Night And Left To Tell Analysis

There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope. Elie Wiesel and Immaculée Ilibagiza fight and struggle to survive the situations they are in. But they can’t survive it on their own because they aren’t physically or mentally strong enough. That’s why in the memoirs Night and Left to Tell, Elie Wiesel and Immaculée Ilibagiza reveal how important it is to always have something to live for, even when times are tough, and how keeping hope alive is essential to surviving hardships. Surviving during the times of Elie Wiesel and Immaculée Ilibagiza was rare. But there are people that did survive, and those people like Elie Wiesel and Immaculée Ilibagiza had a mind set that they were going to live to see their family members
or loved ones, that they were going to preserve and not let the suffering they are going through stop them. Elie Wiesel lived for his father so his father wouldn’t suffer the lose of his son and die because of depression. Elie realized he needed to keep fighting and live so his father would live when they were running to switch camps. Elie said “ I had no right to let myself die, what would he do without me? I was his sole support” (Wiesel 87) Elie knows it is important for him to stay alive for his father to survive. This is similar to Immaculée but instead she lives for God, because she knows he can protect her when people try to find her in hiding. She says “ I knew that God would be with me through all this.” (Ilibagiza 117) This is about how she needs God to protect her and he does, her always praying and getting closer to him is her showing the importance of her living for God. Another time Elie shows how important it is for him to live for his father was when he was getting beaten by Idek and Kapo for leaving work early and seeing Idek kissing a shirtless girl. While Elie was being whipped he thought this “ I was thinking about my father. He would suffer more than I.” This shows that Elie knows that if he dies a few days later his father will die too, because he lost his son so what would be the purpose of living for nothing. This is why Elie lives for his father, same with Immaculée living with God because without God she would of died. Just like Elie and Immaculée display in their memoirs the importance for them to live for something, having hope is also important for their survival.
While Immaculée is in the Pastor’s bathroom, she hears evil chants coming from the devil and Hutus. She is frightened along with everyone with her. This is when she prays to God asking for strength to be keep the hatred out of her for the Hutus, when she says “ Though a thousand fall at my side, thought ten thousand are dying around me, the evil will not touch me.” (Ilibagiza 101) She is trusting in God more and gaining hope from his protection over her that she knows she will survive with God at her side. Elie is different from Immaculée because he struggles having hope and trusting in God, he still has hope just in a different way. He gains hope when he hears bombs in the distance and rumors says the Russians are coming. His hope is shown when he says “ How close the Russians were! Between them and us - one night- our last.” He has hope to push through the night and hope the Russians will save him. One more way Immaculée shows hope is when she faints due to be overwhelm with the killers and the devil calling her name, while she had blacked out God pulled her into a spiritual realm with him and says “ I shall put my cross upon this door, and they will not reach you, trust in me and you shall live.” After this Immaculée has this vision with God her sky rockets and she knows that she will live with God because he is on her
side. All in all, Elie Wiesel and Immaculée Ilibagiza go through many hardships while trying to survive the Holocaust and Rwandan Holocaust.
But they couldn’t just survive by being lucky or by not getting noticed. They survived their Holocaust by knowing the importance of living for a certain person they care truly and deeply about. Without Elie living for his father or Immaculée living for God they could both possibly be death right now and we would not be reading about them right now. Not only did they have someone to live for but they also maintained hope through all their hardships and kept moving forward and preserving. This is why they survived what they went through because they had hope and lived for something they cared
for.