NIGHT Essay

Rebecca Martinez
Mrs. Bosch
Honors English 10P
8 January 2008
The Will to Live
-Many people go around in life not thinking of reasons to live or die, they just live. But many people haven’t been through such experiences as others have, where one longs for death or possess only one reason to live. It is a sad fate for those who have what they hold most precious, taken away or killed and have already been through so much tragedy that then lose their will to live because that person, who was taken away, was their last strand binding them to this earth. Such was the case of most Jews going through the concentration camps. Most felt they had every reason to die but only one to live. Many people don’t know the devastation and horror they felt going through life in those horrible places. Although many people have lived and died of diseases, many people don’t know what it’s like for them and that is just one devastating thing we suffer from in these times which doesn’t even come close to how the Jews must have felt. One might think that lying to a person to give them hope that their loved one might still be alive or giving hope to a person with a deadly disease is useless because the person is most likely going to die anyway. (What would be the use in renewing a dead man’s hope or will to live?) Giving hope to a faint hearted person and renewing their faith and desire to live would not be useless, but in fact, would be morally right, even if it meant lying.
-In the days of the Holocaust, Jews from many parts were sent to concentration camps where families were broken up, torn apart, and slaughtered. For many, the belief and hope that some part of their family was still alive was enough to keep them going. For others their faith in God was enough to keep them going. But once they stopped believing that their family might still be alive or that God was still with them in such a God forsaken place, they gave up and died. In the book Night, by Elie Wiesel, there are many people that the protagonist, Elie, comes in contact with who have these same feelings, including himself. In one incident, Elie’s relative Stein discovers that Mr. Wiesel and Elie are at Auschwitz; the same place as him. He finds them and asks if they have received news of his wife. Mr. Wiesel had not recognized him because he was more involved in the Jewish community than his family, but Elie recognized him almost at once. At his relative’s inquiry, Elie told him that his wife and children were doing great, that they were fine. Really Elie had not heard news of them for four years. After hearing this news, Stein wept with much joy. Every time after that, when Stein came to visit, he would have tears of joy and gratitude streaming down his face. At times he would tell Elie, “The only thing that keeps me alive…is that Reizel and the children are still alive. If it wasn’t for them, I couldn’t keep going.” (42). Later, a train came in from the area where his wife had been and he discovered real news; Elie never saw him again. Stein had been in the concentration camps for two years already and his hope that his family was still safe and well began to dwindle. Seeing Elie and hearing his words, even if it was a lie, that his family was okay renewed his hope of seeing them once more and being with them again. It helped him to carry on a little longer. Man has a strong will to survive and carry on which is evident through out history. Stein’s will to survive was probably at the breaking point, thinking all was lost and his family dead but because of Elie’s words he was not left to sink into a despair full of sorrow, doubt, and death. Even Elie himself was subject to the feelings that if his father died then there would be no reason to keep living. At one point he thought his father really was dead, that the cold winter and inviting sleep of death had taken him away, and began to think in that way. “My mind was invaded suddenly by this realization- there was no more reason to live, no more reason to struggle” (93). Elie’s father was what kept him going and kept him from dying. If it had not been for him, Elie probably would have died within the first couple months, if that. Lying to a person and telling him that his family was doing fine, might just help him to keep going, to not give up hope, to survive with the prospect of seeing better days.
-Although we no longer have those cruel concentration camps today which scarred so many with unforgettable memories, we do have other things in today’s society which leave people devastated, with a single hope and others without even one. Every year people fall victim to the deadly cancers of the world. Every year more and more people end up with other diseases like HIV, TB, and Sickle Cell Anemia. Statistics show that “More than half a million people die of advanced cancer each year in the United States..,” (American Cancer Society), “… the total number of people living in the USA with HIV/AIDS is…between 1,039,000 and 1,185,000.”(AVERT), there are “…14.6 million chronic active TB cases, 8.9 million new cases, and 1.6 million deaths..,” (Wikipedia), and one out of every four hundred African Americans has sickle cell anemia (Mama’s Health). People are living and dying every year from these diseases. When people receive the news of their diagnosis they have a choice either to fight the disease or let it consume them. Their desire to live and stay with their loved ones greatly influences their chances of survival. Life and Death is what these victims face. Frequently, doctors will not tell a person their conditions straight out and maybe even lie because they don’t want that person to think all is lost. They try to give them hope and make the patient believe that they can get through it. So even with a false hope, people can survive and get through some of the most difficult and life threatening illnesses. With faith, hope, and a desire to survive man can do most anything.
-Giving hope to a person to help them to keep going is not useless because no one can ever know what is going to happen from one day to the next. One day one might be healthy and fine and the next, sick in bed. One day a person’s family could be alive and well and the next, they could all be dead. All people need to believe in something. They need a reason to live, a reason to keep going, a reason to survive. It would have been so easy to just let go and die, not caring about anyone or anything, and for those who went through the concentration camps, not having to feel the pains of concentration life. Without a reason, life is not worth living. So if it is a lie that will keep a person going, even for a little while, so be it. For those of the early 1900’s, it was better to live and survive and find out some of one’s family was able to live through it all, then to doubt and die with no one at one’s side who really cared. It is better, over all, to try than to die.



Works Cited
How Many People Get Advanced Cancer?. 16 January 2007. American Cancer Society. 7
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Sickle Cell Anemia. 2000-2007. Mama’s Health.com. 7 January 2007
.

Tuberculosis. 31 December 2007. Wikipedia the free Encyclopedia. 7 January 2008
.

United States Statistics Summary. 25 April 2007. AVERT. 7 January 2008
.

Wiesel, Elie. Night. United States of America: Bantam Books, 1982.