Night By Elie Wiesel Night Analysis

The section in the novel night that painted a dark and angry picture of human nature is when the Jews were fleeing Buna and hundreds of them were packed in a roofless cattle car. The Jews were only provided with a blanket that soon became soaked by the snowfall. They spent days in the bitter cold temperatures and all they ate was snow. For these reasons, many suffered and died. When they stopped in German towns, the people stared at that cattle cars filled with soulless bodies. “They would stop and look at [the Jews] without surprise.” It was a regular occasion for the German people to see suffering Jews and not feel pity. The dark and angry picture of human nature was when a German worker “took a piece of bread out of his bag and threw it

into the wagon [and] […] dozens of starving men fought desperately over a few crumbs” The men in the cattle car hurled themselves against each other, trampling, tearing at and mauling at one another to get barely any crumbs. They turned into wild beast. There was this old man who managed to get a piece of bread for him and his son. However, his son killed his father for the bread.

“The old man mumbled something, groaned, and died. Nobody cared. His son searched him and took the crust of bread”. But then two men saw the boy and killed him to for the crust. The people in the cattle car were no longer people, but animals who only cared for food. The people outside the cattle car also painted a dark picture of human nature. People gathered around the cattle car to have a glance at the fights happening over the piece of bread. Soon the spectators continued to toss bread inside the cattle car and watched the effects of their action with great interest. They observed those monsters who were ready to kill for a crust of bread. The circumstances that allowed this dark side of human nature to emerge was the instinct to survive. The Jews did everything to survive and no longer cared about anyone else. They went through so much suffering that they didn't listen to their conscience and didn't care if they killed somebody. The people outside revealed their dark side too because they enjoyed watching people kill each other for food and they encouraged the fight instead of stopping it. They watched in awe because at that time Germans didn't see Jews as humans. They enjoyed seeing the Jews

suffer. There were many narrations in night that painted a dark and angry picture of human nature. When humans are desperate, they will do anything to survive and for the Jews, that caused the dark side of human nature to emerge. Also, the dark side in the spectators emerged because instead of feeling pity for the Jews, they found amusement and encouraged their death and suffering. Human nature can cause people to act in ways they never knew they would.