In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, humanity is a theme seen throughout. Humanity can be defined in many ways. It can be the disposition to do good, or it can be the human race. In the Night, the theme of humanity is the disposition to do good. In the book, Elie loses and finds his humanity. At the end, he holds on to his humanity, but loses some of it after events like his father’s death. Elie succeeds in retaining his humanity because he holds on to his father, he feels sympathy for people at the camps, and he keeps faith. Elie retains his humanity in the end even though he loses it in the middle of the book.
Elie holds on to his humanity by holding on to his father. Though he loses many other aspects of his humanity while in the camps, he does not lose his father’s influence. An example of this is when Elie’s father is a victim of the selection. “‘Don’t talk like that, father’ I was on the verge of breaking into sobs. ‘I don’t want you to say such things’”(75) is his reaction when his father says goodbye to him. This shows that even when there was no hope for his father, he still remained humane. If he did not have any humanity, he would have simply said good bye and left for his work. Also, his father tries to give him a spoon to him, but Elie will not have it. This shows his humanity because he still wants his father to have a chance to sell it and live. If he did not have any humanity left, he would have taken the spoon. In the quote it says that he is “on the verge of sobs” which means that he is surely crying for his father. This shows his humanity because he can still grieve. If he were not able to grieve, he would not have humanity. Humanity is the disposition to do good. Elie holds onto this because he wants his fa…
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…im because he did as she said and waited. A person without humanity would have simply blown off the comment as nothing and planned revenge in the camps. Because Elie did have humanity, he stayed silent. Elie retained humanity because of one woman and her words.
In the book Night Elie retains his humanity because of the people he is around. If he had not been influenced by these people, he would never have made it through the camps. His father made him realize his humanity, while the french woman gave him hope. The little boy who was hanged only enforced his humanity. Elie keeps his humanity while in the camps and outside of them because he is influenced by other people. If he had been around total strangers, he would have had a much harder time keeping his humanity. Humanity is the disposition to do good even when all is lost. Elie does this throughout Night.
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