Elie Wiesel And Siddhartha's Resemblance

       In the Chapter "Kamala," when Siddhartha had crossed the river with a ferryman's help, he was heading to a new way of life. Throughout the 20 years while he lived in Kamaswami's house, he had rejected asceticism, and experienced pleasures in the material world. As he gained material power, his spiritual power declined, until Siddhartha could no longer hear his inner voice, and his spiritual roots were now a memory.When he realized that he had been playing the game of Samsara (the cyclical path of normal life in which one lives, sufferes, and dies), he decided not to play it forever. On page 68, Siddhartha said, "This game was called Samsara, a game for children, a game which was perhaps enjoyable played once, twice, ten times- but was it worth playing continually?" 

     Siddhartha went back to the river he had crossed with the ferryman before, and decided to move forward with this search for enlightenment. According to page 82, Siddhartha said, "My path once led from his hut to a new life which is now old and dead. May my present path, my new life, start from there!" The river is a very important, figurative symbol in Siddhartha. According to the principles of Heraclitus, the symbol of flowing water in the river means passing time, and our true "self" are the elements that remain the same despite the changing aspects on one's experience. On page 83, the author includes Heraclitus' ideas by saying, "He saw that the water continually flowed and flowed and yet it was always there; it was always the same and yet every moment it was new." The elements of Siddhartha, or his true "self," were his desire to seek asceticism. 

     Elie Wiesel is also considered as a hero by many readers of Night, because he was very brave throughout his experience in concentration camps, in such a dark time in the history of our world. Heraclitus' beliefs are also expressed in Night. Throughout the horrible times, Elie Wiesel had lost his faith in God and the souls of men, but the hope, faith, and belief that he could survive the Holocaust kept him alive. He stated that he sees a "corpse" looking back at him, but the look in his eyes has never left him. This suggests that he thinks of himself as a totally different person who undergoes metamorphosis after all he had suffered. He lost numerous aspects of his life like his family, his innocence, and his physical health. However, the look in his eyes has not escaped, and this means that he was still a great believer of humanity, and he never lost hope and faith. Although his faith in God begin to dwindle, he never lost faith in himself, and that would be the true "self" of Elie Wiesel.