Preview

Overcoming Adversity By Elie Wiesel

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1191 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Overcoming Adversity By Elie Wiesel
Shear 1

Ryan Shear
Jackson Per. 3
March 10th, 2015 Adversity Essay Adversity is like a mighty wind that tears away at individuals, but the things that cannot be torn, allow individuals to see who they really are.
Overcoming adversity is one of the biggest obstacles individuals face while on the path of life. Problems, some larger than others, present themselves to people throughout their whole life. Regardless of how sharp, clever, or unworried one is, a person will encounter challenges, struggle, difficulties and at times, heart jerking moments. Thanks to many hardships, learning to deal with and conquering adversity is what makes the individual who they are in the world today. Elie Wiesel in the book
Night
, Tom
…show more content…
Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never." (Wiesel 32). Elie Wiesel largely struggled internally whether or not he should continue to believe in God after witnessing so many deaths that he was not stopping, in addition to the harsh external weather, and the little amounts of food. Despite Elie’s hardships, he still kept his faith and had hope which was able to allow him to overcome one of the most barbarous, inhuman acts of violence to ever take place in history. Due to the way Elie reinvented his future and tried to maintain optimism, he was able to overcome adversity. By applying the way Elie Wiesel overcame tragedy in society today, individuals can constantly reinvent their future in order to triumph over adversity.
As one once said “
Learning from the past is a gift for the future”. Learning from from past situations, some bad and some good, allows for one to be able to face adversity when it hits them. As Tom Benecke realizes for the first time is his near death situation in
Contents of a Dead Man’s Pocket
. When Tom finally realizes his mistakes the author states that
…show more content…
Another person who made the most out of the situations that were thrown at them was Hannah in
The Devil’s Arithmetic.
Hannah cheered up her friends that she had met in the Nazi camp, continuously telling them that they would meet again and that everything would be alright in the end. This portrays idea that when stuck in a hard spot to always stay positive and you will have a better chance of overcoming the adversity holding you back.

Shear 4

While adversity may come often and is not always the easiest to overcome it is possible.
The way people choose to react to these setbacks shows who the person is, and whom they may become. Dealing with and learning from adversity makes individuals who they are. As Elie
Wiessel, Tom Benecke, Hannah stern, and Malala Yousafzai all faced adversity many times throughout their lives, they all coped with their problems by managing to change their future, learn from their past experiences, and find positives in every situation that was thrown at them.
These three ways to deal with adversity not only allows people to survive in their position, but to also thrive and come out stronger than

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    He felt strong, and said he had stopped pleading. He was not able to feel sorrow. He observed the prayer service like a stranger.…

    • 1758 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Elie had to make a lot of changes to his lifestyle. When they first got to the camp him and his father got separated from his mother and sister. Elie says “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which turned my life into one long night.” (43) Elie went with his dad because he was more like his dad than he was his mom. There was one major change and it was with his dad. In the beginning he would do almost anything to keep his dad with him and make sure his dad was okay. When his dad started to get beat, he would not move or say anything even when his dad cried out to him for help because he was scared for his own life. Elie cared for his dad to a great extent but when it came to his own life he would not help his…

    • 1143 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Character

    • 174 Words
    • 1 Page

    nothing as he delayed them. He felt that he should die in a frame of mind and that it…

    • 174 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Night Elie Wiesel Quotes

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “You’ve got what it takes, but it will take everything you got.” In the end Elie had what it took to survive and live but when he saw himself in the mirror for the first time after the concentration camps he was shocked. He found out this terrible journey took everything out of him. Night after night Elie was put through so much, cold nights, long runs, starvation, and hard labour. The most important decisions in the novel that one chooses is strongly tied with the outcome and the end.…

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What keeps Elie going throughout the book is his strong sense of hope. One of the messages of hope that stands out the most in Night doesn’t come from Elie, but a young Pole in charge of Elie and his father’s new block at Auschwitz. When Elie and his father arrive they are separated from the rest of their family, then put through a brutal process to enter them into the camp. They are shaved, tattoos, examined, and many more processes that makes them feel hopeless. After they are processed they are sent to their new home. There they are greeted by their Kapo, and his advice is sobering:…

    • 750 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “I pray to the God within me that He will give me the strength to ask Him the right questions.” (Wiesel)…

    • 333 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Helen Keller once said, “Although the world is filled with suffering, it is also filled with overcoming it.” Adversity isn’t about the challenges; it’s about the strength gained from those challenges.…

    • 374 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Elie has changed as a result of his imprisonment. He has changed emotionally, spiritually, and physically.…

    • 432 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    bad situation lose sight of what is their goals and what is good for them. If goals are set and are not given up on, the greater chance of success. The books Night by Elie Wiesel and Sold…

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Night Thesis Paper

    • 1625 Words
    • 7 Pages

    When Elie’s father is on his deathbed, Elie does everything in his power to try to save his father; including giving up his ration of soup and bread, not letting his father drink water, and trying to convince the Kapo’s that his father needed medical attention. Elie is willing to do anything just to keep his father alive. Without his father, Elie has no reason for living. Elie had endured…

    • 1625 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The persistence of young Elie Wiesel played a large part in his endurance through the targeting and killing of him and his people. From the moment that he boarded the train that was directed towards his almost inevitable death, his persistence to withstand his fall, played its part. “[...] to merely look up to the sky and think that I am looking at…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Suffering from dehumanization robs Elie of his compassion, and he becomes a rather selfish boy. When they first reach the labor camp, Elie’s only…

    • 690 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Night by Elie Wiesel

    • 1009 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Cattle cars. Burning bodies. Auschwitz. These words are engraved in the mind of every Jewish person on Earth. After decades, Holocaust survivors still have nightmares about these thoughts. One word, one indescribable word, will forever stay with these people. Holocaust. Many people of the Jewish faith realize the power of that word, but many others still need to learn. A man is sitting peacefully in his home; he has no worries, even when Nazi soldiers dragged him into the horrendous ghettos. He also willfully went into cattle cars, and then finally into Auschwitz. This is where that man realized that his life became horrible. Throughout the months in the work camp, throughout all of the suffering, his will to survive surpassed the will to kill of Nazi soldiers. Years later, people know that events like the Holocaust will, and are happening right now, such as the Bosnian Genocide 1992. Education also will get rid of the desire for power in human beings. Educating students about the Holocaust, and other genocides, will help prevent genocides in future generations. Man has the will to survive and surpass evil like the Holocaust survivors, genocides like this will happen again, and education will help prevent genocides in the future.…

    • 1009 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the memoir and non-fiction novel Night by Elie Wiesel the author shows a hidden message. I feel that this message is that there are people who do horrible things, but no matter what, you can overcome something horrific you just have to be strong. The novel interprets that power can be used and abused, and power comes in many forms. There are people in this world that will abuse their power, they will harm human beings because of their opinions, but we have the power to fight, to stick by our beliefs, our family and our friends, we have the power to make sure these actions never happens again. Elie shows that the world isn’t perfect and it will never be, there aren’t perfect human beings, most can be cruel. Wiesel shows a reality that most…

    • 1077 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through history, people have gone through it great deal of adversity-from slavery, the holocaust, and the Iraq war to our economic crisis today. Adversity, or as some may say struggle, is inevitable and unavoidable. The question that arises from overcoming adversity is value or meaning that comes from difficult times and/or catastrophic events. “ That which we obtain too easily, we esteem to lightly. It is dearness only which gives everything its value.” Thomas Paine is reflecting his belief that people tend to naturally care more about things that come or seem easy. Any human being will value only what they struggle for.…

    • 772 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics