Critical Lens Essay Example

“It is not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” — Epictetus

The ancient Stoic philosopher Epictetus once said, “It is not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” This quote suggests that an individual’s response to adversity defines their character more than the adversity itself. In literature, characters are often tested by hardship, and their reactions reveal core truths about their values, morality, and identity. This critical lens is particularly applicable to Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and Elie Wiesel’s Night.

In both works, characters face overwhelming injustice and suffering, yet it is their internal responses—compassion, courage, and the pursuit of dignity—that give meaning to their experiences. Through these texts, the authors argue that moral strength and integrity are forged in response to adversity, not by the adversity itself.

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird: Courage in the Face of Injustice

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee explores racial injustice in the segregated American South through the perspective of Scout Finch, a young girl growing up in Maycomb, Alabama. Her father, Atticus Finch, serves as a moral anchor in the novel, embodying Epictetus’s principle. When Atticus chooses to defend Tom Robinson, a Black man falsely accused of raping a white woman, he does so not because he expects to win, but because he believes it is the right thing to do. Despite facing criticism, threats, and inevitable defeat, Atticus remains calm, respectful, and principled.

Atticus’s reaction to the racist society around him is not anger or bitterness, but integrity and quiet resistance. He teaches his children that real courage is “when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.” His response to adversity—upholding justice in a deeply unjust world—demonstrates that dignity lies not in changing the outcome, but in holding true to one’s values.

Scout and her brother Jem also face the harsh realities of prejudice and inequality, and their reactions evolve throughout the novel. As they witness the trial, the community’s reactions, and the eventual conviction of Tom Robinson, they become disillusioned but not destroyed. Their emotional responses—ranging from confusion to anger—lead them to a deeper understanding of empathy and fairness. This moral awakening aligns with Epictetus’s philosophy: they are shaped not by the injustice itself, but by how they choose to understand and respond to it.

Elie Wiesel’s Night: Preserving Humanity in the Midst of Atrocity

In Night, Elie Wiesel recounts his experiences as a teenager during the Holocaust. He is deported from his home in Sighet, Romania, and sent to Auschwitz and other concentration camps, where he witnesses and endures unimaginable horrors. Wiesel’s memoir is a powerful testament to survival, memory, and moral endurance in the face of dehumanization. His journey is marked by moments of doubt, despair, and loss of faith, but also by resilience and the struggle to retain his humanity.

Unlike Atticus Finch, who has the freedom to choose how he faces injustice, Eliezer, the narrator, is subjected to violence and suffering beyond his control. Yet Wiesel’s narrative emphasizes that even in such dire conditions, internal responses matter deeply. One of the most poignant moments in the book occurs when a prisoner gives his last crust of bread to another. In a world stripped of order and compassion, such acts of kindness become radical affirmations of dignity.

Wiesel writes, “Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately.” Despite the inhumanity around him, Eliezer reflects on what it means to survive without becoming a moral victim. His memories of his father, and his internal battle to protect and care for him, reveal a struggle not just for life, but for meaning. Wiesel’s reaction to suffering—his decision to remember, to testify, and to find purpose in the act of bearing witness—echoes Epictetus’s view that the true measure of a person is found in their response to misfortune.

Comparative Analysis: The Strength of Moral Response

Both To Kill a Mockingbird and Night examine how individuals navigate systemic injustice—racial discrimination in the American South and genocide in Nazi Germany. The scale and nature of these injustices differ, but both works emphasize the significance of personal response over external events. Atticus, though defeated by the legal system, retains his integrity. Eliezer, though stripped of almost everything, continues to fight for survival and meaning.

Another key similarity lies in the way both texts portray the loss of innocence. Scout loses her childhood idealism as she confronts the deep-rooted racism of her town, while Eliezer loses his faith and innocence amid the horrors of the Holocaust. However, neither character’s development leads to despair. Instead, they both grow in their understanding of the world and their place in it, emerging with deeper insight and moral awareness. Their responses are what shape their identity—not the events themselves.

Conclusion: The Power of Response

Epictetus’s quote, “It is not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters,” offers a powerful lens through which to understand both Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and Elie Wiesel’s Night. These works, though different in genre, setting, and tone, both illustrate that personal strength, morality, and identity are defined by the choices people make in response to adversity. Whether it is Atticus’s quiet resistance to racism or Eliezer’s moral endurance in a death camp, each character’s response becomes an act of defiance, dignity, and ultimately, hope.

In literature and in life, hardships are inevitable. But as these texts show, it is the courage to remain principled, the compassion to care for others, and the determination to bear witness that allow individuals to transcend suffering. This critical lens reminds us that while we may not control what happens to us, we can control who we become because of it.

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