Buried Emotions

Essay on the book, Night by Elie Wiesel.

 

Buried Emotions

            People go through various situations, obstacles, and moments in life. People do anything within their ability for their loved ones, and pray to their chosen god. However, when in a life or death situation, one cannot afford faith and compassion. In Night, by Elie Wiesel, many characters must endure harsh times, and must use their minds, not emotions, to survive them.

            In Night, the demand for survival exudes greater importance than any love or compassion for another. During the forty-two mile run to a desolate village, Rabbi Eliahou and his son “lost sight of one another” and his “son didn’t notice”(87). However, Elie knows the rabbi’s son “had seen him losing ground, limping, staggering back to the rear of the column. He had seen him and he had continued to run on in the front, letting the distance between them grow greater” (87). Elie soon realizes that the rabbi’s son “had wanted to get rid of his father” because “he had felt that his father was growing weak”, and was holding him back (87). The rabbi’s son wanted “to free himself from and encumbrance which could lessen his own chances of survival” (87). Despite the fact that the rabbi is his father, the boy only cares about ensuring his safety. Sadly, for the old man, this means his own son betrayed him for a better shot at survival. Elie prays for “strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahou’s son has done” (87). However, Elie himself gives up on his father and hopes to not find him. At one point, he thinks, “If only I could get rid of this dead weight, so that I could use all my strength to struggle for my own survival, and only worry about myself”.(87) Even though he feels ashamed immediately, the thought of betrayal still exists in his mind. It seems as if emotional attachment to another parallels emotional attachment to death itself. When in a life or death situation, “everyone lives [or] dies for himself alone” (105). No effort, strength, or time exists in one man to care for another during a time of extensive suffering.   

Although the Nazis initially imprisoned the Jews because of their strong faith in their religion, it is no longer of interest, nor focus, to the Jews after everything they go through.  At one point, a man claims to have “more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He’s the only one who’s kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people” (77). Sadly, the man is right; it is frighteningly depressing the Jews are losing faith when their faith is exactly why they have been tortured and brutally murdered for. However, these concerns remain far in thought. As Yom Kippur approaches, the imprisoned Jews question whether they should fast or not. The Jews understood that “to fast would mean a surer, swifter death” (66). They know if they begin fasting, they will only help the Nazis terminate the Jewish race; survival is the key to ultimate revenge against the Nazis, and if the Jews fast, fasting will only affect themselves. The Jews cannot afford to spend their time or energy praying, or believing in any faith that consumes their energy needed for focusing towards endurance. 

            After a long period of time, many Jews finally face the reality of concentration camps; they need to let go of everything and only focus on surviving the camps. When the Nazis hang a young boy in front of a group of them, the Jews ask “Where is God now?” and a voice answered “Here He is-He is hanging here on this gallows…” (62). As the boy struggled “between life and death, dying in slow agony”, a few Jews surrendered their faith for will of survival. The few Jews who gave up their religion understand they really cannot rely on religion to aid them in times of need. However, a character named Akiba Drumer loses faith, and as a result, commits suicide by volunteering to go to the crematorium. According to Elie, “if he could have seen a proof of God in this Calvary, he would not have been taken by the selection. But as soon as he felt the first cracks forming in his faith, he had lost his reason for struggling and had begun to die.” People like Akiba Drumer cannot accept the fact religion is not a priority when lasting in a concentration camp, and as consequence, the Nazis torture and murder them. The Jews’ main concerns just cannot include religion, and as hard as it may be to accept, the only possible option is to give it up.

Throughout the years the of Hitler’s reign, the only Jews who survived were the selfish individuals, and only because of their self-concern. Unfortunately, only by forgetting everything personal could the Jews survive the Holocaust, as Elie Wiesel clearly acknowledged in his novel Night.