Examples Of Ambiguity In Night By Elie Wiesel

In the book, “Night”, Eliezer Wiesel talked about a boy named Elie from Sighet and he got deported to a concentration camp by the Nazis. They took Elie’s freedom, identity, family, dignity etc. The Nazis treated Jewish people badly and used any kind of way to dehumanize them. Moments of moral ambiguity helped Elie retain his humanity in the face of dehumanizing treatment by staying positive which helped him retain his good qualities as a human. Elie’s respond on a moral ambiguity is based on how he can help others by giving them hope, how it can help him survive and if he is going to get in trouble if he gets involve. Elie’s respond on a moral ambiguity is based on how he can help others by giving them hope. When Stein got deported to a concentration
camp with Elie and his father, Stein ask Elie if he had news about his family’s condition, Elie said “Yes, my mother had news from your family. Reizel is very well. The children too.”(52) This helps prove that Elie’s respond on a moral ambiguity is based on how he can help others by giving them hope because he didn’t know anything about Stein’s family but he lied just so he can give Stein hope that his family is in a good condition which gives him something to live for. After the death march, Rabbi Eliahou was looking for his son, he ask Elie if he have seen his son but Elie said no, Elie said to himself, “A terrible thought loomed up in my mind, he had wanted to get rid of his father!”(97) This helps prove that Elie’s respond on a moral ambiguity is based on how he can help others by giving them hope because Elie had remembered that he’d seen the Rabbi’s son running ahead to leave his father behind because his father is old and weak so he believes that his father is bringing him down. Elie didn’t want to tell Rabbi Eliahou because he thought that it would be better if he didn’t know because if he knew that his son left him to die then it would crush his heart and there would be nothing for him to live for, he would lose hope and wouldn’t care anymore of what happens to him. Elie’s respond on a moral ambiguity is based on how it can help him survive.
When the Nazis put all the men together, and asking them how old they are, and what they do for a living, Elie said to himself, “Should I say that I was a student? “Farmer” I heard myself say.”(40-41) This helps prove that Elie’s respond on a moral ambiguity is based on how it can help him survive because he didn’t know what to say, instead of saying that he was a student, Elie said he was a farmer because a farmer means that he is a capable of doing physical things meaning that he is strong and the Nazis were looking for weaklings that can’t work so they can kill them, this helped Elie survived and not to be killed. When the allies started to fight back, Elie said “Every bomb that exploded filled us with joy and gave us new confidence.”(67) This helps prove that Elie’s respond on a moral ambiguity is based on how it can help him survive because Elie rejoices as allies bomb the camp, despite the possibilities that his father is killed, which would imply that he really wanted to have his freedom back and so bombs falling from the sky gave hope that he can get it back, he just wanted to survive and even the fact that his father could get hurt from the bombs didn’t stop his
happiness. Elie’s respond on a moral ambiguity is based on if he is going to get in trouble if he gets involve. When Elie’s father is doing work and Idek thought that Elie’s dad is not doing that much work, Idek said, “You lazy old devil!” Idek began to yell. “Do you call that work and he began to beat him with an iron bar.”(62) This helps prove that Elie’s respond on a moral ambiguity is based on if he is going to get in trouble if he gets involve because Elie was a bystander, and he really wanted to help but he can’t do anything because if he tried to help, Elie and his father would get thrown into the crematory so they Elie just dealt with it. When two men tried to throw Elie’s father out of the wagon because they thought he was dead, Elie said, “Twenty bodies were thrown out of our wagon.” (104-105)The prisoners on the train to Buchenwald eagerly undress the dead and throw them out of the crowded train-car because it was so cold and crowded that people undress the dead so that they would survive the cold and there was barely enough space for them so the only way to clear this out is to throw the dead out of the wagon. This helps prove that Elie’s respond on a moral ambiguity is based on if he is going to get in trouble if he gets involve because for Elie it doesn’t seem right that they throw away the dead just like that, that is disrespectful and inhuman like. But if Elie gets involve with this and tried to stop it then he could get in to a serious trouble and get hurt badly because people was really desperate at that time and would do anything to survive even if it means to kill another person.