Survival For Elie example essay topic

The book Night, by Elie Wiesel, is a powerful documentary of his experience in the holocaust and the lasting effects that it had on him. Throughout his story, he speaks of many stirring events that lead one to better understand the value of life and freedom. He also uses examples to demonstrate how important one's family is, and lastly the struggles of human survival. He takes you on a journey through hardships and small triumphs, and leaves you with a better understanding of his life. The most prominent thing in Elie's story seems to be his urgency to get the point across to his readers the true meaning of not taking things for granted. Before the Jews were deported from their daily lives, Elie lived in a respectable family and was surrounded by friends.

He attended school and never had any doubts or begrudging feelings about his religion and faith. When the German troops took over the town that Elie lived in and discriminated the Jews, forcing them to wear yellow stars, Elie caught a glimpse of what life was like without freedom. He could no longer go to school or church, and they had strict rules and curfews. His life and liberty were further restrained when him and his family were forced to depart from their home and leave on a train for a Nazi camp. Finally, Elie's freedom was completely diminished when he entered the concentration camp. He no longer could choose when and what to eat, what to wear, when to sleep, or how to spend his free time because he was not given any of those choices.

Not only were Elie's privileges and daily life choices taken away, but he was separated from most of his family as well. Elie and his family were very close, and it included his father, mother, Elie, and his three sisters, Hilda, Bea, and Tzipora. They were all deported together and remained together until they reached Birkenau, which was the reception center for the concentration camp Auschwitz. There, the women and men had to separate, so Elie and his father went a separate way from his mother and sisters. The men proceeded to what seemed to be a crematory, and Elie thought that it would surely be the end for him.

Luckily he and his father escaped not only being killed, but being separated as well all throughout their journey from camp to camp. They struggled together, worked together, and prayed together, and surely without his father, survival for Elie would have been a much more difficult if not impossible task. Unlike other families, Elie and his father never turned against each other for the sake of extra food or water, but stuck together knowing how much they needed the company and love of one another. In the end, Elie was indeed separated from his dad by death, but he stuck by his side until the very end. Even when his father was sick and did not ultimately need the small portion of food given to him, Elie refused to take it and deprive his father. He shows the true meaning and importance of family, and what it provides for us.

Just as it was a struggle not to be separated, it was an even harder struggle just simply to survive. The Nazi concentration camps were anything but sanitary, and thousands of people died while in them. Elie's goal throughout the entire story is to survive the horrors of the life he is forced to be a part of because of his religion. Most people in today's world would not have been able to sustain the horrible conditions, little or no food, and extremely hard work that Elie and his father were faced with. This shows the capability of human survival in the face of horrible hardship. Elie watched friends die in the crematory, he watched victims receive terrible beatings, and he lived in the constant danger of losing his life everyday.

With meager portions of food and water, he just barely stayed alive, although he was luckier than his father thanks to his youth. They were also forced regularly on death marches, during which people were trampled on and died from exhaustion. After the Jews were given liberation, Elie was still alive, but he had little to live for because most of his family and friends had perished. He, along with thousands of others, suffered more in a few years than most would suffer in a lifetime. The book Night, written by Elie Wiesel, is an emotional and moving story about a Jewish boy's struggle for life during World War II.

Elie teaches his readers the value of life, and not to take it for granted. He proves that one can never know when their whole world will be turned upside down. He also stresses the importance of having a family and sticking together through hard times. Without the companionship of Elie's father and the support that they offered each other, he may not have survived.

Lastly, Elie shows one how difficult yet how imperative it was for him to survive the terrible traumas he was put through. Elie went through great extents to stay alive, and in the end he was rewarded only with his freedom, something that most take for granted. Everyone should read his story, and if nothing else, realize how much of an effect hatred has on the world.