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How the Atrocities of War Exemplify the Characteristic Moral Ambiguity of Human Nature

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In his novella Night, Elie Wiesel portrays the horrors he and his family faced at the hands of Nazi Germany through graphic and moving descriptions of his plight. A compelling excerpt, “I watched other hangings. I never saw a single victim weep. These withered bodies had long forgotten the bitter taste of tears,” demonstrates the utter disregard for human life that many of the world’s leaders adopt in times of war, inspiring further research through the evocation of a need to more thoroughly learn about the moral ambiguity that envelops those in positions of power during wartime. This characteristic moral ambiguity of human nature is most clearly seen in the atrocities of war through institutionalized torture, mass death, and willingness of leaders to sacrifice troops. Through analyses of conflicts such as the World War II, the Vietnam War, the Civil War, the An Lushan Rebellion, and the Muslim conquest of the Indian subcontinent in such genres as non-fiction books, documentaries, the internet, music, and poems, the moral ambiguity of the human race is proven to lead to atrocities of war such as institutionalized torture, mass death, and willingness of leaders to sacrifice the lives of their troops. Many painful examples of disregard for human life can be seen across all instances of war, although perhaps most notably in the horrors the Jewish people, among others, faced in the Holocaust of World War II at the hands of Hitler and the Nazi Party. The Holocaust, long viewed
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