Night

The central conflict of Night was when Elie has his character set against himself. He was faced with many hardships he was forced to over come for survival.

On the first night Elie and his family entered the internment camp he saw many people he knew getting burned alive. He witnessed friends, parents, and all the innocent burning to death for a reason that Elie only vaguely understood. This was his first experience loss in religion, this greatly changed him, before his faith demolished he was very interested in learning more about Judaism. Unfortunately he was not the only one to have this reaction. Elie observed others in the crematory and stated, "Someone began to recite the Kaddish, the prayer for the dead. I do not know if it has ever happened before, in the long history of Jews, that people have ever recited the prayer for the dead themselves." (31) I believe that Elie still concealed some of his faith deep with in, even after he saw the horrors personally. When he was only seven steps away from the fire he embraced death. He offered to electrocute himself so his Father wouldn't have to see him burn. After he was released he shared, "Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever" (32) I never found any evidence if Elie reclaimed his faith or not.

One unexpected high point in the story was when he met a woman. He never said if they had romantic relations but she instilled hope in him. After an intense, unneeded beating a woman Elie took notice in perviously came over to comfort him. She was thought to speek French but in perfect German she gave him words of hope and wisdom, "Bite your lip, little brother....don't cry. Keep your anger and hatred for another day, for later on. The day will come, but not now...Wait. Grit your teeth and wait..."(51) This was all it took, a few kind words. Later in his life Elie found her once again. He was in France and he saw her. "Facing me was a very beautiful woman with black hair and dreamy eyes. I had seen those eyes somewhere. It was she." (51) Though their correspondence in the book was brief I believe she had a large impact on Elie, especially if he remembered her after so many years.

After so much hardship Elie had to endure all he had was his Father. After weeks of sickness he finally was taken away from Elie forever. "I awoke January 29th at dawn. In my Father's place lay another invalid. They must have taken him away before dawn and carried him to the crematory. He may have still breathing." (106) Elie had no idea if his Father was murdered by being burned alive or simply cremated. This shows yet another example of how the Nazi's took everything Elie had, including his entire family, he clothes, his golden crown (for his tooth), his valuables, his shoes, and the man who gave him life.

After the internment camp was liberated he was hospitalized for food poising. He realized it had been years since he saw his face in a reflection. After he found one he saw a corpse staring back at him, "The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, have never left me".