Preview

Trust And Survival In Elie Wiesel's Ishmael

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
151 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Trust And Survival In Elie Wiesel's Ishmael
Ishmael must contend with trust and survival throughout the book. After Ishmael finds himself travelling with a group of boys he notices that in every village trust is a rare emotion. People stare at them weary that they might be child soldiers. Ishmael complains that the essence of human understanding is lost; people are too afraid of each other. When food and one’s very survival is constantly tenuous, “trust” becomes a more relative term. Hungry and terrified, the boys find safety with the lieutenant of the government forcer. They can trust him for food and drugs, as long as he can trust them to fight like an animal. Trust hence becomes a tradable commodity and not based on simple human friendship and love. It takes Ishmael a long time to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    I believe Ishmael’s level of resilience throughout the story was immensely high considering the age he was during the war. One example, was when Ishmael first experiences the war and loses all of his family except his brother, Junior. Ishmael does not complain about walking miles and miles all day long in the scorching sun, when many kids his age would start complaining after fifteen minutes on a nice breezy day. As well as, when Ishmael was all alone in the forest he did not act crazy about the freedom he had, but instead was orderly and still did day to day necessary activities while remaining calm. He always shows that even in the toughest situations he acts just like an adult and is always in control, when kids his age lost their cool and acted crazy leading them to die. Last but not least, when Ishmael was at the rehabilitation center he did act agitated, but recovers from the worst thing a child could be during the war, a child soldier. He acts insane and puts his life at risk when he is a soldier because he did drugs everyday and killed hundreds of people for years, and all it takes for him to recover to be a normal child again is eight months.…

    • 1111 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During Winter, the prisoners felt true bitter cold. Because of the incredibly cool weather, Eliezer’s foot swelled. He consulted a fellow Jew, a doctor prior to imprisonment, and is told that he needs immediate operation to prevent amputation. In the hospital, Eliezer was fed properly and didn’t have to work. After he awakened from his operation, Eliezer was afraid to ask the doctor if his leg has been amputated, but the doctor assured him that “in two weeks you'll be fully recovered… able to walk like the others.” (page 80). Two days after his operation, Eliezer heard that the front was advancing to Buna, and that very day the camp was ordered to evacuate. Hospital occupants were not to be evacuated, however, and Eliezer worries that they…

    • 185 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The time period during World War II was very devastating. There were a countless amount of brutal deaths, with people even being burned alive. The setting of Night takes place in 1944, in a concentration camp called Buchenwald. It all starts out when the main character, Eliezer, has his Jewish hometown overrun by the Germans. Eliezer's hometown gets turned into a ghetto by the Germans, and they are forced to stay in the ghetto until the whole neighborhood is sent to the concentration camps. Since the neighborhood is Jewish, they are shipped off in cattle carts to the concentration camps, where most of the neighbors will spend the rest of their days. One of the ladies on the cattle cart was even going crazy. “ Look! Look at this fire! This…

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    On the evening of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) the Jews in Buna gather for a prayer. Eliezer, who once lived for prayer and religious study, rebels against this. He feels that humans are, in a sense, greater than God, stronger than God, to still pray to a God who allows such horrors. "I was the accuser, God the accused……

    • 1119 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout his two years of research in Figel, Schlegel described many Teduray cultural practices; among them include their elaborate legal system, gender and sexuality, marriage and customs as well as their beliefs. Some of the practices he did not understand, but throughout his book he portrays the Tedurays as being spiritual, tolerant, peaceful and noncompetitive group of people. Compared to his upbringing, Schlegel starts to question his own way of life and he starts to change it by being tolerant socially and morally. One aspect of custom that he had a hard time understanding was the first marriage procedures the Tedurays had. He observed that the young people were not given a choice to choose who they wanted to marry or when they wanted…

    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Night” by Elie Wiesel focuses on Wiesel’s experience with his father in the Nazi German concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944 and 1945, toward the end of the Second World War. It all begins in 1941 with Eliezer is a twelve-year-old boy living in Sighet. He is the only son in an Orthodox Jewish family and is evidently quite religious. Eliezer learns the truth about World War II and the Holocaust through his teacher, Moshe the Beadle who was deported and escaped. When Moshe returns he tells everyone about how the people deported were being killed and tortured. Nobody believed Moshe until they themselves were being shoved in train cars and taken to Auschwitz. When they reached the gates of Auschwitz Eliezer and his family are…

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Night by Elie Wiesel, the narrator, Elie Wiesel, gives a first hand account of Auschwitz. A concentration camp led by Germany during World War II. The story begins when Elie starts to notice that things are starting to change in Germany and neighboring countries, that involve the Jewish population. Throughout the book he tells the stories he has from Auschwitz, and explains what was his thoughts and feelings about certain things that go on inside of the camp. Toward the end of the novel it explains what was going on with him and his fellow prisoners escaping the camps and trying to survive outside of the camp. Whilst throughout the course of the novel it explains how Wiesels relationships change with certain people…

    • 520 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I believe that Eliezer lost faith because he didn’t believe he had anyone to believe in. He believed that if his lord was there for him, he wouldn’t be in the position he is in at the time. He would not be fighting for his life in concentration camps where he was being tortured. Other people were relying on their faith because they strongly believed they would get out of it if they pray often. I’m sure that in the end, if his father had not died he would still rely strongly on his faith. After his father died, he wasn’t relying on anyone but himself. He didn’t have to fight for anyone but himself. I believe that is why he didn’t strongly rely on his faith, because he no longer had faith in anyone but himself.…

    • 137 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, there is a motif of survival and a central idea that when one is put in a desperate situation, developments that may otherwise seem either mundane or horrifying may instead be seen as remarkable or amazing. When all the guards leave their posts because of an alarm signal, two cauldrons of soup are left unattended. All of the prisoners quickly take note of the soup and are in awe, “two cauldrons of soup with no one to guard them! A royal feast” (Wolff 59). The author’s use of hyperbole in describing the deliciousness and quality of the soup makes the disparity of the prisoners clear. The reader does not consider two cauldrons of soup that has been described as nothing better than “thick” to be a “royal feast”…

    • 303 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ishmael gives an example of the repeated mistrust he encounters saying “Many times during our journey we were surrounded by muscular men with machetes who almost killed us before they realized we were just children running away from the war”. A repose old man in a village once told Ishmael and his friends, “My children this country has lost its good heart. People don’t trust each other anymore” explaining just how much trust had been destroyed and replaced with fear and accusation. Because of the continuous mistrust in the country when Ishmael has any contact with a new person they automatically suspect each other, and things become very tense.…

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Elie Wiesel’s Night the scenes of the hangings represent a turning point for Elie’s faith in God and affect him and the reader alike. The first hanging of the dentist fails to torment Elie. He recalls, “I remember that on the evening, the soup tasted better than ever” (Wiesel 63). Seemingly, the death of the dentist causes Elie to be indifferent. The dentist assists the Nazi force by pulling gold teeth from the mouths of the prisoners and his death meant the preservation of Elie’s crown. However, later the guards hang a pipel and two men for involvement in resistance activities. The pipel's light stature cause his death to remain prolonged and filled with suffering compared to the men’s deaths. As the prisoners walk by, Elie notices the…

    • 285 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Bruno remind innocent of knowledge and understanding of what was happening under his fathers direction at the auschwitz complex because, his family didn't want has innocence and childhood destroyed. Bruno would of witnessed and became part of the constant beating of the incident Jews within the camp. Bruno would of been subjected to painful and cruel medical experiments. He would of been forced to work for wealthy Germans and the Hierarchy. He would of witnessed baby's being killed after birth and small kids like himself being beaten to death by guards, attack dogs, and soldiers. the children above the age of 10 were used as prisoners, laborers, and subjects for medical experiments.Jewish men women and children were rounded up and forced to…

    • 393 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The act or practice of allowing oneself into self-deception or another person into deception makes up a hindrance for that person and yourself, creating an indisputable cognition unemphatic like the Jews in the Holocaust. Notably, the author of "Night" Elie Wiesel on page 10 explains, "How avid we were at that moment for one word of confidence, one sentence to say that there were no grounds for fear, that the meeting could not have been more commonplace, more routine, that it had only been a question of social welfare, of sanitary arrangements!". Here the author is implying that he, to diffuse the anxiety that arises from this conflict of which his Jewish father was called by the council to deploy deportation voiced by The Gestapo, deployed…

    • 146 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Elie Wiesel's Heroism

    • 990 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Gerard Way once said, "Heroes are ordinary people who make themselves extraordinary." In other words, one has to make themselves a hero. No one needs to be born with magnificent strength or the audacity to stand up to any bully that might come their way. Heroism is self built. To be heroic is to be passionate, to believe in the greater good, and to live without hate.…

    • 990 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    REFLECTION

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Ishaan became so aloof, cold and indifferent from his classmates. This showed that the concept of “ trust “during his developmental years based on Erik Erikson’s of Psycho-social theory, was not attained and established because of rejection of people around him.…

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays