Dawn by Elie Wiesel Bryan Reilly Immediately upon reading the first page of the book the central conflict of the story becomes clear A boy around the age of eighteen years old must kill an Englishman by the name of John Dawson However the conflict is not simply will he kill or not kill the man it is why he his going to do it Throughout the course of the novel Elisha cant find a way to make his challenge any easier by justifying it He finds that in the last hours before he ends Johns life he is