In Search of Freedom

When you shoot for independence, it's important not to completely lose the person you are, but the one you are destined to be. Living in the present can create memories, personalities, and diffrences. Living in the future with the character you are destined to be only develops looks, but not the real spirit. Meaning, your parents developed your looks, but shouldn't completely develop you. Being in the Hollocaust is so forceful and descriminating that either some are able to develop their character while fighting to get out, or others just numb into everyone else. The way the SS officers treat the Jews in, "Night" is harsh and unforgiving, and it can make them feel as if they are nothing. The more bricks they have to carry, or the farther they have to run, can give a feeling of strength or weakness, physically and mentally. 

Elie Wiesel was a man who mentally lost himself, but in a physical aspect, gained himself in the period of the Hollocaust. All of the running and stone lifting made him a strong number in selection, but all the terrible things he witnessed each day was extremely damaging. There is one scene in the story where the Jews have an ongoing torture of running to Gleiwitz, and Elie writes, "We were the masters of nature, the masters of the world. We had transcended everything- death, fatigue, our natural needs. We were stronger than cold and hunger, stronger than the guns and the desire to die, doomed and rootless, nothing but numbers, we were the only men on earth." This paragraph shocked me because I would think that experiencing the Hollocaust would have the exact opposite effect of believing they were men. The Germans threw the Jews around, burned them, beat them, starved them, as if they were nothing, or had nothing to contribute to this world. I would think that it would completely deprive them of being the person they are, or becoming the person they are. Being forced in at Elie's age of 15 is the most dangerous time, because you are beginning to understand your role in life as well as freedom to experiment. However, in the Hollocaust there was no freedom to experiment or to live.

My life, and my experiments, are very far from Elie Wiesel's. I live in this world where I am constantly encouraged to be the person I want, without worrying about brutal torture. I do have limits, and parental control, but nothing that could possibly lead to my death. I want to take from this a new aproach to how I treat others. Everyone is their own person, and is just as meaningful to this community as I am. I often am quick to judge when I see one thing about someone I dislike. People are independent, and are experiencing our world in a new way from everyone else. They are fighting to find who they are, except it's not always a bloodbath.