Fear is usually aroused by impending danger. Basically, fear interrupts the foresight of a person by making a corrupt determination. When a person is in extreme fear, especially when it can threaten his or her life, the fear will overcome foresight. In the novel, Night by Elie Wiesel, fear dominated when faith was lost. Within the novel, the author narrated his experience during the war. He was thrown into a camp where he was deprived, starved, fatigued, and whipped. Absolutely, he lost his entire family just because he was a Jew. That made him lose his faith. During the stay in the camps, he began to fear death. Ideally, that fear caused the relationship between him and his father to deteriorate gradually. That occurred because his own feeble mortality succumbed to the need for survival. Remarkably, that kind of intense fear appears when hopefulness in one’s life disappears. Therefore, that leaves behind an atmosphere of corrupted foresight. Additionally, it compels a person to make life decisions that he will regret. The paper discusses fear and foresight on Night by Elie Wiesel.
During the first days in the camp, Elie still retained his faith. However, when he arrived at the labor camp, the gradual dissipation of his family began though he still maintained his faith. Within the camp, his sister and mother were taken away from him and he even said: “Thank God” (Wiesel). This is after he discovered that his friends and acquaintances were still alive. In that time, faith and unity were still there which kept everybody’s choices and perceptions of the future clear.
The beginning of corruption and fear was witnessed when fear engulfed Elie. The fear of getting hurt overcame him. Nevertheless, he never worried about his father who mattered most to him in his life. The fear altered his thinking and changed his outward look on things around him. He began realizing he was alone after being sent to the Buna camp even though his father was still there. At the camp, he started believing that God had abandoned him hence feeling lonely. When he heard the voice of a man screaming out in one of the cell blocks he muttered: “where is God Now”? He still found asking himself the same question in his head “Where is he?” The incident made his faith to start deteriorating. It is noted, before the incident, he had retained and maintained his faith. Initially, he found comfort and joy in the camp. However, all that had been betrayed.
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Elie stopped praying because he believed doing so would earn him nothing. He started losing faith and his relationship with his father began deteriorating. He denounced his father after he attempted to teach him marching steps in vain. He called him a devil. “…. You lazy old devil”. Elie reached a point where he felt he could not stand his father anymore. Relatively, he started contemplating going on without his father. Sometimes he believed he was better off without him. At some point, he lost his faith in God completely. This caused him to have faith only in Hitler because he believed he kept his promises.
In conclusion, fear and despair develop when the end of somebody’s life is near. Notably, what matters most to people is life. When a person is engulfed with fear he mostly makes regretful decisions. In regard to Elie, his future was full of optimism and faith until he became scared of his life. In the concentration camp, he lost all his faith and family. That resulted to the reaction of fear of death with no optimism. After being liberated he realized he erred in losing his faith.
