Night Essay - Adversity

692 Words3 Pages
Topic: Adversity can bring out the very best of us, and the very worst as well. Adversity may both make and break a person, in this sombre and sorrowful story by Elie Wiesel the audience sees how people react to life threatening situations, whether they cave under the pressure, or come out stronger than ever. Night is the heart wrenching story of a young boy named Elie and his father, and their ultimate goal for survival whilst prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp during the Second World War. The story shows us how dehumanization can lead to death, how kindness during times of imminent death is possible, and how self-preservation can bring death to those we love. During Night, dehumanization is one of the largest factor’s to the everyday lives of the Nazi’s prisoners. When a prisoner dies for one more bite of soup, it’s shows us that dehumanization make’s people act in a way they wouldn’t have prior to being dehumanization. Upon arriving at the concentration camp all prisoners are quickly stripped of everything that makes them human, their name, their possessions, their companionship and their identity. ‘The beloved objects that we had carried with us from place to place were now left behind’ (pg29) and when they are told to ‘Strip’ (pg35), shows how their possession’s where taken from them, this is the beginning of their dehumanization. The reader sees how they are robbed of companionship when Eli writes ‘We were alone’, and how they are further stripped of their humanity when they are forced to have their hair cut, the final thing that strips them of their humanity is when their names are taken away and they are given tattoo’s to be identified by, ‘A-7713’ (pg42), from then on they had ‘no other name’ (pg42). Dehumanization brings out the very worst in people, an example of this is when the people on the train act in a way they normally wouldn’t, and how
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