Influence in Disguise Have you ever found yourself in a situation wondering how you got there? Did your own values or societal norms dictate your actions? This question of true motivation represents a topic studied, especially in literature, for several generations. For example, both George Orwell in his novel 1984 and Elie Wiesel in his memoir Night study whether personal desire or public influence represents a stronger form of motivation. In 1984, Winston Smith distinguishes himself from the rest of the brainwashed, dystopian society for he can remember the past and therefore recognizes the flaws of the ruling Inner Party. However, he struggles to remain true to his opposition of the Party and finds himself following his fellow citizens. …show more content…
In order for the Inner Party to command total control, members must create a system in which the middle class cannot gain enough strength to revolt. They develop a leader named Big Brother who watches over the citizens through telescreens that occupy every area of the city. Telescreens survey the city, but they also relay important announcements such as morning activities. Often, an instructress comes on screen to lead everyone through various exercises. During one of the morning sessions, she notices Winston exerting minimal effort during stretching. The instructress communicates specifically with Winston through the screen and after exorbitant amounts of encouragement, “Winston, with a violent lunge, succeeded in touching his toes with his knees unbent, for the first time in several years”(37). Winston recognizes the problems with the world in which he lives; unlike others, he can remember the past and knows that the Party alters history so that they can remain in power. However, even he ultimately recognizes that going against the Party will result in punishment. Therefore, although the exercises hurt Winston, the combination of the lady’s relentless focus along with the idea that the rest of the population also participates in the stretching overpowers Winston’s innate resistance to the Party. The abruptness of his movements results from the inner turmoil that Winston …show more content…
In the memoir Night, Elie and his fellow prisoners struggle to retain their humanity as guards separate families, take personal possessions, and replace names with numbers. This dehumanizing process leads many prisoners and guards to prioritize themselves. While most struggle to retain any part of their former true selves, Elie remains devoted to his father and finds comfort in their relationship. Eventually, his father’s health declines and Elie starts to listen to the advice of others who suggest he worry about himself, not his father. For a moment Elie begins to understand the merit of this argument and when a guard advises him to keep his father’s rations for himself, he agrees thinking, “he was right. I though deep down, not daring to admit it to myself. Too late to save your old father…”(111). However, Elie’s true morals quickly resurface and he returns to his role of devoted son recanting, “it was only for a fraction of a second but it left me feeling guilty. I ran to get some soup and brought it to my father”(111). Despite everyone else’s actions, Elie remains true to his own desire of helping his father. He almost gives in to the influence, but he instead follows his own wishes. Just as the reader believes that Elie may continue following his own personal values, he shows signs of conforming to societal norms. As his father’s death becomes imminent, Elie fakes an
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Show MoreFirst, Elie's relationship with his father changes. At the beginning of the book, he at least has a little bit to do with his father, and he cares about him. However, he gave ‘him what was left of [his] soup. But [his] heart was heavy. [He] was aware that [he] was doing it grudgingly.
In the book Night, by Elie Wiesel, he tells of his life and experiences throughout the Holocaust. As a young boy he was taken from his home, separated from his mom and sister, and thrown into a concentration camp with his father. Once he and his father arrived at the concentration camp, Auschwitz, many children and elderly were sent straight toward a crematory, and immediately executed. Their heads were shaved, and tattoos were inscribed on their arms. Forced to live in horrible conditions with hardly any food, Eliezer ceased to pray, and began to believe God had no sense of justice.
This example shows how he is almost the center of Elie’s survival. Elie’s relationship with his father reminds him of essential feelings of love, duty, and commitment. Also reminding him of his own humanity,
In the memoir Night by Eliezer Wiesel, the relationship between a father and son changes drastically from being distant toward each other to not wanting to spend a minute apart from one another. After being separated from the rest of their family forever, all Elie and his father had were each other. While being beaten, struck ,abused, and starved while in camp, Elie and his father formed a protective bond with each other. They also soon became each other 's motive to live as Elie stated having his father by his side was “the only thing stopping [him from giving up]” (92). Another example of the change in their relationship was Mr. Wiesel’s lack of affection towards his son at the beginning compared to the end.
As a result of a constant exposure to brutality, Elie nearly forgets the existence of a standard of humanity, since even the smallest acts of kindness are”judged too humane” (44). As Elie’s situation disintegrates from the stable Sighet to the Nazi concentration camp, he develops
When Elie’s father is chosen in the first selection to stay behind, it is the first time he has experienced the loss of hope that he will survive. “‘Here, take this knife,’ he said. ‘I won’t need it anymore. You may find it useful. Also take this spoon.
The bond between Elie and his father remains stronger than ever through their time in camp. Elie’s love for his father could be considered the reason for his survival, but also his weak point at times. His devotion led him to giving up his food rations and giving
teve Goodier once wrote, “My scars remind me that I did indeed survive my deepest wounds.” Night by Elie Wiesel is a memoir about Elies life during The Holocaust. He was a young boy when he was taken from his home in Sighet, Transylvania and brought to concentration camps. He was separated from his mother and two sisters and was left with his father. Determined for him and his father to live, Elie faced many people who didn 't want him to keep going and others who encouraged him to keep going.
Eliezer Wiesel loses his confidence in god, family and humankind through the encounters he has from the Nazi death camp. Eliezer loses confidence in god. He battles physically and rationally forever and no more accepts there is a divine being. "Never should I overlook those minutes which killed my god and my spirit and turned my fantasies to dust..."(pg 32). Elie endeavored to spare himself and asks god commonly to bail him and take him out of his hopelessness.
As he found himself around people and an ambient where everyone survives for himself, he became aware that he has many responsibilities to do compared to his before concentration camp life. Elie develops new ideas based on the responsibilities that each individual possesses as he confronts with corruption. As he encountered with his father’s hard sickness, Elie understood that he holds many burdens that should be completed, since he wasn’t a child anymore. Now it was his time to take care of him as he did once for Elie, illustrated as he says "I gave him what was left of my soup. But my heart was heavy.
In the book it says “ My father presence was the only thing that stopped me. What would he do without me?” This quote show how elie realtionship with his father save his
Hunter Sprankle 10/23/15 Night: Strength Elie Wiesel starts off Night by discussing his seemingly normal life before the Holocaust. Elie and his family are soon captured in his home town Sighet, and are taken as prisoners. Once in a concentration camp, Elie was separated from everyone in his family except for his father. While living in the concentration camp, Elie and his father had to survive the German soldiers abusive acts towards them and the other Jewish people living in the camp.
However, Elie’s father was obstinate, begging to rest because he was so unbearably weak. The one-sided quarrel caused Elie to admit, “I knew that I was no longer arguing with him but with Death itself, with Death that he had already chosen” (105). Elie had previously demonstrated the strength to fight for his life, but his father didn’t possess that same strength. He sought release from his
He is afraid if he searched his soul long enough, he would find something to show, but it might be how happy he is that this burden is finally lifted from his shoulders. Elie still does not want to admit to himself he is happy his father died. He can tell that deep within himself, the horrors of the Holocaust have torn him down and stripped him of his emotions, but he doesn’t want to admit it to himself. He is afraid of who he has become. This proves how torn Elie is about his father, and how the terrors of the holocaust have deprived him of his emotions, destroying the bond between him and his
But I was out of tears. And deep inside me, if I could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience, I might have found something like: Free at last!..” This shows the conflicts within himself he deeply needed his dad to survive to hold on and keep his identity, but he also thought that he was being restricted due to his father. Before the events occurred Elie would not have thought his father was holding him back he, thought he was pushing him forward. The death of his father relieved the stress of some of these conflicts, but it changed how he dealt with certain things moving forward.