Maturing is a natural process in a person’s life that happens in one form or another to everyone. Most people mature over time and take a few years to fully finish this process, ending only once they reach adulthood. For others however, the process of maturing is forced upon them somehow and they have no other choice but to mature or they will not survive. Elie was living a happy life with his family when the Germans came and took him and his family away. When they were taken to a concentration camp, Elie had to give up his childish beliefs in order to ensure that himself and his father both survive.
In Night, Elie Wiesel uses the idea of how he was forced to mature in order to show how he as a result has lost his humanity. When the Germans came to Elie’s town, they took him and his family away to the concentration camp Auschwitz. After arriving, he and the rest of those taken from their homes become prisoners. This transition from a free citizen to a prisoner is a very drastic change that has lasting effects on people and forces them to mature very quickly in order to survive. For Elie, this change happens only a day after arriving when he thought to himself, “I too had become a completely different person.
The student of the Talmud, the child that I was, had been consumed in the flames” (Wiesel 34). When Elie talks about the fact that he was a child before he came to Auschwitz, he means that he mentally was still very innocent. Even though when he arrived he was still a child, Elie was forced to mature soon after arriving to the concentration camp. This is due to all of the horrors he had experienced in such a short time, the events that unfurled in front of Elie’s eyes scarred him for life. One such image that Elie will never be able to forget is the burning of young children that he witnesses just fter arriving to camp.
This and many other images that stayed with him during his time at Auschwitz caused him to lose the hope that he had for the future before arriving. Due to this loss in hope, Elie has to go through life day by day in order to survive the harshness of a concentration camp. Elie is thus, forced to mature in order to survive, because if he does not mature then he will be thrown in with the rest of the children which will be the end for Elie. The humanity that is lost for Elie then is the hope for the future that he used to have. Elie was never alone hen he was at these concentration camps, he always had his father there with him.
However, his father is very old and can barely handle the physical and mental strain put on each prisoner at the concentration camp. Elie as a result, has to look after his father in order to make sure he survives. In doing so, Elie looks over his father in that he makes sure that they are never separated from each other and that his father is feeling well. He shows this when he reasons with his father, saying that, “We had already suffered so much, borne so much together; this was not the time to be separated” (Wiesel 78). Elie in taking care of his father and making sure that they stay together is forced into the position of caregiver.
In doing so, Elie changes mentally from a child to more of an adult which in turn forces him to matured greatly in order to ensure that not only himself, but also his father survive. This maturing causes his to lose who he is in that he loses the ability to be a child, and is forced to mature to the point that acts similar to an adult. Similarly to Elie, Jack has to mature in a short amount of time due to the environment around him. In Lord of the Flies, Jack and the other oys crash land on an island and are forced to survive by themselves.
The transition for Jack from being the leader of the choir boys before getting to the island, to now having to fend for himself is very drastic and has lasting effects. For Jack this dramatic shift in lifestyle and environment forces him to mature in order to survive with the other boys. Soon after arriving Jack assumes the position of lead hunter even though he has never killed an animal before. After taking this role which puts a great deal of responsibility on Jack, he becomes engrossed with the dea of killing in order to prove himself to the other boys.
This added responsibility of being able to provide for the group puts a lot of additional pressure on Jack which forces him to emotionally mature in order to assume the role of a provider and hunter. The result of this rapid emotional maturing that goes on inside of Jack causes him to turn to savagery as a means of dealing with the changes that are occurring. By doing so Jack loses his individuality by becoming less of a human and more of a beast, thus losing some of his humanity in the process. In rder to survive the changing circumstances that occur, Elie is forced to mature, this also happens with Gene as the circumstances for him change.
During the summer Gene becomes great friends with Phineas who is amazing at all sports. After Gene comes to the conclusion that Phineas is trying to ruin his studies and hurt his grades he has the desire to get him back. Gene does this by making Phineas fall out of a tree, causing him to break his legs. The result of this action is that Phineas no longer can play sports which was his life and his dream before his legs got broken. While Gene is not a mean erson by nature and Phineas breaking his legs was not what he intended, he does however have to deal with the consequences of his actions.
This means that he has to live up to the fact that he caused the pain and suffering that Phineas is now forced to endure. By having to deal with the pain that he caused his best friend, Gene is forced to mature emotionally in order to comprehend just what he did and to try and rationalize the situation. Gene also has to live with the fact that he crushed his best friends dreams of becoming a professional athlete and in doing so broke some of Phineas’ spirit. This change in nvironment from a fun carefree summer to a regretful winter takes a toll on Gene mentally as he is forced to face Phineas again when he returns.
This change in Gene’s life causes him to mature emotionally in order to live with and become overwhelmed with what he did. This emotional maturing that Gene experiences causes the humility that he had in the form of companionship to vanish. In Night, Elie Wiesel utilizes the fact that he was forced to mature in order to show how he lost his humanity. Elie has to mature in order to survive and fend for himself in the concentration camp which leads to him losing hope for the uture. He also has the responsibility of ensuring his father is with him, and surviving with him as well.
This leads to Elie having to transition from a child into a caregiver which forces him to mature in order to fill this role. Similarly to how Elie is forced to mature due to the environment around him, in Lord of the Flies, Jack is forced to mature due to to role that he is forced to fill in order to survive with the other boys. He then turns to savagery due to the overwhelming circumstances and loses some of his humanity in the process. As with Elie, Gene in A Separate Piece, s also forced to mature by a changing environment.
The change for Gene however, forces him to emotionally mature in order to handle the fact that he broke not only his best friends dreams, but also his hope for his future. All of these characters are put into a situation, whether self inflicted or not, in which they are forced to mature which leads to a loss of humanity for each of the characters. While the process of maturing is one that occurs in everyone to various degrees, it is a natural part of growing up and those it helps develop a sense of self among other positive qualities.
