Duality Of Death In Night Essay

Living creatures are not immortal, the fact that they are living automatically has death attached to their existence. Death looms over the human population taking many lives every day, not once failing. During the Holocaust, it came in the form of the Nazis, who used concentration camps as their factories of death. By the end of the Holocaust, 11 million were left dead by the Nazis, 6 million of them being Jewish. In the novel Night, Elie Wiesel presents an insider view of the horrific event and how death took form within it. As evidenced by the constant selections and hangings, death was always striking, but still had an air of mystery, with the Jews not fully knowing when they would be killed. Wiesel proves that mortality is simultaneously certain and uncertain by utilizing the deranged events Elie, the novel’s protagonist, faces in the Holocaust.

Eventually, everyone will die, as immortality is not a human trait,

Uncertainty in death is constantly present throughout Elie’s time at the camps. After arriving at Birkenau, the Jews had to go through their first selection. Both Elie and his father were told to go to the left, however they “...did not yet know which was the better side, right or left; which road led to prison and which to the crematory” (Wiesel 30). In this particular situation, the only ones who knew which way was which were the Nazis and the victims that found out too late. So, death was a 50/50 for the victims who had not gone that far. Those odds are far from certain. The pair, however, survive this trial, with the left going to prison. Once past the first selection, Wiesel only presents more uncertainty with the constant additional selections and the ability for the Nazis to kill without warning. The abundance of chance and randomness that is brought up perfectly proves the uncertain side of