Selfishness In Night By Elie Wiesel

If a person had to choose between their life and someone else’s, they’d choose to be the ones to live. Selfishness is a terrible thing that can cause families to fight, it can cause wars, or the death of someone to spare one’s own life. Night by Elie Wiesel, shows many examples of selfishness. Sons leave their fathers to save their own lives, reluctantly feed their dying father and even kill just for a piece of bread. Humans are inherently selfish, it’s a personality trait that doesn’t care about relatives or lovers or anyone else.

All things considered, as horrible as it sounds, it’s no surprise the people in the concentration camps were so selfish. They had to choose between their own lives or someone else’s life. While in the cattle cars,

Rabbi Eliahou’s son goes missing after the long march and the Rabbi asks Elie if he’s seen him. Elie says he didn’t see him, but then he remembers, “ But then I remembered something else: his son had seen him losing ground, sliding back to the rear of the column. He had seen him. And he had continued to run in front, letting the distance between them become greater” (Wiesel 91). His son didn’t want to fall behind when the Rabbi started slowing down, so he sped up to not get shot or trampled. Elie is told to eat his dad’s rations so he can get double the rations. Elie agrees even though he feels guilty about it, “ He was right, I thought deep down, not daring to admit it to myself. Too late to save your old father… You could have two rations of bread, two rations of soup” ( Wiesel 111). Because he’s so hungry and desperate to get food, Elie considers taking his dad’s food. At some point Elie would never be able to imagine anyone ever doing anything like that. Once Elie’s father finally does die, Elie is relieved, “ I did not weep. It pained me that I could not weep. But I was out of tears. And deep inside me, if I could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience I might have found something like: Free at last!” ( Wiesel 112) As much as Elie loved and needed his father, taking care of him took a toll on Elie. He thought that he should focus on his own