Death is not what the greatest loss is, it is, in fact, when we die on the inside, while our hearts continues to beat. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, the author retells the horrors he went through during his time in the concentration camps during World War II. The book tells an unbearably painful story that describes all the pain, hunger, work, and beatings Wiesel and his fellow prisoners had to experience. Wiesel details the emotional death within the other prisoners, spawned through the torture, desperation to survive, and a lack of will to live.
In the event of the torture in the concentration camps, the prisoners faced emotional death. Most notably was Moishe the Beadle. When he and other foreign Jews were taken to a Polish concentration …show more content…
The author showed this in himself, when he did not want to get up after laying down in the snow, which could have killed him. Wiesel did not have “the desire nor the resolve” (88) to get back up while he was in the snow. Most people have a drive to survive in the most horrible of conditions and situations, but once they lose their emotions, their will to survive dies with it. Life becomes empty and has no meaning to it, almost like a white canvas. Wiesel showed this lack of a will to survive, because even after he was told that staying out in the snow would kill him, he did not care. Equally, emotional death was shown in Mr. Wiesel when he nearly died. While some prisoners were gathering dead bodies, they almost took Mr. Wiesel, but left once his son proved he was alive. However, when he “half-opened his eyes, they were glassy” (99). He had woken up after his son hit his chest multiple times, which, with someone who had never been in the camps, would have violently woken anybody up. Instead, Mr. Wiesel had half-lidded, glassy, eyes. The glassy look to his eyes, could have shown an indifference as to whether he lived or died. It’s also supported by the fact that he was laying in the snow; something he had specifically told his son not to do. As a result, the lack of their will to survive caused emotional death within the
In the event of the torture in the concentration camps, the prisoners faced emotional death. Most notably was Moishe the Beadle. When he and other foreign Jews were taken to a Polish concentration …show more content…
The author showed this in himself, when he did not want to get up after laying down in the snow, which could have killed him. Wiesel did not have “the desire nor the resolve” (88) to get back up while he was in the snow. Most people have a drive to survive in the most horrible of conditions and situations, but once they lose their emotions, their will to survive dies with it. Life becomes empty and has no meaning to it, almost like a white canvas. Wiesel showed this lack of a will to survive, because even after he was told that staying out in the snow would kill him, he did not care. Equally, emotional death was shown in Mr. Wiesel when he nearly died. While some prisoners were gathering dead bodies, they almost took Mr. Wiesel, but left once his son proved he was alive. However, when he “half-opened his eyes, they were glassy” (99). He had woken up after his son hit his chest multiple times, which, with someone who had never been in the camps, would have violently woken anybody up. Instead, Mr. Wiesel had half-lidded, glassy, eyes. The glassy look to his eyes, could have shown an indifference as to whether he lived or died. It’s also supported by the fact that he was laying in the snow; something he had specifically told his son not to do. As a result, the lack of their will to survive caused emotional death within the