Motivation Of Family In Night By Elie Wiesel

Family is one of the biggest impact on people's lives in numerous ways. They help to teach each other perseverance even in the toughest times. In the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie was able to survive the countless nights in the concentration camps because he knew he had his father right by his side throughout it all. In the novel Sold by Patricia McCormick, young Lakshmi did not have her family in person with her at the Happiness House, but she had them in her thoughts constantly. It was these thoughts that allowed her to keep going even when nothing was what she thought it would be. By examining the novels Night and Sold we can see that family is the best motivation for survival even in the face of evil which is important because everyone

She knew her family was waiting patiently for her to finish her work in the city and come back home. Lakshmi thought she was doing the right thing by going to the city to help her family’s financial situation, but she did not know that she was going to have to “give herself up” in the way she was forced to. It was Lakshmi’s idea to go work in the city to help her family, so it was a big surprise to her when she found out she wasn’t actually going there to be a maid. The thought of her family at home was the one thing that motivated her to get her work over with so she could come back home: “Each night, I dream that Ama and I are sitting outside our hut...and she is twining my hair into long dark braids” (109). Lakshmi was describing how she dreams about her and her mother sitting back at home together. This dreaming is what pushes her to continue working for Mumtaz in the Happiness House. Lakshmi soon became close friends with a few of the other girls at the Happiness House such as Shahanna and Pushpa. With her actual family being so far away, these girls have become her temporary family while she is at the House. She continues to dream about going back home to her real family, but she is able to get through her experience with Mumtaz by her dreams of her family and her “temporary

Monica was one of the girls that worked at the Happiness House and she was the bold, and brave one. She got her work done as fast as she could so she could get as much done as possible. She told everyone at the Happiness House that she was only doing this so she could pay for her father’s surgery and support her daughter that she had at home. This is similar to how Lakshmi survived except for the fact that when Monica left to go home, it was not long until she was back at the House. She explained to everyone that when she got home she was not wanted by her family and her father told her daughter that Monica was dead. This tore Monica apart and she had nowhere else to go, so she was forced to go back to Mumtaz. Eventually she was forced out onto the streets: “She has the virus...there is no remedy” (210). Monica received the virus from lack of protection while doing work at the Happiness House and if she continued working, then she could spread the virus to her clients. Mumtaz found out that she had this virus and no longer wanted Monica around so she kicked her out of the Happiness House and onto the streets. Monica wasn’t able to survive after finding out her family did not want her and eventually she couldn’t live in the House