Life Lessons In Night By Elie Wiesel

Over 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, almost 1 million of them at Auschwitz. Night, by Elie Wiesel, is a story about a young boy (15 to be exact) living through the Holocaust. His family is placed in a ghetto at first, but is eventually moved into the death camp Auschwitz. Throughout the Holocaust Elie loses all of his family members, his mother and sisters almost immediately, and his father just a few weeks before liberation. In Night we watch Elie learn many lessons about perseverance, hope, and loss. In this essay I hope to show how Elie learns these lessons.
Loss of family. These are words that are often associated with the Holocaust. Loss of his family is something that Elie struggles with throughout the book. When Elie arrives
at Auschwitz, he is separated from his mother and two sisters, and although he doesn't realize it, this is the last time he ever sees them again. “My hand tightened its grip on my father. All I could think of was not to lose him. Not to remain alone.” (Wiesel 30). Elie knows that although he has been separated from his mom and sisters, all that matters now is to be with his father. It is important that he feels this way because later in the book when he believes his father has died in his sleep he is terrified. “My father had huddled near me, draped in his blanket, shoulders laden with snow. And what if he were dead, as well? I called out to him. No response. I would have screamed if I could have. He was not moving. Suddenly, the evidence overwhelmed me: there was no longer any reason to live, any reason to fight.” (Wiesel 98). Elie was ready to give up once he thought his father was dead, he saw no reason to carry on if he was alone. This is why family is so important. It gives people a reason to carry on, like it did for Elie.
Elie struggles with problems like loss throughout the book that hopefully no one else will ever have to deal with.
What keeps Elie going throughout the book is his strong sense of hope. One of the messages of hope that stands out the most in Night doesn’t come from Elie, but a young Pole in charge of Elie and his father’s new block at Auschwitz. When Elie and his father arrive they are separated from the rest of their family, then put through a brutal process to enter them into the camp. They are shaved, tattoos, examined, and many more processes that makes them feel hopeless. After they are processed they are sent to their new home. There they are greeted by their Kapo, and his advice is sobering:
Comrades, you are now in the concentration camp Auschwitz. Ahead of you lies a long road paved with suffering. Don't lose hope. You have already eluded the worst danger: the selection. Therefore, muster your strength and keep your faith. We shall all see the day of liberation. Have faith in life, a thousand times faith. By driving out despair, you will move away from death. Hell does not last forever…. (Wiesel 41)
These words are some of the first words of hope Elie hears throughout the Holocaust. Whenever he is having a tough time or feels like giving up he thinks about these words and has hope enough hope to carry
on.
Without Hope there is no way that Elie would be able to remain strong throughout his journey. Despite the struggles he faces, he stays strong and perseveres through it all. At one point in the book, Elie and his father must complete a death march where they walk/run 80 km (about 50 miles) in the middle of winter from the camp Buna to Gleiwitz. The prisoners can’t fall asleep during the death march because it is so cold and they are so malnourished that they will not wake up if they do. “God knows what I would have given to be able to sleep a few moments. But deep inside, I knew that to sleep meant to die. And something in me rebelled against that death” (Wiesel 98). Even though Elie is exhausted and tormented by his hunger, he hasn't slept or eaten for days. Elie is fighting sleep because he knows that if he falls asleep he will never wake up, and he knows he is still strong enough to hold on.