“Night Essay”

Donathan Layell

Instructor Aaron Simmons

English 2/Honors

6 March 2014

Kindness, respect, and family all of these describe the exact opposite of a brute. In Elie Wiesel’s memoir “night” it is often questioned whether or not Elie went from being a civilized human being to being a careless brute or not. If one had the choice between the two, one would still find Elie as a respectable human, regardless of the situations he faced, not a brute.

Elie is still considered to be humanized because of the love and care he shows for his father. A prime example would be the fact that he refused to take his father’s rations while his father was dying. Even though Elie knew in his heart that the extra food would give him a much greater chance of living he would have rather had died than to live with the thought of killing his father. Observing Elie's actions when he was put into this situation clearly shows his care for others. In addition Elie in fear of his dad's life yielded his gold tooth to the SS so that they would stop hurting his father. In doing this Elie not only showed tones of selflessness but courage as well. To start off he showed courage for even thinking about allowing the SS officers to remove the tooth with a rusted spoon, much less following through with it. Elie displayed selflessness in this by thinking about giving up his tooth when in reality the gold tooth could have helped him down the road. All in all just by the way Elie treated his father during a time when it was every man for himself proves that he has none of the attributes of a brute.

Elie's selflessness and un-brute like actions are not only displayed in how he treated his father but other people as well. For example at the gates of