Fear And Oppression In Eliezer Wiesel's Night

Fear and Oppression Terrorism is a worldwide problem that has been in existence for a majority of human history. It has affected many victims far and wide through the span of history, and with that all victims have responded differently. Elie Wiesel, in his book Night, recounts his personal experiences as a Jew during the time of the Holocaust. Malala Yousafzai, a victim of oppression and an attack by the Taliban, speaks about her experiences with a fear towards the Taliban and her methods in standing up against to the them in an interview on The Daily Show. Maurice Ogden, in his piece “Hangman”, tells the story of a man who followed an oppressor over his own people in trade for his own life. Across these three events, all the victims responded …show more content…
Because of the Jews’ fear, the Nazis were able to reduce the Jews to the point that they did. The development of this is shown in Eliezer Wiesel’s Night, as he shows the effects the Holocaust had on people. Weisel come to find Yehiel who is in tears. Wiesel tells him not to cry, but Yehiel tells him, “Not cry? We’re on the threshold of death. Soon, we shall be inside … Do you understand? Inside. How could I not cry,” (Night 45). The experience of the screening had instilled fear into Yehiel, a fear that resulted in tears. Yehiel had lost all hope of escape and instead accepted that this is the reality; he will go inside and he will be put to work until death. He failed to resist the feeling of impending doom and thus allowed his fear to lead him to think this way, that there is no way out and that this is the end. Yehiel’s fear allowed the Nazis to have the power they had over him, it allowed them to push him to the edge. He is the first of many Jews whom Eliezer sees that go through this development of fear to hopelessness to complete acceptance of the situation. He is one of many Jews who failed to realize that if they had simply resisted the fear and urge to subjugate to the Nazi’s demands, they wouldn’t have been reduced to the point that they were reduced to. In Maurice Ogden’s “Hangman”, the man who had turned on his own village worked for the oppressor for the slight chance that he might live. At the end, the man is put to death hearing the Hangman (oppressor) saying, “I do no more than you let me do” (Ogden 119). The man had chosen to follow the Hangman out of fear for his own life, but in the process he failed to understand that there was no need for anything he had done. If he had simply stood with his people and fought back against the Hangman he would have lived. He