Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs In Night By Elie Wiesel

The Holocaust not only stripped the Jews from their identity and attempt to end them, but they also stripped the survivors from reaching their full potential. The Holocaust was a genocide in which about six million Jews were brutally murdered by the German Nazis. Elie Wiesel, a holocaust survivor, wrote Night to show all the pain and suffering he went through in the concentration camps. Analyzing Night, one can see that the autobiography connects to Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, in fact it supports it. Elie Wiesel’s autobiographical novel, Night, supports the theory of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs by illustrating the failure of achieving self-actualization due to the lack of physiological and safety needs.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs by Abraham

For instance, there was a moment where the prisoners were gathered inside the blocks while the SS rested in the shelters. There the prisoners were left alone near a kitchen where two bowls of cauldrons soups were left unattended. Elie admits, “Two cauldrons of soup! Smack in the middle of the road, two cauldrons of soup with no one to guard them..Fear was greater than hunger” (Wiesel 59). One cannot deny that the prisoners were afraid of being caught by the SS and being killed at them at that moment. The prisoners have been starved for months if not years and those two bowls were left alone, but they knew if they even touched that soup trouble was going to happen. Their psychological needs were not important to them at that moment their safety on the other hand was their priority. Nevertheless, the argument is overstated because this portion of the book was saying what the prisoners did, not what they thought nor felt. Elie

He was the one who had dared. He reached the first cauldron. Hearts were pounding harder: he had succeeded”(Wiesel 59). The prisoners did not do anything due to their fear but that does not mean that they skipped their physiological needs. The prisoners were in fact full of jealousy because of one man who had the courage to eat the soup. That man acted on his psychological need without thinking of his safety. This quote impartially shows us that the prisoners are still focusing on their physiological need by feeling jealous and their jealousy is what they used to meet that need in that moment which gave them opportunity to look at their safety