Everyday, we go through situations and experiences that affect us in someway, perhaps even change us. Different situations have different effects. The more difficult the situation is, the more of an effect it has on us. Those hard times can be called adversity. How do we, as humans, react to adversity? What are the possible effects it may have? An example of adversity is the Holocaust - Hitler‘s plan to exterminate the Jews. In the memoir, Night, we discover how Elie Wiesel changes in response to his concentration camp experiences. The separation from his loved ones and the horrible conditions of these camps affect Elie immensely. Elie is affected in the following ways: …show more content…
That is why he uses bread and soup in order to try to sway the other prisoners from giving his father a hard time. Eli has a definite change emotionally. He thinks about the things he would never consider if he was not in Auschwitz. For example, on page 102, Elie says, “I gave him what was left of my soup, But it was with a heavy heart. I felt that I was giving it up to him against my will.” In the beginning, it was as if Elie would do anything for his father. After all, his father was older and it was Elie’s turn to look after him. After a while, his father seems like almost a burden to him. Elie felt obligated to give him the rest of his food, but if given the choice, he probably would not have given it up easily. The spiritual change in Elie was substantial. He went from a pious, devout Jew who spent countless of hours studying his faith. He never questioned God, but that is probably because everything was always good. During his stay at the concentration camps, Elie never stops believing in God, although he does question what he is doing. On page 64, Elie says, “Why, but why I should I bless Him? In every fiber I rebelled. Because He had thousands of children burned in His pits? Because He kept six crematories working night and day, on Sundays and feast days? Because in His great might He had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many factories of death?…” This shows the
One significant change of Elie during the book is his loss of faith in God. As stated in the text, “He watched me one day as I prayed at dusk...Why did I pray?...Why did I live? Why did I breathe?” (Page 4). Elie is first shown to tell that he has a high trust in God and makes it a part of his life; however, as he spends more time in Auschwitz, his daily prayers and trusting God starts to go downhill for it is noted on page 64, “For God’s sake, where is God?” And from within me, I heard a voice answer: Where He is? This where, hanging here from this gallows” (Page 64). Here he begins to
They way he viewed his religion, the way he felt about his father and even the way he viewed the human race were affected. Before the Holocaust happened, Elie was very religious at the beginning of the book. But with everything that happened during the Holocaust, he felt it was testing his religion. Everything broke his faith which ruined a part of who he is a person. Elie’s views of his father changed. At first, Elie wasn't that close to his father. Toward the middle of the book, Elie would do anything to protect his father. He made sure he was safe and worked close to his father so that nothing bad happened to his dad. This changed Elie’s personality because it made him protective over his loved ones--Even during a time where most people felt they had no family because most people viewed their life was worth more than a loved one. Another way his personality changed throughout the book was the way he viewed people. Elie always saw everyone as equals before his family and him got taken to a concentration camp. But there was a part in the book where the German soldiers took the Jews and walked them into a town like a parade and everyone in the town was cheering on the solders. Elie wondered how people saw them as great people or heroes. How can they praise the Nazis and cheer them on while they were killing people just because their religion is different? This changed Elie’s personality because he realized that
That brings me to my first example of how Elie changed in the camps and one way is how Elie has a different outlook on life. What I mean by that is Elie would have never suspected something this criminal like the holocaust to happen to him just as in today's society we think we are invincible and bad things will not ever happen to us. Which I can understand because I used to think like that, but now that I've read Night I too have a different outlook on things. Elie's outlook on life changed much more than ours will ever. For example, after years in death camps Elie got used to thousand of people dying everyday all around him with nothing he could do about it without getting killed himself. Elie would have never guessed this would be something he would be forced to watch happen everyday which is why the holocaust changed his outlook on life. Like I said there are many aspects in concentration camps that can changed a person so my second example of Elie changing is how much physically and emotionally he changed. For selection day all Jews were required to do some tests to measure their strengths and weaknesses. Like having to run the fastest they could nonstop until a guard tells them to stop and if their name got written down it meant they were to weak to move on and they would be killed. My opinion on this is I think it is
In the beginning of the story, Elie was a spoiled, happy, sweet, and innocent child. The concentration camps changed all of that. Before the camps, he was picky about most things. In the camps, he was happy even receiving any food. This really shows the readers that this not only changes a person but that you should be thankful for what you have. Because of camps, it really changed Elie’s personality.
At the beginning of his life in the concentration camps, he refused to eat the soup provided, not knowing what was to come.He was used to the big yummy meals before Hitler's rule. But after experiencing starvation in the camps, his view deeply alternated. When talking about a period without food near the end of the war he explains, “we had not eaten for nearly six days except for a few stalks of grass and some potato peels found on the grounds of the kitchens”(Wisel 114). Elie went from refusing a bowl of soup to eagerly eating scraps of food on the ground. All men in the camp scrambled for any food they could find. This is a huge change and makes one be more grateful for his
Adversity can change a person's life completely for the worse or for the better. Everyone in their life at some point will go through an adverse experience but it is how they persevere and survive that changes a person. In “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty, two snipers are battling for their life in war. In “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, a man is fighting for his life as a hunter is trying to kill him. In both of these short stories adversity can be found. In “The Sniper”, two snipers are firing at each other from a distance in a war zone. One sniper gets shot and is struggling, but he creates a plan to trick the other sniper that he is dead. Then, the wounded sniper gets his chance to kill the other sniper. The wounded sniper
Adversity is described by Dictionary.com as “adverse or unfavorable fortune or fate; a condition marked by a misfortune, calamity, or distress.” Adversity can happen everywhere among us and can take the chance to hit us when we are having a good day. In the books Tuesdays with Morrie and Night, adversity hits these characters hard. In Tuesdays with Morrie, the author Mitch Albom writes about his experience with his beloved college professor, Morrie Schwartz, and Morrie’s battles with a disease called ALS. In Night, the author and the main character, Elie Wiesel, goes through adversity as well at a concentration camp during the Holocaust. Handling the adversity is rather difficult, especially when we want to give up after we are hit with a traumatic blow. However, these characters in these two completely different books, show that adversity cannot bring them down.
This change in values is primarily due to the Nazis only providing an insufficient daily ration of thin soup and stale crust of bread. Unfortunately for this son, he had to choose whether to kill his father if it increased his own chance at survival, and he decided the answer is yes. He bypassed a father-son relationship for bread. In addition, the short sentences powerfully indicate the depressing mood emanating from this passage as well as diction including stunned, crying, killing, clutched, groaned, died, and dead. This drastically differs from the strong, joyful bond Elie and his family shared prior to the concentration camps. Tragedy turns people away from happily loving their families toward brutally murdering them to
Adversity. A condition marked by misfortune, calamity, or distress. Adversity in most conditions is considered to be something should never happen. Adversity is the struggles of the poor and the homeless. Adversity is a hurricane and a tsunami destroying lives and homes. Adversity is, however, a rewarding experience. Not fun, not good, but rewarding. In the face of adversity, people tend to develop their character by uncovering new talents, making themselves stronger, and by becoming more understanding and compassionate.
Before Elie went to the concentration camp, he had many good character traits. He was caring, curious, and compassionate. For example, “And Moise the Beetle, the poorest of the poor in Sighet, spoke to me for hours and hours about Kabbalah revelations and its mysteries.” (Wiesel 5) He showed compassion for the poorest person in the town. When Moise is expelled from the town and comes back telling the horrors of what he experienced, Elie is the only one that believes him and shows care for him. Even later in the book, he shows care and compassion for his father. “‘They're exhausted… exhausted…’ [his father said] His voice was tender. I howled into the wind: ‘They're dead! They will never wake up! Never! Do you understand?’” (Wiesel 105) Here, Elie’s father is giving up, and trying to lay down and die, staring at the people who are dead. Elie keeps pushing him because he wants to stay alive and survive. This shows the immense amount of care that he has for someone that is even suicidal. he hates anyone that will cause any type of harm to his loved ones. For example, “I had no strength left. The journey had just begun and I already felt so weak… ‘Faster! Faster! Move, you lazy
Adversity, What is it? Adversity means a difficult or misfortune to someone during an event. Adversity is used in a everyday lifestyle for most people. Doing different tasks that makes you think deeper or thinking outside the box. Pushing through challenges you come upon. Adversity have been used for millions of years, Inventors use adversity every single day they work, finding kinks or flaws in their creation.
One example of adversity that has impacted my life is when my mom was diagnosed with Lupus in 2015. Lupus is an inflammatory disease that is caused when the immune system attacks itself. My mom also has rheumatoid arthritis and chronic migraines. There are a lot of times where she can’t get out of bed because she’s so sick. However, she always makes it to all of my activities. She truly is one of the strongest and most loving people I know.
Adversity is what shapes people into who they become and what type of path they will go down. Authors Jo Parker, Richard Wright, and Allen Wheelis all wrote about adversity and how each person dealt with it in a different way. Parker published an essay from an impoverished mother and how she tried to overcome being in poverty with kids to try and take care of. Wright wrote about a boy who was starving and when there was money to buy food he would be beaten up by neighborhood bullies. Wheelis wrote about his own experience with adversity, with him having to spend his summer cutting grass and his father passing away from tuberculosis. They all dealt with each of their own adversities in a different way from each other. These authors either had to either adapt or die to try to overcome each of their own adversities.
The noun “adversity” is a word that is all too common to me.I was not able to experience the joys of being a carefree child whose only concern was playing on the playground during school, I became fearful of rejection to a degree similar to that of inadequacy.I couldn't find my voice, no matter how hard I tried. In my earlier years I coped with my feelings of self worth in a negative manner. I internalized all of my emotions: anger, sadness, and fear. Instead of expressing my true emotions. In truth I created a facade to those around me. Despite the environment I was in, I remained peaceful and contempt as a result of the emotional and verbal abuse that I endured as a child. In the midst of trying to combat what I felt, I would lash out on
Adversity; a noun meaning a difficulty or struggle. Growing up with severe anxiety caused numerous social issues, academic stresses, and hardships in all areas of my life. Until my junior year of high school I never realized how unusual my stress level was until I received a prescription for Lexapro, a medicine used to treat depression and anxiety, two mental illnesses I have long struggled with. Although mental illness comes with a stigma that it is just mental, in reality mental illness is uncontrollable. Just admitting to my problem acted a big step in my triumph over mental illness.