Wednesday 22 April 2015

How can I write a reflective paper about this quotation? "Just as despair can come to one only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given...

Your assignment recalls the theme of John Donne's poem, "No Man is an Island":


No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main....
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; 
It tolls for thee. 



As part of the community of man, all share in the conditions of each and every one. This is poignantly clear in Elie Wiesel's Night where any hope about mankind and any trust in the world or in God is severely threatened. But, despite the horrific conditions, the inmates offer each other hope and strategies for survival. 


Therefore in a reflective essay, you might wish to construct a thesis statement in support of Elie Wiesel's words, contending that people can survive hardships, heartbreak, sickness, and despair if someone else loves them or encourages them—in other words, when hope is given to them by others.


Then, to support this thesis, the student can point to certain excerpts from the novel. For example, one such excerpt is that in which the head of the block coaches the inmates how to act during the inspection by the SS doctors. First, he tells them "I hope you will all succeed in getting through. But, you must help your own chances." Then, he coaches the men what they can do to improve their chances:



Before you go into the next room, move about in some ways ... to give yourselves a little color. Don't walk slowly; run! Run as if the devil were after you.



This is what Elie does. In fact, he is kidded about running so fast that the Nazis could not even read his number to write it down. Later, he talks with his poor father, weakened by the march to Buchenwald, and his father lovingly gives his knife and spoon to his son, saying that he can use it. But Elie does not want to take it because doing so is an admission that his father will die. Elie wishes to give his poor father some hope that can maybe support his psyche enough to preserve him. So, he tells him, "You need them as much as I do." 


Passages such as these will exemplify the theme stated by John Donne that "every man is a part of the continent"—that is, what Elie Wiesel calls hope that comes from others.

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