Alan Chernitskiy

Dani Guzman

English 10, Period 4

9 May 2017

Power of Hardship

Hardships are a crucial part to the development of a person. Without hardship we

lack a need for drive and perseverance. In Night by Elie Wiesel the author uses

scenarios to display how hardships can be used to break a person. Wiesel illustrates an

image of animal like behavior on a train where inmates acted without and thought of

others(Wiesel A). Wiesel shoes how emotional and physical hardships transform

people.Wiesel introduces a mother who continued to scream and sob fitfully (Wiesel A)

when she is separated from her family and loved ones. The author uses the setting of a

train to create an isolated in environment to be able to compare how the characters and

their surroundings have changed. When the inmates are first sent put on a train they

feel that they had fallen into a trap, up to [their] necks and that the world had become

a hermetically sealed cattle car(Wiesel A) and that they only had each other. Wiesel

supports his claim of unity when the inhabitants of the cattle car reassured each other

that everything would be fine even when a horrible prophecy was yelled. This shows

that at the beginning of their journey the people were optimistic and hopeful for the

better. Quite the opposite happens once the inmates are tried and tested in the

concentration camps. On a train transferring the inmates the passengers had become

selfish and behaved in an animal like fashio. On this second train son was turning on

father and neighbor killed for even a crumb. Wiesel describes how a boy was killing
[his] father by beating him until he collapsed(Wiesel B) just to take a crust of bread.

This savage behavior has emerged due to the extreme conditions these people were

forced to endure. Another indicator of how greatly the people and the environment had

changed is by looking at just how many people were not able to survive these

hardships. In excerpt A the setting of the train was so crowded that Lying was not an

option, [neither was sitting](Wiesel A). Wiesel uses this as a baseline comparison for

later in the plot when victims were Lying on the floor for days and nights(Wiesel B)

when earlier they weren't even able to sit. This dramatic change puts in proportion just

how effective and extensive hitler's final solution was. Before these hardships there

were packed train cars and later their load had lightened significantly when Hundreds

of naked orphans(Wiesel B) were thrown off the train in Poland. These Dramatic

changes show how hardships can change not only one man but a collective nation.