The Role Of Selfishness In Night By Martin Luther King Jr.

The one person in Elie’s life that means everything to him is his father. During his time in the concentration camps, Elie’s bond with his father

The thoughts of condemnation and lack of self-preservation wouldn’t have ravished his mind. Page eighty-six later reveals how Elie “soon forgot him” and became more selfish by “think{ing} of {himself} again. ”Throughout much of the book, Elie writes on his selflessness towards protecting and caring for his father, but after facing so much he grows more and more selfish. This quote shows the insensitive nature that Elie developed through his time spent in the concentration camps. Lastly, Elie continually confesses his personal conflict with emotional dormancy through his

In a couple parts of the story Elie’s dad in many ways was jeopardizing Elie’s well being. For instance, when his father was sick. “Instead of him taking the extra bread he had gotten he gave it to his dad” There was no point because his father was gonna die either way so he basically wasted it. Another example of why family isn’t always the best thing to have during a crisis. Is when the “rabbi's son left him when they were forced to run away from the Americans/ Russians”. He did this because he thought his father was dragging him down so he slipped away and left him to ultimately die alone. Which still doesn’t justify what he did, but i’m sure he did it to save his own life because his father was slowing him down. Another example would be when they were on the train the second time and a SS officer threw a piece of bread into the cart just to watch the men fight over it. While they were fighting Elie describes a point where “a man actually beats his own father for a piece of bread”(Wiesel Pg.105). These are just two of many instances throughout the

When Elie and his father first entered the camps, his father was struck and Elie did nothing to help his father: "What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked. Only yesterday, I would have dug my nails in this criminal's flesh" (39). This shows that, although Elie did not share a close relationship with his father, he still feels that he should stand up for his fahter for the fact that they are father and son. Elie is very violent in that he would have "dug his nails in the criminals' flesh." Evidently, Elie is furious towards the offender. Unfortunately, Elie does not do anything when his father is struck because he does not want to draw attention to himself. Nevertheless, the bond between Elie and his father does strengthen: "And what if he were dead, as well? He was not moving. Suddenly the evidence overwhelmed me: there is no longer any reason to live, any reason to fight" (98-99). Elie reveals that he truly depends on his father for survival. Because he believes his father is no longer alive, he loses all hope for surviavl. Although Elie expresses anger towards his father from time to time because he is being a burden, he still feels that his survival is meaningless without his father. The strong bond that the two developed once they entered the concentration camps proves that nothing can come between them so easily.

This is when Elie becomes more animalistic and realizes that survival of the fittest is in play. On page 110 the blockalteste asked him “Is this your father?. . . The doctor cannot do anything more for him. And neither can you.” Wiesel 110 Shortly after this quick conversation he tells Elie that “It is every man for himself and you can not think of others.” Wiesel 110 Elie quickly realizes this is the truth and adapts this new way of life in the camp which saves his life.

Instead he decided to pretend to fall asleep, but the next morning he realized his dad wasn’t in the top barrack, later he found out that his dad had died. While his father was getting beat, Elie knew his dad couldn’t stand up for himself; he was too weak. Yet, he did nothing about it, and continued to listen to his father get beat.

In the story Elie was whipped savagely by the Kapo, and all he can think about is his father. Later in the new camp Elie's father is giving up on life and Elie tries to make him move. There is an allied air raid and for the first time Elie leave his father.(wiesel pg. 106) This proves he finally gave up on his father. He started off in the story really caring about his father sacrificing his own safety just so he could stay close to him. After his father was struck ill in the new camp he gave up on him. In the story Elie wanted to keep his shoes even if that meant he would get tormented even more. This show he has a very strong will and loves things that give him a glimmer of hope. At the end when his father died he stopped caring and lost all hope in surviving the

“I woke from my apathy only when two men approached my father. I threw myself on his body. He was cold. I slapped him. I rubbed his hands, crying... At last, my father half opened his eyes” (99). Elie almost lost the one thing that kept him going, his father. He had gone all this way, enduring so many different trials and awful things. He was not going to let his father give up now like most of the other people around them. Elie would not let him be like the other ones that were thrown off. “In a snowy field in Poland, hundreds of naked orphans without a tomb” (99). Elie was not going to abandon his father like

In the beginning of the book, Elie believed that he no longer had faith, though he had been a compelling believer before. He also reveals the strong relationship he had with his father, and because his father was the only sense of family he had left, he did everything he could to keep his father healthy and alive. In section three of the novel, Elie shows the first sign of loss of faith, “For the first time, I felt anger rising within me… why should I sanctify his name… what was there to thank him for” (Wiesel 33). He believed that the terrible situation he was in, was to surely be blamed on God, due to the unanswered prayers that Elie received. Elie displays the great relationship he possessed with his father in section three as well, “Men to the left… women to the right… eight words spoken quietly, indifferently, without emotion... eight simple, short words… yet that was the moment when I left my mother… we were alone” (Wiesel 29). The quote demonstrates the fact that Elie’s family was literally split in half when his sister and mother went to the right and he and his father stayed left. Elie only has his father, so it makes sense for Elie to sacrifice everything for him.

Imagine being in a highly populated concentrated area with many people fighting to just get by each day. Would you try to help others for the sacrifice of your mental or physical health? Would you give up your food so that you can give it to someone who is in worse condition than you? Night shows Elie Wiesel’s experiences with the concentration camp called Auschwitz. Even if people would say that they would help others for sacrificing your health there is always a breaking point. If people think that life will be better in some sort of way in the long run, that is sometimes not true and if that is true as hopeful as they are that could be threatening to their lives. This mental and physical suffering that these people of Auschwitz endure could cause them to become senseless to tasks that would be unethical or immoral to them.

.As Elie’s father continues to show that now he is dependent on Elie, Elie slowly but surely grows into a parent. Elie believed he needed to be by his father because his father needed him. At one point in the novel, on page 108 Elie makes a sacrifice for the little bit of food that they barely get for his father, “For a ration of bread I was able to exchange cots to be next to my father”. Elie

As noted on page 111, “In fact, you should be getting his rations...too late to save your father...you could have two rations of bread, two rations of soup.” (Page 111) Here it is shown that Elie will receive his father’s rations, but in the beginning of the book he is always trying to help his father and keep him alive. Realizing that he can’t save his father, he begins to show that there is nothing else left for him to care for. Another example of his loss sympathy would be, “I shall not describe my life during that period it longer mattered.” (Page 113)The death of his father certainly changed they way he thought of his own life, and without his father he showed no more care for anything else. Not only does he lose his sympathy for others, but even his own life wasn’t worth caring

This conveys how far survival instincts will take people. Throughout the story, family was considered the most important thing to hold onto. Now, everybody had become so hungry that their survival instincts take over. The child's beliefs change because he kills his own father just for a ration of bread. Another example in Night can be when Elie's dad is slapped by a Kapo. Elie "had watched and kept silent..."(Wiesel 39). Because of Elie's survival instincts, Elie's beliefs change and decides not to help his dad because he does not want to be hurt either. Finally, in Night, when Elie is talking to one of the block leaders. The block leader tells him that he should be getting his father's rations of food. Elie acknowledges what the block leader says and thinks deep inside, "He was right, I thought deep down, not daring to admit it to myself... You could have 2 rations of bread, 2 rations of soup..."(Wiesel 111). This displays how Elie's survival instincts are changing his beliefs. He starts to feel as if caring for his father is more of an obligation. His survival instincts cause him to start thinking of putting his own body first instead of his

The novel “Night” by Elie Wiesel is a memoir of a Holocaust survivor that describes the hardships and suffering that he and his father had endured for years. Eliezer and his father were on their journey to the camp Buchenwald and had witnessed many acts of desperation from the Jews. In this scene Eliezer shows the audience that during desperate times it is every man for himself, peoples basic human instincts for survival had come out and the vitality left in them was shown through selfish decisions

This book interested me because it is a great example of what so many people went through in concentration camps throughout Europe in World War II. So many books have been written about personal accounts of war hardships suffered by the Jews but so few capture the true problems faced by prisoners. The impossible decision between survival and family was a difficult one faced by many during this time. Elie had an unfaltering will to live when his father was alive with him but once his father died the reason for living disappeared. But he once was faced with the decision of helping to keep his father alive or let him die and have an extra ration of food. How can one be stuck with a decision like this and not choose survival? Only true unselfishness can cause you to help someone