Fear of death changes how individuals think and makes people perform actions they would not normally do. They do not consider how these uncommon actions will affect themselves and others. Elie Wiesel, in the book Night, experiences this firsthand. After witnessing multiple people killed during the Holocaust, Elie’s primary goal is to keep himself and his father alive, no matter the cost. Just as death impacted Elie, it also impacted Mitch Albom in his book Tuesdays with Morrie. Both Tuesdays with Morrie and Night portray death as something to be feared, yet it changes the characters' lives. In the books Night and Tuesdays with Morrie, fear of death makes the characters act and think a certain way revealing that death changes how they perceive …show more content…
While Elie and his father are on their way to Berknal, Elie overhears the Hungarian lieutenant declaring “There are eighty of you in this wagon, if anyone is missing you’ll all be shot like dogs” (Wiesel 22). Elie and the other Jewish people are so afraid of being shot that they do not even think about escaping the wagon. Their fear of death holds the Jewish people and their lives captive, forcing them to do what they are told no matter the moral consequences, almost like being in a constant delusion. Another example of the Jewish people being controlled by their fear of death is when Elie watched a ma being hung for carrying weapons. While watching this man being hung, Elie remembers this boy that was hung not too long ago, Elie hears a man behind him ask “Where is God now…Here He is-He is hanging here on this gallows”(Wiesel 62). Elie also says “That night, the soup tasted of corpses”(Wiesel 62). Elie says the soup tasted like corpses because he knows that if he does anything wrong or something that the guards disapprove of, it could be him being hung while the whole camp watches. All of the people in the concentration camps- Jewish or not- are being forced to do work that they would never do or are forced to see death all because they do not want to …show more content…
In Tuesdays with Morrie, death is talked about as an additional part of life. Even only a few chapters into the book, Mitch seems somewhat afraid of Morrie dying, so he starts to record their talks so he can go back and pick up on things that he didn't notice the first time. Mitch realizes the truth- that Morrie was dying, and while realizing this he says “I was losing Morrie…And I suppose tapes, like photographs and videos, are a desperate attempt to steal something from death’s suitcase”, (Albom 63). Mitch knows that he is scared of death taking Morrie, so scared that he dies almost anything to remember him. He knows that he is not ready to say goodbye. He knows that he is in a queue of people that Morrie has changed but it feels like his death is impacting him the most. If Morrie was not dying, Mitch would have never come to visit him, let alone record their talks. One more way that Morrie's death affected Mitch is when he dies. After Morrie's funeral, Mitch called his brother and said “You’re my only brother. I don’t want to lose you. I love you.” (Albom 191). All fourteen Tuesdays with Morrie made Mitch understand the importance of the loved ones in his life. Mitches fear of death in his family has led him to become a more loving person, in fear of losing what he
All of that was about to change. Elie gets sent to the German concentration camp Auschwitz following the timeline of World War II. He would not be freed from these camps for another 11 months. During this time Elie would bare witness to some of the most gruesome and grotesque things to ever occur on earth. “Babies.
Elie’s experiences within Auschwitz turned him into his own fear. Elie feared many different parts of his experiences at the concentration camp, but the fear of mistreating the only thing he had left in life, his father, was something that left Elie truly broken. The examples used previously demonstrate that Auschwitz did more than just make Elie see a son kill his own father for bread, it did more than just make Elie see people abandon each other (e.g. when Meir abandoned his father), it did more than just make Elie want to never find his father again, it did more than just make Elie see his own father die, and it did more than just make Elie selfish and cruel (e.i. when Elie grudgingly shared his meal with his dying father); his experiences
The Life of a Jews Have you ever been in a tough situation where you were risking your own life for another? In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, he talks about how he was taken by the Nazis and his experience throughout the Holocaust. Elie was a young man at the time and barely made it out alive while others weren’t so fortunate as him. If you had experienced the Holocaust yourself, you probably would have experienced things such as fear, camaraderie, and complacence. Fear is the unpleasant emotion of believing that someone or something is dangerous.
Elie, and the other Jewish prisoners, feel especially anbandoned by God, while the food they are receiving is not from God, but the Germans. After the raid, the young pipel and two other prisoners are hanged. Elie says, “The two men were no longer alive. Their tongues were hanging out, swollen and bluish. But the third rope was still moving: the child, too light, was still breathing…
Death is scary to people, have you ever been fearful when a family member has died? In the novel, “Night” by Elie Wiesel shows fear and how characters go through things. The town Sghet in Transylvania to the
Elie once said, “We were not afraid. And yet, if a bomb had fallen on the blocks, it would have claimed hundreds of inmates lives’. But we no longer feared death, in any event not particular death. Every bomb that hit filled us with joy, gave us renewed confidence” (Wiesel 149-152). Both of these men faced death, but learn to not fear it.
Fear serves as an illustration of how humanity and hope were lost in the death camps. This is due to the fact that captives were made to see the burning of their fellow inmates and the deterioration of their own bodies and spirits via hard labor and starvation, which resulted in a severe sense of terror and despair. “How was it possible that men, women, and children were being burned and that the world kept quiet” (Wiesel 32). This quotation explains the immense trauma Elie went through. Then Elie utters, “All this could not be real” (Wiesel 32).
Elie had a first hand experience of seeing this happen in the work camp Buna. One day the gallows had been set up in the middle of the camp,and all the prisoners were called there. There were many hangings, but Elie described the worst as the hanging of a young boy who is involved in resistance activities. Because he is very light, the hanging doesn’t result in instant death, the prisoners watch the boy as he struggles for some time before he
After he was finally hanged, Elie and the other prisoners were certainly aware that justice in Auschwitz did not exist. Not long after, Elie started to question his faith and his identity. He wondered why God would let such unjust and cruel things happen to his followers. These murders were so dehumanizing that Elie started to question everything he believed. Surviving was the one and only goal that he could hope to achieve.
The book Night is mostly about Eliezer, a young Orthodox Jewish teenager sent to Auschwitz concentration camp where he struggles to maintain faith and the inhumane treatment experienced by him and other prisoners. Eliezer’s father dies, but Eliezer survives and is left traumatized. In this essay, I will explain what fear is, how it's demonstrated in the book Night, and why fear is more powerful than hope. First of all, the book demonstrates what fear looks like. Fear can be powerful, as shown on page 111 of Night, “I didn’t move.
and Elie hears a voice in his state “Where is He? Here He is-He is hanging here on this gallows....”. This event had a deep impact on Elie himself, as it was an event that caused him to start to doubt and lose his faith, through his time in these camps he was praying and had hope in his god, the god that was always there for him. But as time went on and Elie watched people die around him, innocent people he lost his faith. How could the god he believed so strongly abandon his people like this and leave them to
When Elie first started his Journey to the concentration camp, hundreds were crammed into tiny cattle cars with little room and almost no necessary products for life. Elie’s account states, “Crammed into cattle cars by the Hungarian police, they cried silently. The train disappeared over the horizon; all that was left was thick, dirty smoke” (Weisel, Night 6). This memory Elie shared with his audience shows how vulnerable Jews are at this time. The Germans didn’t care about the conditions and the heartache the Jews endured.
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?
Mitch makes a list of topics he wants to discuss. These topics include death, fear, aging, greed, marriage, family, society, forgiveness, and a meaningful life. Also, in the book and movie, there is a living funeral for Morrie. Morrie’s and Mitch’s nicknames of “Coach” and “Foodman” are the same in the book and movie. Another similarity is Mitch’s and Janine’s jobs.
Elie Wiesel’s Experiences In the book Night, Elie Wiesel recounts his experiences of the Holocaust. Throughout this experience, Elie Wiesel is exposed to life he previously thought unimaginable and they consequently change his life. He becomes To begin with, Elie Wiesel learns that beings aware and mindful are more than just important. On many occasions, he receives warnings and hints toward the impending tragedy.