Jessica Nicholson

Mrs. Guadagnino

March 7, 2014

Night

Mans True nature is only achieved through times of great devastation. People seem
civilized and polite while they are living under good conditions, but when pushed and tortured
true nature is revealed, resulting in us seeing a new side of man. We see a barbaric human that
would do anything to survive. This is present in the memoir Night written by Elie Wiesel. During
the course of this emotional heartwarming story we see men change from one person to another
in the course of a few very long years. We see men begin to be apathetic, desperate, uncivilized
creatures that are almost foreign to us. Elie and the men around him all struggle to keep civil and
not let their true nature overcome.
We first begin to see the true human nature on the cattle cars bringing the Jews to the first
concentration camp. One woman on board, Mrs. Schchter, started to exclaim about seeing a fire
when there was no fire in sight. The passengers of the cart reacted violently to this disturbance.
The passengers showed no mercy when tying the poor woman up and knocking her out with a
harsh hit to the head. This was where the first switch of civil to uncivil was seen. This shift was
very important because it shaped way for many of the other savage acts that take place. One
more act that paves the way for the true nature of man being revealed is the prisoners that are at
the camps when Elie first arrives. These prisoners were visibly upset and already affected by the
torturous situation they were placed in. These old prisoners spewed harsh words and the new
arriving prisoners; they looked as though they were ready to attack anyone who decided to get in
their ay. It is then that you see the apathetic feeling these men have produced. These men have

been through so much that they no longer care about the wellbeing of others. They only care
about themselves. Therefore the introduction of new workers threatened them and made them
realize they could be the next to be killed because they are weak compared to the new laborers.
This was only the beginning of the shift from civil human nature to the real human nature that is
underneath.
These desperate times that the prisoners were put through defiantly called for many
desperate measures. Due to food being limited and people starving left and right the men would
do anything to get food. One man was so desperate to survive and to eat that during a raid and
bombing on the camp he ran out into the open space to get his hands on some soup. This, a total
act of desperation got him killed before he could even lift the spoon to his lips. But he was not
killed by the soldiers attacking the camp he was killed by one of the men in charge because he
did not obey orders. Another act of true desperate was during the death march at the point that
they were in cattle cars for the final time. On the way to their new home German citizens decided
to throw pieces of bread into the cars to see what would happen. Complete ciaos broke out due to
that action. Once civilians saw it made the prisoners fight more and more people participated in
this game. Men fought hard and blood to just get a tiny taste of what had been at one point
common to them. Sons killed their fathers, neighbors killed one another and there was no mercy
show. Desperation was at its highest and it was part of the true nature of man.
Desperation and apathy were two major changes we see in the men taken prisoner but we
also see a form of barbaric nature take place throughout the long journey. One very prominent
example seen in the memoir Night is when Elie and his close friend, Zalman, are on the death
march. We see Zalman in such pain that he can no longer g on. But it is not a usual pain the you
have to live and go on with. It was a stomach pain that could have easily been stopped if he

could have just taken a second to use the restroom. But due to that not being an option he was
forced to crouch in from of many marching men and relive himself and get trampled in the
process. No mercy was shown for the young boy by the men in charge or the prisoners alike.
This was also a form of the new barbaric nature seen. The men did not even flinch as they were
walking over freshly dead or still living bodies. They would just look straight ahead and not bat
an eye. Even when on the cattle cars for the final time, men attempted to throw bodies out of the
cart that were still breathing and had the potential to live through this experience but due to the
barbaric nature of men they never had that pleasure.
The true nature of man is something that is hid very well by all of the things we have. But
when that is stripped away the other side of man slowly reveals itself and leaves a trail of
destruction and sadness in its path. The nature, which is filled with apathetic feelings,
desperation, and barbaric actions, is one of the biggest reasons the Holocaust was such a
hardship on all people. It showed many people a side to man they had never imagined and that
they had never wished to see.