In Night by Elie Wisel, The main character, Elie gets sent to concentration camps when he was 15. He gets separated from his family, and it is during that time that he tries to figure out where he belongs. Elie faces many character-vs-self moments when he tries to figure out who he is, and what his place in the world is, even if he is in a concentration camp.
During the beginning of the book, Elie already has his mind set on what he wants to be, a rabbi. All that changes though, when him and his family get sent to live in a ghetto.And after that, him getting sent to the concenration camps, where he learns that the only thing he can do to stay alive, is only fend for himself, nobody else. "Yesterday, I should have sunk my nails into the criminal's flesh. Had I changed so much, then? So quickly?" (37). Elie realizes sooner than later, that whatever he does, his father whould have to go through what Elie went through. Elie gets separated from his family, and is only left with his father. In the book, he never sees his mom or his younger sister Tzipora ever again. It is here that something sparks inside of Elie that makes him realize that if he doesn't have his whole family with him, then he has to stick with whoever he has left(his father) and fight until they can get out of their obstacle.
There are many obstacles that Elie faces while in the concentration camps, and that includes keeping to himself what is rightully his. While in the camp, he has a gold crown, which normally, the Nazis would take,but Elie would not let them take it. The officers offered to give him extra rations of food, ut he did not budge. Soon though, they did take his crown. "But that did not last long.A fortnight later, all the Poles were transferred to another camp. I had lost my crown for nothing," (54). Usually, around this part of the book, Elie becomes more independent and is starting to explore without his father. Here, he knows that he could use his gold crown for some bread when he really could use it, but with the officers and even prisoners around, he knows he probably won't stand a chance against trying to hide his crown from them.
Towards the end of the book, Elie has the sense of feeling, that the way his life would end would be death at the concentration camp. He already knows that if he keeps hoping for something good to happen, then it will just jinx him and something bad would happen. "I did not know myself what I wanted-for the day to pass quickly or not. I was afraid of finding myself alone that night. How good it would be to die here!" (72) Elie faces a character-vs-self moment when he realizes that if he loses his father, then he would not know how to live after that. Should he just go on with life and just not hope for anything? Or should he just move on. In this part of the book, his father is still with him, but he is more distant from Elie as ever before. Elie's dad starts to turn into one of the prisoners. One that only fends for themselves. Elie has never seen this side of his father before, Elie realizes then and there that the people in the camps do only care about themselves, and if he wants to survive, then he must also do the same thing, no matter who is holding him back.
The Night book, shows most of Elie's character-vs-self side. He is constantly going against what is right within him, and what should be done as said by his fellow prisoners. He learns that sooner or later he will have to fend for himself, even with his father tagging along behind him.
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