Night - March 23

Pages read: 0 - 43

// Describe the major conflict(s) in the story. What side are you on? //

    Even though we are only three chapters in, I think that this memoir has already described so many conflicts, big and small alike. The things that Elie has to go through and see is completely terrifying and mostly when I think that he is about my age when he goes through this. One of the most tormenting conflicts that Elie describes was the four day journey to Auschwitz. Elie says that all of the eighty people in the wagon car had to take turns sitting because of how crowded they were. They were deprived of food and water, and a tiny window was the only source of light. Personally, the worst of all, there was no bathroom, so everyone had to go inside, on the floor of the car. I don't believe that there are two sides to this, but I do believe that everyone in the car needed to be as patient and calm as possible, or else a hundred more things could have gone wrong. Another conflict within the journey was Madame Schächter who lost her sanity and she ended up being beaten and tied up by her own community. 

    One of the most internal, but also important conflict so far was Elie's conflict with his faith in God. I think that this is going to become a lot more prominent further on in the story because one of the first things written in the book was how religious he and his family was, so now that he is questioning that, it is going to really mess with Elie internally. In the book, Elie writes, "For the first time, I felt a revolt rise up in me." I think that this line is very huge because it not only shows the fight that he is having with himself, but it helps to show how traumatizing the actual concentration camps were without even having to do any work yet.

Finally, I think that one of the biggest conflicts was being quiet and respecting orders. Now a days, everyone has a voice, and everyone has an opinion on anything and everything. All throughout the time since they stepped foot in Auuchwitz, the Jews were told to run, and take off their clothes, and shave all of their hair, and were told not to sit; and no one ever said anything back. Of course, everyone is going to be frightened half to death but when they all first got there, people were already thinking of revolting just because they had separated the women from the men; I would think that there would be some plan to revolt with all that went on.