Indifference
“Lack of interest, concern, or sympathy” This is the very definition of indifference. Elie Wiesel once stated, “The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.” Wiesel’s statement relates to numerous civil rights movements. Why do these movements continue to thrive? The quote by Elie Wiesel, “Indifference to evil is evil,” still holds merit in the twenty first century as examined in Night by Elie Wiesel, Swing Kids directed by Thomas Carter and in Thirteen Reasons Why directed by Bryan Yorkey, and written by Jay Asher.
Elie Wiesel’s quote still holds truth which is demonstrated
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in Night.
For example, Elie watches the discrimination in this quote, “They struck her several times on the head-blows that might of killed her. Her little boy clung to her; he did not cry out; he did not say a word. He was not even weeping now” (Wiesel 17). Elie gives us the image of one being beaten to death, yet no one does a thing. Instead, everyone joins in to persecute her and watch. As her son just sits there, silent. His response to cling and watch without emotion laments an indifference driven by fear and naivety, yet still screams mediocrity, a lack of feeling. The crowd, or beaters and scoffers, reveal a different side of indifference. The absence of feeling, the most destructive indifference. It suggests a hardening of the soul or spirit, the heart. In this situation, the indifference is displayed differently being delivered by strangers and loved ones. this situation is not only shown from
strangers but from loved ones. In another portion of Night, Elie states,“I could not believe it could be possible for them to burn people, children, and for the world to keep silent?” (Wiesel 21). Elie, in this quote points the finger at the rest of the world. This book is about the Holocaust, a devastating and embarrassing event. Even though it happened in Germany the rest of the world is to blame for sitting still and not taking action. “Indifference to evil is evil,” is represented by the ones who chose not to stand up to evil and rage against the dying in Night. Bystanders are not just evil; they are worse than evil, they are cold-blooded. These evils beat a helpless lady without hesitation, reason, or care. Just like the lady who is beaten by the others while her son did nothing about it a similar case happens during the same period of time. Elie’s quote also is supported by the film Swing Kids. Swing Kids was about a group of young men who lived in Germany during WWII, and they loved swing music. One of the characters Arvid is a cripple, he has a talent in music which the crowd loves. Yet, when he was bullied by the Hitler Youth, who stood up for him? They bully a kid with a talent just because he did not fit the right stipulations. How can this be a moral reason? This does not make sense, to beat up and crush one's hand. Leaving him to never have the ability to play the swing music that he loved. So is that evil, pure and ruthless? What were the others doing? The crowd? His friends? Nothing! If one stands up to evil they are heroic and courageous! But what if one does chooses indifference? Ones like these are the burnt part on the bottom of the pan; they are the nasty bug that flies or claws away at people's sight; they are like a virus that can not be treated with antibiotics. Audiences often love the protagonist and usually tend to hate the antagonist the audiences always despises them, yet ill-treatment happens. The popular Netflix series and book Thirteen Reasons Why assists and supports Wiesel’s quote, “Indifference to evil is evil.” Thirteen Reasons Why is about a girl, Hannah, she is a new student at a high school. She becomes popular and then her life begins to crumble. “Thirteen” in the title represents the number of reasons why she killed herself. Hannah was someone that was unexpected to fall apart. “A lot of you cared, just not enough,” a quote from Thirteen Reasons Why. When her “friends” and people she went to school with found out that they were a reason that led to her killing herself, they were shocked, some even angry because they were now pulled into the mess of being responsible. One specific event that supports Wiesel’s quote happens in the very first episode. A guy by the name of Bryce sends inappropriate pictures of Hannah to everyone. His friends stand by and do nothing to stop him, and they laugh with him as he sends the pictures. Then those who receive the pictures do nothing to help Hannah, instead they talk about her. Even Clay, her best friend looks at her differently rather than reach out to her. Everyone is to blame because they were not aware of Hannah having any suicidal thoughts. They were indifferent to the signs leading up to the suicide. They were indifferent to Hannah. They were indifferent to the acts of evil. In conclusion, Elie Wiesel’s unending quote, “Indifference to evil is evil” can be exhibited in various films, literature and real-life events. Which is shown clearly in Night, Swing kids and Thirteen Reasons Why. Through these examples, it is explicit that standing by and watching as evil takes place is no different than evil itself, which is morally wrong. Yet when evil takes place, people tend to ignore what is going on so they do not have to deal it. Why is this allowed, why does it happen? Works Cited Night: with Related Readings. Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2000. Yorkey, Brian. “13 Reasons Why.” Netflix Official Site, 31 Mar. 2017, www.netflix.com/title/80117470. Carter, Thomas, director. Swing Kids. 1993.
An estimated 11 million people died in the Holocaust. 6 million were Jews. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel tells his story as a Holocaust survivor. Throughout his book he describes the tremendous obstacles he overcame, not only himself, but with his father as well. The starvation and cruel treatment did not help while he was there. Elie makes many choices that works to his advantage. Choice plays a greater factor in surviving Auschwitz.
Night by Elie Wiesel was a memoir on one of the worst things to happen in human history, the Holocaust. A terrible time where the Nazi German empire started to take control of eastern Europe during WWII. This book tells of the terrible things that happened to the many Jewish people of that time. This time could easily change grown men, and just as easily a boy of 13. Elie’s relationship with God and his father have been changed forever thanks to the many atrocities committed at that time.
At a conference in 1986 Elie explains “The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference”. Elie Wiesel, meaning that the opposite of love is not hate, it’s getting used to the situation, to the point that the person doesn’t care whether what is happening is right or wrong. In the novel Elie experiences physical, mental, and spiritual pain, that test his humanity and morality. Firstly, physical pain is a problem. In the concentration camps, the most important thing is to survive, and the only way to do that is to follow orders blindly and do not upset the officer in charge.
From being a bystander of bullying to committing murder are many ways of being indifferent. It is everywhere in everyday life in prospering countries and in poor and destroyed countries. Elie Wiesel knows how indifference feels and how it affects people. He was also indifferent and regrets what he did to this day. He was a victim of the Holocaust and lived through indifference. During his imprison ship he saw indifference everywhere in the camps. How he treated his father is what he regrets. He just cared about himself because another prisoner told him to. He believes his father died because he did not help him all he could. His whole book could be based on indifference if you interpreted it that way. From how the guards treated the prisoners to how kids including Elie treated their own parents. Indifference is a very big topic and a part of Night. Indifference is what pushed him to write his descriptive, emotional, strong, and outstanding novel.
The significance of night throughout the novel Night by Elie Wiesel shows a poignant view into the daily life of Jews throughout the concentration camps. Eliezer describes each day as if there was not any sunshine to give them hope of a new day. He used the night to symbolize the darkness and eeriness that were brought upon every Jew who continued to survive each day in the concentration camps. However, night was used as an escape from the torture Eliezer and his father had to endure from the Kapos who controlled their barracks. Nevertheless, night plays a developmental role of Elie throughout he novel.
Adriana Throughout the narrative Night, the author Elie Wiesel, a young teen who was very confident in his faith, experiences multiple hardships that cause him to question what he once believed to be true. His religion stayed strong until it became obvious to him that God was causing his people to suffer. When Eliezer was just a young boy at fifteen years old, he was extremely interested in Judaism, he wanted to learn everything he possibly could. However, his father did not want him to study the Cabbala until he was thirty years old. Eliezer could not wait this long, so he sought wisdom from a man named Moshe Beadle.
”Lie down on it! On your belly! I obeyed. I no longer felt anything except the lashes of the whip. One! Two! He took time between the lashes. Ten eleven! Twenty-three. Twenty four, twenty five! It was over. I had not realized it, but I fainted” (Wiesel 58). It was hard to imagine that a human being just like Elie Wiesel would be treating others so cruelly. There are many acts that Elie has been through with his father and his fellow inmates. Experiencing inhumanity can affect others in a variety of ways. When faced with extreme inhumanity, The people responded by becoming incredulous, losing their faith, and becoming inhumane themselves.
The ground is frozen, parents sob over their children, stomachs growl, stiff bodies huddle together to stay slightly warm. This was a recurrent scene during World War II. Night is a literary memoir of Elie Wiesel’s tenure in the Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel created a character reminiscent of himself with Eliezer. Eliezer experienced cruelty, stress, fear, and inhumanity at a very young age, fifteen. Through this, he struggled to maintain his Jewish faith, survive with his father, and endure the hardships placed on his body and mind.
Each and every one of us sees the world in a different light than each other. These differences in perception are not completely random. Everyone’s perception of the world around us is affected by certain factors. Both the autobiographical memoir, Night, by Elie Wiesel, and the poem, “We grow accustomed to the Dark,” by Emily Dickinson, demonstrate a magnitude of factors affecting how we see the world. Night depicts Wiesel’s journey throughout the Holocaust, while “We grow accustomed to the Dark” exhibits our journeys when encountering new obstacles. Based on the universal concept of “How We See Things,” two factors that affect our perception of the world around us are our upbringings and our experiences when facing new obstacles due to the
Three Aspects of Night by Elie Wiesel Night by Elie Wiesel is an autobiographical novel recording Mr. Wiesel’s experiences during the World War II Holocaust. As a 15 year old boy, Elie was torn from his home and placed in a concentration camp. He and his father were separated from his mother and his sisters. It is believed that they were put to death in the fiery pits of Auschwitz. The entire story is one of calm historical significance, while there is a slight separation between the emotional trauma of what is occurring, and the often-detached voice of the author.
In this tiny novel, you will get to walk right into a gruesome nightmare. If only then, it was just a dream. You would witness and feel for yourself of what it is like to go through the unforgettable journey that young Eliezer Wiesel and his father had endured in the greatest concentration camp that shook the history of the entire world. With only one voice, Eliezer Wiesel’s, this novel has been told no better. Elie's voice will have you emotionally torn apart. The story has me questioning my own wonders of how humanity could be mistreated in such great depths and with no help offered.
In the memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel remembers his time at Auschwitz during the Holocaust. Elie begins to lose his faith in God after his faith is tested many times while at the concentration camp. Elie conveys to us how horrific events have changed the way he looks at his faith and God. Through comments such as, “Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God, my soul, and turned my dreams into dust,” he reveals the toll that the Holocaust has taken on him. The novel begins during the years of 1942-1944 in Sighet, Transylvannia, Romania. Elie Wiesel and his family are deported and Elie is forced to live through many horrific events. Several events such as deportation, seeing dead bodies while at Auschwitz, and separation from his mother and sisters, make Elie start to question his absolute faith in God.
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When people are placed in difficult, desolate situations, they often change in a substantial way. In Night by Elie Wiesel, the protagonist, Elie, is sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp where he undergoes many devastating experiences. Due to these traumatic events, Elie changes drastically, losing his passion in God, becoming disconnected with his father, and maturing when it matters most.
As humans we are constantly changing and adapting to fit our environment. Humans also can have mood changes due to age, rough times or any other driving force. In the book “Night”, by Elie Wiesel, Elie goes through many changes because of what he experiences. Elie had to change his ways in order to survive and keep his loved ones by his side. Over the course of the book, Elie changed the way he acted towards people, loved ones, and things he knew to be true.