Decision Making In Night By Elie Wiesel

Do you ever look back and regret a decision you have made? Although reflecting on past decisions can be healthy and teaches you about yourself for the future, it can also cause you to feel an overwhelming sense of grief and regret. Knowing that your life could be different but it is the way it is because of something you decided is terrifying for almost anyone. However, you do not really know when you are making these choices that are pivotal points. In the book Night, by Elie Wiesel, the main character Eliezer found himself making huge life choices without even realizing it. Only looking back can one identify the exact moments when opportunities were missed. Whether you refer to them as coincidences or missed chances, they are still critical

moments in a person’s life.
Many missed opportunities occurred in Night. Although neither Eliezer, nor any other character, could not have know it was a crucial point, it determined how the rest of their lives played out. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines an ‘opportunity’ as “a good chance for advancement or progress”. The ones that Eliezer missed out on meant that he lost a good chance for moving forward, sometimes even physically. Before the German soldiers arrived in their hometown of Sighet, Transylvania, Eliezer suggested leaving as some of the other families had done, “I had asked my father to sell everything, to liquidate everything, and to leave. ‘I am too old, my son,’ he answered. ‘Too old to start a new life. Too old to start from scratch in some distant land…’” (page 9). They could have progressed but they missed their opportunity to move on, to move away. If they had moved like Eliezer wanted to, they could have missed the whole Holocaust. The family could have remained intact and even prospered wherever they would have ended up. Missing out on an opportunity means that you lose a chance and a different way to proceed with life. When Eliezer had to have a minor surgery on his foot while at a concentration camp, the doctor told him he had to stay in the hospital for two weeks to let it heal. While resting, one of his fellow inmates told him that those left in the hospital when the Russian army comes, will be killed. Eliezer immediately left, losing yet another chance due to the fact that, “After the war, I learned the fate of those who had remained at the infirmary. They were, quite simply, liberated by the Russians, two days after the evacuation.” (page 82). If he had gotten his father into the hospital to not only be fed a little more food, but also liberated, they would not have had to march in the snow as they did. Eliezer’s foot could have healed naturally and they could have been able to go find the rest of their family. These little moments in time change everything. A snap decision is all it takes to change a life.
Coincidences are yet another way for a storyline be drastically set on a new course.

Coincidence is often defined as, “the occurrence of events that happen at the same time by accident but seem to have some connection,” (Merriam-Webster). They seem to be related to missed opportunities due to the fact that they happen for a reason. There is significance to their occurrence. Coincidences may be a little bit more recognizable as they are happening, but they both times in life where you can look back and identify almost the exact moment it happened. One coincidence that occurred in with Eliezer was when he was separated from his mother and sisters to go off with his father, “‘Men to the left! Women to the right!’ Eight words spoken quietly, indifferently, without emotion. Eight simple, short words. Yet that was the moment when I left my mother. There was no time to think, and I already felt my father’s hand press against mine: we were alone.” (page 29). He was young enough to go with his mother and sisters but that is not who he ended up with. He was sent off with his father so that he could take care of him. His mother and one of his sisters did not survive, and yet he did. Had he gone with them, he could have also been a silent victim of the Holocaust. Both he and his father experienced other tiny and yet significant coincidences, many of them being how close they could stay. For example, when they were being assigned jobs and commanding officers, he and his father ended up working for the same one. They were able to take care of each other and watch after one another. Based on the past evil nature of the officers at the concentration camps, it is quite the coincidence that they allowed them to stay

together.
Nothing hurts more than regret. Regret towards a missed opportunity can be one of the worst because you never know what could have been. As Forrest Gump said, “Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get,”. You never know which chocolate you are going to pick up and eat. It could change the course of your life completely.