Courage is a word that many have disputed over. Many people believe that courage is the absence of fear. The truth, others say, is that courage is the presence of fear, but the willingness to persevere through it. In the book Night by Elie Weisel, it proves the latter "truth" to be true. Without courage or bravery, Elie surely would have died.
The first example of this courage is when Elie refuses to be seperated from his father. Elie was so fixated on an effort to keep his father alive, nothing else mattered. This could possibly have cost him his life or his father's. At one point in the selection process, Elie was separated father, who was selected for the crematory. Elie broke free from his group and retreived his father. Some men were shot during this, and, had and SS guard recognized either of them, they both would have been shot. Such a display of bravery is rare in many people today and was even back then.
Second was Elie's willingness to survive. Elie went through many things: he had been whipped, multiple selection processes, beaten half to death, nearly sent into a firey pit, and forced to run 40+ miles from camp to camp. He outsurvived everyone in his family, his father, sadly, included. Many times had he thoughts of letting it all end, and even ending it himself. But lo and behold, he never gave up for long. .
Spurred by his love for his father, and fueled by his will to survive, Elie's courage is not well known to the world anymore, and would be greatly missed if it were to disappear for good.
