In the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, he tells the dark story of his time during the Holocaust as a Jew. Eliezer, a fifteen year old boy who narrates the book, devotes his time and attention to his father, Chlomo, as much as possible. His father was a highly respected man by the majority of the Jewish community in Sighet. Eliezer and his father were almost inseparable throughout their journey in the camps. Despite being father and son, they had many differences. Eliezer and his father care for one another and wanted to stay by each other’s side until the nightmare was over. However somewhere along his journey Eliezer wanted to be rid of the burden his father had become. Eliezer's father has always been selfless, giving his rations to Elie and making sure he was safe. Elie on the other hand slowly despises having to take care of his father. Although he does regret it, the initial thought still stood. When Elie’s father was hungry, Elie unwillingly handed over his soup, “I gave him what was left of my soup. But my heart was heavy. I was aware that I was doing it grudgingly.” (Wiesel, 107). Although they both followed the same religion, their faith was fairly different. Elie’s dad’s faith was much stronger than his son’s. Elie always questioned everything and second-guessed his religion, “Why did I pray? Strange question. …show more content…
Of course, throughout the novel they were mistreated, barely getting enough food to survive. Since his father was a lot older than him, he deteriorated faster than Elie. He attained wrinkles, became bone skinny, and looked older than his age. Elie on the other hand looked older than he was, therefore he got away with working as an eighteen year old. His father was the first to get sick, Elie took care of him as much as he could but in the end there was nothing he could do. Severe sickness ended his father’s life, and the only thing that hindered Elie was an injured
One internal conflict Elie experienced was the loss of all of his family. While he was in the concentration camps, he and his father were the only ones in his family that were left. “My hand tightened its grip on my father. All I could think of was not to lose him. Not to remain alone,” which was stated on page 30, explains how he and his father were all that were left and his father would have to be there for Elie during that time. They fought hard together through the cold nights
“Eliezer experiments with the possibility of becoming an adult while his father gradually slips away, all the while giving his son what space he can to let him try out a new role” (Sanderson). “Eliezer's march toward a pseudo-adulthood continues, while his father seems to be regressing. (Sanderson). Elie’s father starts to get sick and is becoming an annoyance for Elie. When Chlomo sinks into a snow bank during a forced march to the next death camp, too sick to move, Eliezer begs his father to stand up and continue moving” (Sanderson). Elie also felt no remorse for his father as he was being beaten by a S.S guard. “At first my father simply doubled the blows…I felt angry at that moment… Why couldn’t he avoid Idek’s wrath?” (Wiesel 54). Even when his father was being beaten for not marching right he still became annoyed with is dad. He also gave up his soup with a heavy heart. “I gave him what’s left of my soup.” I was aware that I did it groggily” (Wiesel
In a couple parts of the story Elie’s dad in many ways was jeopardizing Elie’s well being. For instance, when his father was sick. “Instead of him taking the extra bread he had gotten he gave it to his dad” There was no point because his father was gonna die either way so he basically wasted it. Another example of why family isn’t always the best thing to have during a crisis. Is when the “rabbi's son left him when they were forced to run away from the Americans/ Russians”. He did this because he thought his father was dragging him down so he slipped away and left him to ultimately die alone. Which still doesn’t justify what he did, but i’m sure he did it to save his own life because his father was slowing him down. Another example would be when they were on the train the second time and a SS officer threw a piece of bread into the cart just to watch the men fight over it. While they were fighting Elie describes a point where “a man actually beats his own father for a piece of bread”(Wiesel Pg.105). These are just two of many instances throughout the
Elie cares about his father and does not him to just give up and die, he forces him to get up and take a shower. Later when his father was taken to the infirmary the nazi’s did not give him any food. Elie gives his father half of his soup instead of giving him all of it. This shows that Elie is more concerned with himself than his father. Like the son that killed his father on the way to Buchenwald.
.As Elie’s father continues to show that now he is dependent on Elie, Elie slowly but surely grows into a parent. Elie believed he needed to be by his father because his father needed him. At one point in the novel, on page 108 Elie makes a sacrifice for the little bit of food that they barely get for his father, “For a ration of bread I was able to exchange cots to be next to my father”. Elie
Throughout the novel, we can understand that in the beginning, the relationship between Elie and his father was not the best because Elie believed his father cared more about the Jewish community than him. However, by the time the father and the son only had each other, they were depending on each other. Elie was only living for his father because he knew his father would not survive without him. They were both helping each other in a ways surviving. For example, Elie gave his father lessons in marching step, to help him survive (55). Also, Elie became less and less emphatic toward his dad during the concentration camp days. The Nazi sabotages the wonderful bond a father and a son had together. Elie could see his own father get beaten up and even than; he had no emotion or anger (39). Once his father got beat up with an iron bar, and Elie did nothing to help him, he just stood there (54). Even thought he had no emotion, even when his father past away, Elie said “I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. But I was out of tears. And deep inside me, if I could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience, I might have found something like: Free at last!...
Child abuse is very similar to the book Night by Elie Wiesel. There is one main topic that sticks out when reading child abuse articles and Night. Both topics have delt with a certain pain. Elie Wiezel and child abuse victims have suffered, starved, and are mainly frightened of their surroundings. Not only did they deal with emotional abuse, but also physical abuse. The Jewish children in Night have been abused by the leaders of the camp and were forced to do work or else get punished. When it comes to Child abuse, the children also get punished, whipped, and punched like Elie and his father did. Both topics dealt with verbal abuse too. Many Jews in Night have been threatened and constantly picked on by the concentration camp leaders for being
In a Concentration Camp survival was next to impossible. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie is a survivor of the holocaust who doesn’t have much of a relationship with his father. He has always felt that he was never important to his father and that his father cared more about the community than his own family. When Eliezer and his father are forced to count on each other, it’s a slow process for them to finally have a father-son relationship. Without each other they wouldn’t have survived for as long as they did and Eliezer would have lost all hope. A major theme in this story is how Eliezer and his father come together and build a relationship amidst their circumstances.
In “Night,” the setting creates a cruel and depressing mood which helps the reader feel what it was like to live during the Holocaust. For example in chapter one he uses descriptive words that make it seem like the Nazis think that the Jewish people didn’t deserve a life. Once the Jewish get to the concentration camps the writing said “They were forced to dig huge trenches then they shot the prisoners” (Wiesel 6). That quote is saying that they were forced to dig their own grave when they arrived at the concentration camps, and then got shot and placed in the grave that they had just dug. In the writing i get the feeling that the Nazis thought the Jews were evil people because of the way they named the street that they lived on. In the text
When Elie and his father first entered the camps, his father was struck and Elie did nothing to help his father: "What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked. Only yesterday, I would have dug my nails in this criminal's flesh" (39). This shows that, although Elie did not share a close relationship with his father, he still feels that he should stand up for his fahter for the fact that they are father and son. Elie is very violent in that he would have "dug his nails in the criminals' flesh." Evidently, Elie is furious towards the offender. Unfortunately, Elie does not do anything when his father is struck because he does not want to draw attention to himself. Nevertheless, the bond between Elie and his father does strengthen: "And what if he were dead, as well? He was not moving. Suddenly the evidence overwhelmed me: there is no longer any reason to live, any reason to fight" (98-99). Elie reveals that he truly depends on his father for survival. Because he believes his father is no longer alive, he loses all hope for surviavl. Although Elie expresses anger towards his father from time to time because he is being a burden, he still feels that his survival is meaningless without his father. The strong bond that the two developed once they entered the concentration camps proves that nothing can come between them so easily.
In life, people go through different changes when put through difficult experiences. In the book Night, Elie Wiesel is a young Jewish boy whose family is sent to a concentration camp by Nazis. The story focuses on his experiences and trials through the camp. Elie physically becomes more dehumanized and skeletal, mentally changes his perspective on religion, and socially becomes more selfish and detached, causing him to lose many parts of his character and adding to the overall theme of loss in Night.
An important nonfiction book that I think everyone should read is Night by Elie Wiesel. This book was published in 1960 by Hill and Wang. It has 116 pages and it is told by a man who survived the Holocaust. This was a very important moment in history that everyone needs knowledge on.
When Elie and his family are sent to a concentration camp, he is fortunate enough to not be separated from his father. At first, this is a relief, and is father is his will to survive. “The idea of dying, of ceasing to be, began to fascinate me. To no longer exist. To no longer feel the excruciating pain of my foot… My father’s presence was the only thing that stopped me. He was running next to me, out of breathe, out of strength, desperate. I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his sole support.”(86)
They did this because they felt that their dads were a burden on their shoulders as if they were slowing them down and the kids could survive without them. Elie once had these feelings about his dad when in the book he said that he thought his dad was dead, but Elie instantly regretted these thoughts because he had to protect his dad. Elie thought that if his dad died, he would no longer have a reason to live. Elie felt very strong about his dad because he was always protecting him and not letting him die. In one situation he would not let the other Jews throw him out of the cattle cart when they were on their way to Gleiwitz. Elie also tried his best to stay by his father’s side no matter what, even if it meant almost getting shot; He did this because Elie’s dad also protected him during the marches by not letting him fall asleep in the snow, this was so he would not
It is clear Elie hints that he was neglected. The transformation from being independent in Sighet to becoming dependant upon his father showed Elie how much he took his father for granted.