Empathy is something gained from age. As children we all live in our small little worlds; only worrying and caring about what affects our selves. As we get older, that world broadens. The definition of maturity is recorded as, “having or showing the mental and emotional qualities of an adult” (merriam-webster dictionary). Maturity is gained through human experiences, and therefore age. As one gets older they must deal with more and more difficult situations in life, gaining both experience and maturity. Many characters in both Night and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian face great hardships and cope with the adversity; however, both Elie and Junior are not mature enough to adapt in positive ways, and so their actions and views …show more content…
on the world are greatly altered. It is in this way that someone matures when they are able to sacrifice themselves for others. Elie was too young to cope with his situation in Auschwitz and became selfish, ignoring his father’s pleas to protect himself, while his father was selfless. With Elie’s father on his deathbed and being beaten by the SS guards, he calls out to Elie: “He continued to call me, The officer dealt him a violent blow to the head, I did not move” (Wisel 111). Elie knows if he goes to be with his father in the last moments of his life, he will be beaten. He knows he will experience even more pain and suffering than the tremendous amount that has already been inflicted upon him. And so he does nothing. He ignores his father's dying wish, and denies him any kind of comfort or condolence in order to protect himself. Elie's father, Shlomo, however had the empathy gained with age. During his time in Auschwitz young Elie is struggling with starvation. Shlomo knows this, and often puts aside his parts of his own rations for his son. One time, after seeing Elie gormandize his small ration quickly he does not eat any of his own, Elie writes, “But seeing his advice had come too late and there was nothing left of my ration he did not touch any of his own” (Wiesel 44). Elie's father worries for his son and sees him suffering. He knows he needs more food, but he also knows he does too. He sacrifices to help his son, and in doing so he knows he is putting himself in an even worse condition. When Elie reflects back on his time in Auschwitz in the preface, he mentions his mistake in dealing with his father, he writes, “His voice had reached me from so far away, from so close. But I had not moved. I shall never forgive myself” (Wiesel xii). He writes this many years after his experience in the holocaust. He has matured, and now knows the mistakes of his ways. He is hurt, and deeply regrets the selfish actions he performed. Like Elie’s selfishness, Juniors immaturity causes him to lie, and be self conscious about his real life on the reservation.
When thinking about his first few days at Reardan, Junior thinks to himself:“Yeah, so I pretend to have a little money. I pretend to be middle class. I pretended to belong” (Alexie 119). Junior feels as if he opens up and shares upon his real life he will not be accepted by the students at Reardan. He knows he is different from all of them and chooses to keep this fact hidden, hoping he can assimilate and eventually be accepted. Even though he keeps so many secrets about his life. Later in the novel, Junior opens up about being poor, he writes, “If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be pretty damn amazing” (Alexie 129). Junior eventually unloads his secrets to Penelope and Roger. He gets the exact opposite action he is expecting. Knowing his rough situation, Roger drives Junior home from school multiple times. Junior matures and realises that one's social situation does not define them as a …show more content…
person. Both Junior and Elie deal with terrible suffering in their lives, however, their lack of maturity causes both of them to lose hope and gain negative views on the world.
After seeing bodies cremated in the furnaces for the first time at Auschwitz, Elie writes, “Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever” (Wiesel 34). The sights Elie saw greatly hurt him. He saw things no one should ever see, and they changed him. Having been a deeply religious man before, Elie never recovered. He lost all faith in God and his view on life was never the same. He walked away from his religion and became cynical of human nature. However, Junior was never religious. He was born into a terrible situation, and never gained faith in god. Junior is hit hard after the tragic death of Eugene , Alexie writes, “We lost our languages, we lost our songs and dances, we lost each other. We only know how to lose and be lost” (Alexie 173). Junior not only talks about his own lost of hope but the lost of hope for all his people. Junior has seen countless pain and death in his time living on the reservation. He talks about how all Native Americans only know pain and suffering. After enduring and seeing so much sorrow all he can expect from people on the reservation is just
that. Immaturity and the inability to cope with their situations greatly affected Elie and Junior’s lives in each of their situations, this was displayed by their selfishness and responses to difficulty. If they had been older and had more time to gain maturity, their actions would have been greatly altered. Empathy is one of the most important human emotions; it allows people to go beyond themselves, and experience the world from new points of view. Without empathy selfishness and narcissism would be abundant in the world. It is essential this complex emotion is learned at a young age. The longer that someone is mature, and has empathy, the more time they have to impact and help those in need.
In Elie Wiesel’s Night, he recounts his horrifying experiences as a Jewish boy under Nazi control. His words are strong and his message clear. Wiesel uses themes such as hunger and death to vividly display his days during World War II. Wiesel’s main purpose is to describe to the reader the horrifying scenes and feelings he suffered through as a repressed Jew. His tone and diction are powerful for this subject and envelope the reader. Young readers today find the actions of Nazis almost unimaginable. This book more than sufficiently portrays the era in the words of a victim himself.
So as the morning Sun rose. The light beamed on Christopher's face. The warmth of the sun welcomed him to a new day and woke up in a small house in Los Angeles. Christopher is a tall, male, that loves technology and video games. He stretched and went to the restroom it was 9 o'clock and he was thankful it was spring break and didn’t have to go to school. Christopher made his way to the kitchen trying not wake up his parents and made himself breakfast. He served himself cereal Honey Bunches of Oats to be exact with almond milk. Then he took a shower and watched some YouTube videos before doing his homework.
In this world, people go through the process of dealing with both empathy and malice. As a matter of fact, almost everyone has been through times where maybe they feel understood by some and misunderstood by others. Specifically, in the book “Night”, by Elie Wiesel, a character named Madame Schachter goes through the experience of fellow Jews displaying empathy and malice during in result to her behavior. Along with this, the reactions reveal just how inconsiderate we can act when in uncomfortable situations. One example of the malice and lack of sympathy they provided her was during the cattle car ride to Auschwitz. During this ride, she went a bit insane due to the devastating separation of her family. Elie explains, “She received several blows to the head, blows that could have been
Elie Wiesel, a Jewish boy, lives in Sighet during World War II with his mother, father, and two sisters, and he is very religious and wanted to study Judaism. However, there were warnings by some people that Jewish people were being deported and killed. Although no one believes these warnings, Elie and his family are taken to a ghetto where they have no food. After being in the ghetto Elie and his father are separated from Elie’s mother and sister because of selection and were placed in cattle cars where they had no room. They are taken to Auschwitz where they suffer from hunger, beatings, and humiliation from the guards which causes Elie’s father to become weak. By now Elie loses his faith in God because of all he has been through. Lastly, Elie’s father dies just before the Jews are liberated and Elie sees his reflection in the mirror but does not recognize himself because he looks like a skeleton.
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.
Is it possible to lose awareness in the face of chaos not only of the situation itself but also of the other people involved, as well as of oneself? Despite the complexity of this question, it appears to be thoroughly answered in the novel Night by Elie Wiesel. As a matter of fact, the author and his fellow Jews remain unsuspecting of the warnings that unfold throughout the novel. Moreover, it is only until Wiesel is exposed to the malevolence of the Holocaust that he is finally able to fathom that everything has lost significance, except for “the word chimney” which Elie perceives as “the only word that had real meaning in” the Auschwitz concentration camp (Wiesel 39). Beyond the literal meaning, this metaphor reveals that the Holocaust causes Elie and his fellow Jews to become insensitive to the pain of those around them, and to lose sight of who they once were.
First, Junior confronts the dreariness of the Wellpinit school system by deciding to transfer to the Reardan school system. Junior initiates this decision when he throws a book across the room upon discovering his mother’s name inscribed inside the cover. His outburst signifies Junior’s recognition of Wellpinit’s misery and desire to achieve. This ambition drives his decisions throughout the novel and defines his unique character. In addition, Junior discloses his decision to his parents with fearlessness and trepidation. Junior confesses, “I want to transfer schools... I want to transfer to Reardan” (Alexie 45). Junior’s bluntness highlights his fearless personality and validates his ability to confront his problems and tasks head-on. In complex situations, Junior possesses the skills to navigate his future. Finally, Junior’s ability to overcome problems appears in his ability to navigate his way to Reardan each day for school. With the uncertainty of gas money in his family, Junior often finds himself walking or hitchhiking to the school, however
Inked on the pages of Elie Wiesel’s Night is the recounting of him, a young Jewish boy, living through the mass genocide that was the Holocaust. The words written so eloquently are full of raw emotions depict his journey from a simple Jewish boy to a man who was forced to see the horrors of the world. Within this time period, between beatings and deaths, Wiesel finds himself questioning his all loving and powerful God. If his God loved His people, then why would He allow such a terrible thing to happen? Perhaps Wiesel felt abandoned by his God, helpless against the will of the Nazis as they took everything from him.
In the final moments of Night, Elie has been broken down to only the most basic ideas of humanity; survival in it of itself has become the only thing left for him to cling to. After the chain of unfortunate events that led to his newfound solitude after his father’s abrupt death, Elie “thought only to eat. [He] thought not of [his] father, or [his] mother” (113). He was consumed with the ideas of survival, so he repeatedly only expressed his ideas of gluttony rather than taking the time to consider what happened to his family. The stress of survival allocated all of Elie’s energy to that cause alone. Other humanistic feelings like remorse, love, and faith were outcast when they seemed completely unimportant to his now sole goal of survival. The fading of his emotions was not sudden mishap though; he had been worn away with time. Faith was one of the most prominent key elements in Elie’s will to continue, but it faded through constant. During the hanging of a young boy Elie heard a man call to the crowd pleading, “Where is merciful God, where is He?” (64). It snapped Elie’s resolve. From this point on, he brought up and questioned his faith on a regular basis. Afterwards, most other traits disappeared like steam after a fire is extinguished. Alone in the wet embers the will to survive kept burning throughout the heart ache. When all else is lost, humans try to survive for no reason other than to survive, and Wiesel did survive. He survived with mental scars that persisted the ten long years of his silence. Even now after his suffering has, Elie continues to constantly repeat the word never throughout his writing. To write his memoir he was forced to reopen the lacerations the strains of survival left inside his brain. He strongly proclaims, “Never shall I forget that night...Never shall I forget the smoke...Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the
When a person's faith is also an alternative for their culture and morals, it proves challenging to take that sense of security in that faith away from them. In Night, Elie Wiesel, a Jewish student living in Sighet, Transylvania during the war of 1942, uses his studies in Talmud and the Kabbalah as not only a religious practice but a lifestyle. Elie and his fellow civilians are warned, however, by his Kabbalah teacher who says that during the war, German aggressors are aggregately imprisoning, deporting, and annihilating millions of Jews. When Elie and his family are victim of this aggression, Elie realizes how crucial his faith in God is if he is to survive the Holocaust. He vows after being separated from his mother and sisters that he will protect he and his father from death, even though as death nears, Elie gradually becomes closer to losing his faith. In the end, to Elie's devastation, Elie makes it out of the Holocaust alone after his father dies from the intense seclusion to malnutrition and deprivation. Elie survives the Holocaust through a battle of conscience--first by believing in God, then resisting his faith in God, and ultimately replacing his faith with obligation to his father.
During the Holocaust many people were severely tortured and murdered. The holocaust caused the death of six million Jewish people, as well as the death of 5 million non-Jewish people. All of the people, who died during this time, died because of the Nazis’: a large hate group composed of extremely Ignoble, licentious, and rapacious people. They caused the prisoners to suffer physically and mentally; thus, causing them to lose all hope of ever being rescued. In the novel Night, by Elie Wiesel, Elie went through so much depression, and it caused him to struggle with surviving everyday life in a concentration camp. While Elie stayed in the concentration camp, he saw so many people get executed, abused, and even tortured. Eventually, Elie lost all hope of surviving, but he still managed to survive. This novel is a perfect example of hopelessness: it does not offer any hope. There are so many pieces of evidence that support this claim throughout the entire novel. First of all, many people lost everything that had value in their life; many people lost the faith in their own religion; and the tone of the story is very depressing.
Eliezer Wiesel loses his faith in god, family and humanity through the experiences he has from the Nazi concentration camp.
As humans, we require basic necessities, such as food, water, and shelter to survive. But we also need a reason to live. The reason could be the thought of a person, achieving some goal, or a connection with a higher being. Humans need something that drives them to stay alive. This becomes more evident when people are placed in horrific situations. In Elie Wiesel's memoir Night, he reminisces about his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust. There the men witness horrific scenes of violence and death. As time goes on they begin to lose hope in the very things that keep them alive: their faith in God, each other, and above all, themselves.
Elie Wiesel begins to lose his faith in God after he witnesses several horrific events. After only the first day in camp, Elie remembers everything he has seen such as the fire and smoke, as well as dead bod...
After being forced into concentration camps, Elie was rudely awakened into reality. Traumatizing incidents such as Nazi persecution or even the mistreatment among fellow prisoners pushed Elie to realize the cruelty around him; Or even the wickedness Elie himself is capable of doing. This resulted in the loss of faith, innocence, and the close bonds with others. Throughout his recollections, it is clear that Elie has a constant struggle with his belief in God. Prior to Auschwitz, Elie was motivated, even eager, to learn about Jewish mysticism.