of when faced with the prospect of death. The Jews and prisoners were often self-centred, only able to think about themselves, and the Nazis also often degraded the people of the concentration camps. Places in which people feel the most vulnerable are also the places where the inner corruptness within someone can unravel. For Elie, the place where he was at his lowest and most vulnerable was Auschwitz and Buchenwald. As well as exposing how cruel the Nazis were, Night also depicts that the prisoners of …show more content…

Whether it was a mental thought or physical abuse, the prisoners treated each other like animals. They were cruel to each other when it came to instances where the idea of “it’s either them or me” was involved. A primary example of this is on pages 101 and 102. “The old man mumbled something, groaned, and died… His son searched him, took the crust of bread, and began to devour it.” After Germans throw bread onto the train which is taking Elie and the rest of the Jews to Buchenwald, a riot and fight for the bread breaks out. A child kills his own father for a small piece of bread and not long after, he is killed himself. This is just one of the many things wrong with human nature that Night exposes. The idea that someone would kill their own kin for a measly piece of bread that wouldn’t have been able to satisfy their hunger at all is selfish. Night reveals that the fact of the matter is, that people would much rather prefer to be the one who kills their loved one in order to save themselves instead of sacrificing something as small as bread

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