In The Face Of Fear
In Night, Elie Wiesel focuses on the relationship between identity and mortality, specifically the idea that fear or prolonged sight of mortality can change one’s identity and the fact that a change of one’s identity can change our views on mortality.
Identity can easily change when faced with fear of death. When Elie felt death near through his hunger, he became “nothing but a body,” and “the bread, the soup -those were my [Elie’s] entire life” (Wiesel 52). All he could care for was not to die of starvation, and so he became a mindless, hungry body. The excerpt perfectly demonstrates how when faced with the presence of mortality Elie’s identity changed. This change was slow at first but quickly afterwards and once it reached the point where he became reliant on the small amount of food he received, he no longer remembered, nor cared for, who he was. When he writes of the “beasts of prey …show more content…
When the men -including Elie- became free, they had “no thought of revenge, or of parents. Only bread” (Wiesel 115); revealing the change of priorities in their lives. Much hunger and violence had to be embedded in their minds for this drastic change, however, it did eventually change their identities, causing them to prioritize food so their death would be prolonged. And when Wiesel writes of “men… dying” and how “nobody paid attention to them” (Wiesel 89), you can tell that something has changed because to see a person die is one of the most impacting, and memorable experiences a human being can have. Violence and death numbed those men to the point where -after evidencing great amounts of ‘their own’ dying from exhaustion- they didn’t care anymore. Evidently, living in the presence of violence and misery changed identities, which in turn changed their views on mortality drastically from that which they had before it all
In Night, Elie Wiesel focuses on the relationship between identity and mortality, specifically the idea that fear or prolonged sight of mortality can change one’s identity and the fact that a change of one’s identity can change our views on mortality.
Identity can easily change when faced with fear of death. When Elie felt death near through his hunger, he became “nothing but a body,” and “the bread, the soup -those were my [Elie’s] entire life” (Wiesel 52). All he could care for was not to die of starvation, and so he became a mindless, hungry body. The excerpt perfectly demonstrates how when faced with the presence of mortality Elie’s identity changed. This change was slow at first but quickly afterwards and once it reached the point where he became reliant on the small amount of food he received, he no longer remembered, nor cared for, who he was. When he writes of the “beasts of prey …show more content…
When the men -including Elie- became free, they had “no thought of revenge, or of parents. Only bread” (Wiesel 115); revealing the change of priorities in their lives. Much hunger and violence had to be embedded in their minds for this drastic change, however, it did eventually change their identities, causing them to prioritize food so their death would be prolonged. And when Wiesel writes of “men… dying” and how “nobody paid attention to them” (Wiesel 89), you can tell that something has changed because to see a person die is one of the most impacting, and memorable experiences a human being can have. Violence and death numbed those men to the point where -after evidencing great amounts of ‘their own’ dying from exhaustion- they didn’t care anymore. Evidently, living in the presence of violence and misery changed identities, which in turn changed their views on mortality drastically from that which they had before it all