Persuasive Paragraph on complacency

Use your outline to write one persuasive paragraph on either Siddhartha or Elie. You will persuade the reader that the character acted complacently and negatively affected himself or another.

Elie, in the novel Night, acts complacently when he is evacuated from the concentration camp where he is held prisoner. In turn, his complacency affects Zalman, a boy in the camp, negatively. Elie is a young teenage boy who is a prisoner in a Jewish concentration camp. Over the years, Elie loses his sense of self and becomes content just caring for himself. He becomes complacent. An example of this complacency is when the Jewish prisoners are evacuated from one camp and are moved in the snow on foot to another camp (Wiesel 86). Elie is hustled quickly into the snow where he focuses on his own survival. He does not lend a hand to his friend, Zalman, who is in need. Zalman is then shot because Zalman is not quick enough (Wiesel 87). Elie is only concerned with staying alive and not helping others. He is complacent because he is close enough to assist an ailing Zalman but chooses to keep moving and not try harder. This complacency negatively affects Zalman to the point of fatality. Elie could have helped Zalman to his feet which could have saved Zalman's life for the time. Instead, because Elie chooses to move on, Zalman is left to be shot. Elie's complacent act was not the cause of Zalman's death but had Elie been more proactive, Zalman may have been spared.