Sacrifice In Elie Wiesel's 'Night'

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Here's a well-known saying that goes “there is no change without sacrifice”. Besides its platitudinous meaning, it highlights the necessity for sacrifice in everlasting predicaments. This theme is evident in the stories of Elie Wiesel’s Night and Taiki Waititi’s JoJo Rabbit. In Night, Elie Wiesel goes through a series of adversities and recounts his growth of maturity and lack of empathy as he witnesses the dehumanization of his people. In JoJo Rabbit we see the effect of Nazi propaganda creating an obsession of hatred within young German boys like JoJo. Both Night and JoJo Rabbit reflect on the sacrifice of innocence that is taken from the youth, needed to adapt to the events of the Holocaust. Elie’s innocence is first evident in chapter 3 at Buchenwald. …show more content…

He says “My hand tightened its grip on my father. All I could think of was not to lose him.” We quickly see this childish innocence and love deteriorate. Later in chapter 3, the reader witnesses the first of many beatings given to his father, for being unable to properly march in line. Franek, the foreman, strikes Shlomo continuously. Elie stood there watching helplessly, and afterwards he thought “I did not move”. What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked. I watched and kept silent. Only yesterday, I should have dug my nails into the criminal’s flesh”. He starts to notice the change within himself, however it does not stop there. In chapter 8 “My father said that he was tired. The kapo flew into a rage and began to beat him. I saw my father double over and fall to the ground. . . And yet I felt anger, real anger, anger that was directed not against the kapo, but against my father. Why couldn't he have avoided Idek's wrath? That was what life in a concentration camp had made of me”. This anger that used to be aimed at the Kappos, now was aimed at the victim of their

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