If I Should Die Before I Wake Blog 2

In school we are reading a book called Night by Ellie Wiesel. It is a memoir on Ellie's life as he experiences the Holocaust. We have only read a little bit so far but from which we have read, I can determine that Ellie is strong, loving, caring, courageous, and a little naive. Yet at the same time, I am still reading If I Should Die Before I Wake and the protagonist, Chana, is very similar to him, not physically, but mentally.

Ellie and Chana both share the same motivation. Ellie and Chana both love their families very much, as any person would. They are both Jews during the Holocaust and they are trying to survive along with their families. This is what motivates them to do things that they normally wouldn't. They both do not want to suffer or die but with their families. Despite this motivation, both of them eventually lose their fathers. And even though they are so motivated to survive, many other conflicts arise during the stories

The Holocaust drives people to do insane things that they would probably not do before. This drives Ellie and Chana to question their own religions. They think that if they are being killed because they are Jewish, then why can they not just switch religions and not tell anyone that they were Jewish in the first place. They are suffering from internal conflict caused by this and other things as well. They do not want to suffer but what can they do? They are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They are forced into labor but cannot do anything about it because then they die. They do not know what to do and only continuing reading will reveal what they do about it.