Internal Conflict in Night by Elie Wiesel (Essay Sample)

“The idea of ceasing to be, began to fascinate me” (86). The title of the book this analysis is on is Night, and it's written and put in the perspective of Elie Wielsel. The main characters in the story are Elie Wiesel, his father, mother, and siblings, the Nazi’s, Moishe the Beatle, the SS guards, and the surrounding inmates of the concentration camps. The general plot of the story is that Elie's Jewish neighborhood and many others in Europe, are sent to concentration camps because of the reign of Hitler. Elie and his father are just trying to survive to eventually escape. Throughout the course of the story, Elie’s internal conflict with his will to live has changed him from being interested in many different things like learning about Judaism, to just wanting to give up and die toward the end of the book. 

At the beginning of the story, before the conflict began, Elie was very fascinated by Judaism and it was his main will to live. An example that shows this is when he says, “Why did I pray? Strange question. Why did I live? Why did I breathe?” (4). This statement shows his true connection with his religion by comparing it to something needed to live, this shows that his religion is what brings him life. Wielsel shows the turning point of his will to live when he makes the statement, “If that was true, I don’t want to wait. I’ll run into the electrical barbed wire. That would be easier than a slow death in flames'' (33). This comes right after one of the inmates told him about the crematorium and it shows the beginning of his loss of hope  and that he already doesn’t want to suffer any longer, even though the suffering hasn’t gotten nearly as bad as it is toward the end of the story. 

By the middle of the book, Elie’s mind is very determined about escaping. Some textual evidence that supports this statement is when on page 60, “We no longer feared death, in any event, not this particular death. Every bomb that hit us filled us with joy” (60). When he talks about every bomb that hits them, he means every bomb that hit the surrounding concentration camps and every bomb that hits, is a little bit closer to getting saved by whoever is dropping them, but to be saved, they need to keep fighting to survive and keep their spirits high. Another example of this is when he says, “I began to laugh. I was happy… At that moment, the others did not matter! They had not written me down!” (72). This comes right after the selection had come and if your name was written down, you would be sent to the crematorium. From him saying this, we can see his true desperation to escape and starts to show his loss of humanity by not caring about the others around him. 

Towards the end of the novel, Elie wants to give up and die right on the spot but his body won't let him, showing a little bit of humanity left. Another thing keeping him alive is his father. Some evidence that supports this is when he says, “I couldn’t help but think there was two of us; my body and I, and I hated that body” (85).  This statement shows that he is wanting to just give up and die, but his body and the little bit of humanity he has left isn’t letting him. Another example that supports this claim is when he said, “Suddenly the evidence overwhelmed me. There was no longer any reason to live, any reason to fight” (99). This quote comes right after his father had died and from him saying this, it shows he was a very crucial part of him going on any longer and now that he is dead, there was no longer any reason to live or keep fighting. 

Elie’s will to live shifted from having hope within his religion in the beginning of the story, to losing all that in the concentration camps and when his father died. At the beginning of the novel, Elie needs to learn more about Judaism. In the middle of the story, he has hope that if he keeps fighting, he will eventually get saved and escape from the concentration camps. At the end of the book, he loses all hope of escaping and just wants to die because it would be better than fighting the inevitable. The message Wiesel want people to take away after reading Night is that as long as you keep fighting, you will eventually overcome any problems that you have. The way this connects with the real world is that we live in a world where suicide is the 12th leading cause of death, and this can be prevented if you try to see the good in things and keep fighting just like Elie Wiesel did in the concentration camps.