Essay On Good And Evil In Ellie Wiesel's 'Night'
Helen Keller once said that “although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” This quote means that there is more to life than negativity, there is also a sense of accomplishment over such negative things. Such triumph can only be accomplished after the fact of the occurrence of a negative event. Two books that support this are Lord of the Flies, and Night. In “Lord of the Flies” the boys on the island must overcome evil and savagery in order to survive. In Ellie Wiesel’s Night, the protagonist, Ellie, faces the troubles of the Nazi concentration camps, loses his faith in God, but survives the horrific event. Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel that takes place on a tropical island during an atomic
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war. The boys have been evacuated from their school in England, and the island becomes a microcosm for the war taking place in the outside world. On this island, the boys must over come the basic thing necessary for survival, just as Helen Keller overcame the disability to communicate. The boys eventually succumb to the negative “suffering” side of human nature, and become savages. Night is a memoir about the Holocaust.
It takes place during World War II in various concentration camps throughout Germany and Poland. Told from the first person point of view of a survivor, the reader gains strong images of the pain and torture one had to endure during the Holocaust. The theme of both of these works of literature is the thought that “man is inheritly evil.” This is represented in The Lord of the Flies by the conflict between good and evil, of Ralph and Jack. Jack and the rest of the boys want to succumb to savagery, while Ralph and Piggy want to remain good and civilized. In Night, Ellie had to face the evil of the Nazi’s and their actions towards the Jewish people. Ellie witnessed horrific atrocities such as the genocide of his people and his very own family. Ellie loses his faith in this conflict with evil. Overall he overcomes the negativity, by surviving the whole ordeal. Helen Keller once said that “although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” This quote applies to all of those who face conflicts. Such conflicts could be that “man is inheritly evil” and that forces of good are faced with obstacles to overcome due to this. Ellie Wiesel’s Night, and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies support this quote by the theme that “man is inheritly
evil.”
war. The boys have been evacuated from their school in England, and the island becomes a microcosm for the war taking place in the outside world. On this island, the boys must over come the basic thing necessary for survival, just as Helen Keller overcame the disability to communicate. The boys eventually succumb to the negative “suffering” side of human nature, and become savages. Night is a memoir about the Holocaust.
It takes place during World War II in various concentration camps throughout Germany and Poland. Told from the first person point of view of a survivor, the reader gains strong images of the pain and torture one had to endure during the Holocaust. The theme of both of these works of literature is the thought that “man is inheritly evil.” This is represented in The Lord of the Flies by the conflict between good and evil, of Ralph and Jack. Jack and the rest of the boys want to succumb to savagery, while Ralph and Piggy want to remain good and civilized. In Night, Ellie had to face the evil of the Nazi’s and their actions towards the Jewish people. Ellie witnessed horrific atrocities such as the genocide of his people and his very own family. Ellie loses his faith in this conflict with evil. Overall he overcomes the negativity, by surviving the whole ordeal. Helen Keller once said that “although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” This quote applies to all of those who face conflicts. Such conflicts could be that “man is inheritly evil” and that forces of good are faced with obstacles to overcome due to this. Ellie Wiesel’s Night, and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies support this quote by the theme that “man is inheritly
evil.”