Night Conflicts
by Lucine Devejian
Man vs. Man
Franek used the fact that Elie's father couldn't march in time to his advantage. He hit Elie's father every day when he didn't march in time as payback for Elie not giving Franek the gold crown. This made Elie angry and upset. He didn't want his father to suffer more than he was just by being at the camp. His father was the one who told him to keep the gold tooth originally, but after two weeks of being abused, he had had enough. They both decided to give Franek the tooth, Franek won.
Text evidence-
1. "Give me your crown, kid." This is the beginning of the conflict, when Franek asks for the crown.
2. "If you don't give me your crown, you'll pay for it even more." This is foreshadowing that Franek is not going to let Elie's refusal slide.
3. "I knew it, I knew quite well I would win." This is when Franek proclaims he has won, and says he always knew he would win.
Man vs. Self
Text evidence-
1. "The idea of dying, of no longer being, began to fascinate me. Not to exist any longer. Not to feel the horrible pains in my foot. Not to feel anything, neither weariness, not cold, nor anything." Elie began to take an interest in the whole concept of death.
2. "My father's prescence was the only thing that stopped me." Elie's father needed Elie, and Elie recognized that this was important and he needed to stay alive as long as his father did.
3. "...something within me revolted against this death." Elie wanted to die, but he wasn't fully willing to give up on life. Part of him wanted to keep living.
Man vs. Nature
Text evidence-
1. "Why, but why should I bless His name?... Because in His great might He had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many factories of death?" Elie did not think God deserved any praise if He had let all these death camps be built and run for so many years.
2. "I no longer accepted God's silence." If God was really all-powerful, Elie thinks God should have done something by now. But he hasn't, and Elie isn't going to ignore the fact anymore.
3. "...a prayer rose in my heart, to that God in whom I no longer believed." Elie had created a habit of prayer from his childhood, but his faith is no longer there.
Man vs. Society
Text evidence-
1. "Through long days and nights, he went from one Jewish house to another, telling the story of Malka, the young girl who had take three days to die, and of Tobias, the tailor who had begged to be killed before his sons..." Moche spent all of his time telling stories of people he saw, and he tried to explain all of the suffering.
2. "He's just trying to make us pity him. What an imagination he has!" Society rejects every word Moche the Beadle says.
3. "No, I wanted to come back, and to ward you. And you see, no one will listen to me." He only came back to help, but no one will pay any attention, and it hurts him.