Argumentative Essay On Night By Elie Wiesel

In 1986, Elie Wiesel won the Nobel Peace Prize. He was a voice for the sufferings of both the Jewish people, and victims of any oppression. His Holocaust experiences sparked something inside of him that wouldn’t have surfaced otherwise. Despite all of the brutality and suffering, Elie learned positive lessons throughout his time in Auschwitz and the Holocaust.
Through the Holocaust, Elie learned that silence is not an answer to oppression. At first, he couldn’t believe the cruelty and pain the Nazis were inflicting. He said, “’I could not believe that human beings were being burned in our times; the world would never tolerate such crimes,’” (Page 33, Night). Then, Elie came to realize the world was staying silent. He saw that people were suffering and dying, and all of humankind backed away in fear or indifference. Seeing this happen in the time he was at the camp made

him want to stand up for everyone being tormented. He knew that at that point, seeing the world opt for neutrality instead of fighting, he, “swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation,” (Nobel Peace Prize Speech). Without enduring and seeing pain and hardship himself, he might have never came to this realization and become such a strong and inspiring advocate for human rights.
In his time at Auschwitz and the camps, Elie learned how important it is to stay strong. He saw how the people around him who gave up or became weak were allowing themselves to be killed. However, he also saw and met people who found reasons to stay strong. His relative, Stein told Elie that, “’the only thing that keeps me alive is to know that Reizel and the little ones are still alive. Were it not for them, I would give up,’” (Page 45, Night). It was hard for Elie to not give up, so he had to learn to find a reason to live. For Elie, it became his father. His father was the sole reason he stayed alive all throughout his time at the camp. It was the one thing that separated him from death and life. The many times Elie was close to dying or felt as he had no reason to live, he thought “not about death but about not wanting to be separated from [his] father,” (Page 82, Night). Without his experiences during the Holocaust, Elie would never have learned that to survive through life, there needs to be a reason to live. He also wouldn’t have learned to always stay strong, and never give up, two important life lessons he acquired during the Holocaust.
Before Auschwitz and the Nazis, Elie was not very close to his father.

They both loved each other, but lacked a strong bond. Through his journey and life during the Holocaust, Elie and his father have to depend on one another for survival. In the book Night, Elie says many times that his father was his only reason for living. This shows how the bond between family can grow even stronger in tough times. Because of his experiences, Elie formed a close relationship with his father that he never would have had before.
Through his experiences during the Holocaust, Elie found himself and the man he was meant to be. All of the suffering he experienced morphed him into an advocate for humans all over. Elie said, “…because I suffered I don’t want others to suffer.” (Wiesel) Being submersed in such horrible conditions and seeing people in such pain led him to wanting to be the voice of people without one. Without the experiences in the camps, he would never had seen the cruelty of the world and realized that people need to be represented and helped. His advocacy for human rights was created out of his

past.
Elie went from a young, innocent boy with no strive to help others, to a leader, advocate for the suffering, and a “messenger to mankind”. The Holocaust showed Elie that the world is a much bigger place, and morphed him into a selfless man who works to end oppression and the pain of others. It showed him that family provides people a will to live, and everyone should hold onto their past as a lesson and guide. The Holocaust shaped Elie into the person he became today, and the world would be a different place without his inspiring story and messages. His story of great suffering can be used and the man it turned him into can be looked up to, to help everyone around the world, because everyone must work together to eliminate human suffering. As Elie stated in his Nobel Prize Speech, “Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately.”