Identity Essay

Identity Essay

Everyone has to grow up at some point, it is just that everyone grows up at different times and in different ways. In Night written by Elie Wiesel and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, there are times when these two authors had to grow up, and they share it in these books. These two books are about two completely different things, but these two kids had to grow up at a young age at a rapid pace. Growing up isn’t easy and for most kids it takes time, but the experiences that Elie and Marji had to go through sped up that process of growing up. The events in Elie Wiesel and Marjane Satrapi’s life prepared them for adulthood.

One tragic event that Elie had to go through was the loss of a loved one at a very young age. Elie Wiesel left his family when he was only a kid and had to be separated from his mother and sisters. As you could imagine, Elie was nervous about losing his mother and sisters forever. After they left, it was just his father and him. It was a long journey for the two of them. They helped each other through the toughest of times. Elie could not imagine losing his father in a time like this. His father was an older man who had to lie about his age so that he could work in a concentration camp instead of being killed right then and there. After being selected to go to the concentration camp, Elie and his father could now have some hope and a piece of mind. Elie’s father and many other men got worn out from all of the intense labor they went through in the camps. Unfortunately, Elie had to watch his father die right in front of him, but before that, he had to be selfish and take his father’s portions of food so that he would have a better chance of surviving since he knew that his father would die in a matter of days. This killed Elie emotionally because he was torn. He could either take the bread for himself and have a better chance of surviving, or he could give it to his dying father, who was going to die soon. Elie ended up choosing to take the bread for himself, thanks to the advice of another prisoner. Elie’s decision making prepared him for adulthood because he learned to know when it was right to be selfish.

On the other hand, Marjane Satrapi was very selfish in a way. She was ashamed of her family because no one that she was related to was a “hero.” Marji was upset from this but she didn’t know all of her family’s history. Fortunately for Marji, her dad had a brother who was a “hero”. His name was Anoosh. Marji thought of him as a hero because he was in prison (Satrapi 54). She also thought that he was great because she thought that her family was not important and no one was a “hero.” Then, all of a sudden, Anoosh comes along and she realizes that her family is not as terrible as she thought it was. Later on in the book, Anoosh gets captured and is executed (70). Marji is withdrawn and she experiences the loss of one of