Adaption Means Survival in Elie Wiesel's "Night" and William Golding's "Lord of the Flies"

After 3 weeks at Auschwitz, they get deported to Buna, which is a turning point for the relationship between Elie and Chlomo. The camps influence Elie and give him a crooked mind focused on staying alive and nothing else. This leads to him disregarding his father. This twisted way of thinking, due to the camps, is making Elie cheer during bomb raids at Buna. He states his thoughts “But we were no longer afraid of death, at any rate, not of that death” (57). This shows that he is willing to die to see the camps destroyed. The most horrifying event that demonstrates his twisted mind is when Eliezer pays no heed to his father while he was being repeatedly beat with an iron bar. Eliezer, rather than acting indifferent and showing nothing, actually feels angry with his father. “I was angry at him for not knowing how to avoid Idek’s outbreak” (52). The new lifestyle of the camps affected Elie and his relationship with his father for the worse.

Wiesel also uses imagery, of Eliezer loosing the ability to express emotion, to show the dehumanization of Eliezer and the other Jews who are led to undergo drastic emotional changes. Unfortunately, the Jews suffer tremendous difficulties in the concentration camps. The torture that the enslaved Jews experience has obvious physical effects, but it also has mental changes on them. The events that have taken place at the concentration camps has shaken Eliezer so much, that at the sight of his stricken father, he replies, “My father had just been struck, before my eyes, and I had not flickered an eyelid. I had looked on and said nothing.” (Pg. 37 old book) After the Kapo beats his father to the ground for asking permission to use the bathroom, Elieizer is surprised at himself because he is incapable of doing so much as lifting a finger or saying anything in his father's defense. Like the other Jews, he is dehumanized with his main concern becoming self-preservation. Thus, Eliezer looses his compassion for others, including his father. When his father dies due to dysentery, Eliezer states, “I did not weep and it pained me that I could not weep.

At this point I was convince Eliezer wasn’t Elie anymore. That his nickname ringed in his ears with emptiness and not a trace of sweet or aching reminiscing. He already lost his foundation at first - everything he grew up to know and everyone he grew to love. If that wasn’t enough his faith in God was stomped on and all of of his passion and love, along with nearly every other emotion, was forgotten and he could no longer remember all of the happiness he felt before. His heart was hollow. All he was now was a soulless boy who was forced to be a man too

It may have taken millions of years for humans to evolve enough to create the sprawling civilizations known today, but it only takes a few months for a group of civil, educated boys to regress back into savagery. In his novel Lord of the Flies, author William Golding depicts a group of young British boys getting stranded on a deserted island sans adults. The boys must look out for themselves, forming a basic governing system and trying to survive. But the challenge soon proves too much to handle, and order deteriorates. William Golding conveys the universal theme of civilization vs. savagery in his novel Lord of the Flies using the literary elements of plot, setting, and characterization.

Night by Elie Wiesel is a short book about Wiesel's experiences in the Auschwitz sub-camps. The theme developed by Wiesel throughout the text is the idea of loss and dehumanization, which are prevalent during the entire book. Wiesel writes this book from his own perspective, but he alters the character slightly to distance himself from the horrible events that occurred. The book is organized into parts, each with differing times which in turn cover the five years of his experiences. This essay will describe the relationship between Eliezer and his father, Schlomo. The relationship development aspects I will discuss occurred at the fire pits of Birkenau, the constant beating of Schlomo at Buna, and finally, Schlomo's death in Buchenwald.

Night, by Elie Wiesel, showed the devastation of Eliezer’s childhood and illustrated the loss of innocence through the evil of others. Elie Wiesel expressed to us that one’s own faith and beliefs can be challenged through torture and ongoing suffering. The novel, Night, allowed the reader to witness the change in Eliezer from one of an innocent child who strongly adhered to his faith in God into a person who questioned not only his faith and God but of himself as well. The cruelty is shown to him while in the concentration camp forced him to wonder if there was a God and if so why would he put him and the others through such torture. Through his suffering, Eliezer’s beliefs dramatically and negatively changed his faith in God and compelled him to experience a transformative relationship with his father.

“Eliezer experiments with the possibility of becoming an adult while his father gradually slips away, all the while giving his son what space he can to let him try out a new role” (Sanderson). “Eliezer's march toward a pseudo-adulthood continues, while his father seems to be regressing. (Sanderson). Elie’s father starts to get sick and is becoming an annoyance for Elie. When Chlomo sinks into a snow bank during a forced march to the next death camp, too sick to move, Eliezer begs his father to stand up and continue moving” (Sanderson). Elie also felt no remorse for his father as he was being beaten by a S.S guard. “At first my father simply doubled the blows…I felt angry at that moment… Why couldn’t he avoid Idek’s wrath?” (Wiesel 54). Even when his father was being beaten for not marching right he still became annoyed with is dad. He also gave up his soup with a heavy heart. “I gave him what’s left of my soup.” I was aware that I did it groggily” (Wiesel

As a child growing up in Sighet, Eliezer and his family looks much like an ordinary and close knit family today. That is until they were “taken away” where all control over life is striped away and as a result has his destiny chose by chance (Wiesel 22). During his time in Auschwitz, he has no choice of what he does. His only choice is to fight to survive. Eliezer simply does what he is told, when he is told, so he is not punished.

Eliezer’s father is always looking out for him to make sure he is safe. The inhumanity of people. The Nazis were brutal, vicious, and showed no mercy to the Jews.

In “Night” by Elie Wiesel, Eliezer witnesses and faces horrendous acts of violence by the SS officers and by his own people. Violence and abuse was used to threaten, intimidate and punish people. Eliezer discovers that cruel treatment can make “good people” less compassionate and act callously. As “Night” progresses, it is evident that violence causes people to turn away from each other, but Eliezer remains a compassionate person. Eliezer shows that he is still a compassionate person through his actions. He shows that he is compassionate because he did not leave his father when they were being evacuated from Buna and were marching in the snow, while others left their father. During the march to Buchenwald, Eliezer encouraged Zalman to keep

« Desperation will drive you to do things you know will never make you whole agin and even to lose the very thing you are desperate for » (Laura Miller). As Eliezer witnesses the deteriorating levelheadedness among the inmates, he realizes that their oppression and desperation for any kind of life they can acquire massively alters their sanity, and turns innocent beings into barbaric savages who mentally lose control of themselves. Eliezer, however, realizes this prevalent epidemic before he spirals into his own never-ending pit of brutality, and successfully perseveres the small sliver of sanity that he has left to ultimately escape the seemingly inevitable fate of inhumanity. Throughout his psychological journey while imprisoned at Auschwitz, Eliezer recognizes and utilizes the episodes of Mrs. Schächter’s beating, Stein’s search for his family, and the burden that his

Mankind has struggled throughout eternity, battling the demons that come from the very depths of the soul. Elie Wiesel’s novel, Night, and William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies show how quickly humans can descend into chaos and savagery. When dehumanization presents itself in unruly civilizations, humans turn into more primitive beings. The process of dehumanization begins through a loss of morals, knowledge, and innocence. The main characters in both novels find themselves in the eternal battle of good versus evil.

In the Elie Wiesel’s book Night, Wiesel depicts the course of his life, beginning several years before the Germans make an appearance in his town, until the end of his imprisonment at a German camp. In the beginning of Night, Eliezer mentions his family and social interactions that would take place in the Jewish community of Sighet. The one consistent relationship we see Eliezer has throughout the book is his relationship with his father. As one progresses into the book, Eliezer’s perceptions of his father experiences a gradual transition, which changes the relationship between them.

Eliezer, from the book “The Night”, and Jeanne, from the book “Farewell to Manzanar”, had some connection with each other and their feelings because of what they had to go through. The two books are not related on purpose, they are written separately. Because of their similar struggles they have similarities. Eliezer and Jeanne’s stories were completely different along with the time frame. Not everything was put the same so they obviously have some differences with each other and their environments.

We as human beings, are impacted by every aspect of life, especially by civilization and by those who we interact with. These interactions and connections change and shape us as well as our worldviews and our development into functioning individuals. Functioning individuals, as well as civilized individuals, are fundamental to our society and prevent evil and manipulation. The topic of civilization and how evil can impact us with or without civilization will be explored as well as the impact of evil on human beings. Several key points will be brought forth which addresses why civilization is fundamental to the development of an individual's values, morals and character. This is shown throughout the book Lord Of The Flies by William Golding.