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Examples Of Indifference In Night By Elie Wiesel

Decent Essays

Elie Wiesel's memoir, Night, recounts the horrors he saw firsthand during his internment in Auschwitz. In his hindsight, Wiesel reflects on not only his own indifference, but the indifference of others who shared his fate. Along his journey, he comes across three different kinds of indifference: indifference towards oneself, indifference towards others, and indifference towards the world. When Elie first arrives at Auschwitz, he is completely overwhelmed. He meets another inmate and the three are all very optimistic about their futures. This is not the case for all inmates, though. The very next person Elie meets has adopted an indifferent attitude about his situation, and has become so tauntrimized by the hardships of life in a concentration camp that he does not care if he lives or dies. When he approaches Elie and his father, his only advice is, “You should have hanged yourselves rather than come here” (30). Because of his traumatic experiences, the inmate has become so numb even death seems better than the life he is being forced to live. …show more content…

When his father asks to use the bathroom, the man in charge, who happens to be another inmate, has become so indifferent to the people around him that he cannot empathise with a man who begs on his hands and knees in front of him. “The Gypsy stared at him for a long time , from head to toe. As if he wished to ascertain that the person addressing him was actually a creature of flesh and bone, a human being with a body and a belly”

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