Fatherhood In To Kill A Mockingbird

The book Night by Elie Wiesel is a book describing events during the Holocaust that happened in a concentration camp. He has many different conflicts throughout the book. Dealing with his dad is a big part in the book.

In his book, Night, Elie Wiesel spoke about his experience as a young Jewish boy in the Nazi concentration camps. During this turbulent time period, Elie described the horrifying events that he lived through and how that affected the relationship with his father. Throughout the book, Elie and his father’s relationship faced many obstacles. In the beginning, Elie and his father have much respect for one another and at the end of the book, that relationship became a burden and a feeling of guilt. Their relationship took a great toll on them throughout their journey in the concentration camps.

One of the major themes that can be found in Night, by Elie Wiesel, is one of father/son relationships. To quote a father from the book, Stein, “The only thing that keeps me alive is knowing that Reizel and the little ones are still alive.” Not all father/son relationships are as good however. Another part of the book reads, “I once saw. . . a boy of thirteen, beat his father for not making his bed properly. As the old man quietly wept, the boy was yelling, ‘If you don’t stop crying instantly, I will no longer bring you bread. Understood?’” In presenting examples like these, Wiesel communicates a message of the importance of good father/son relationships to his readers. This paper will examine father/son relationships throughout the book,

Although the two of them have been looking out for each other their whole time in Auschwitz, Eliezer was still the dependent. “Don’t let yourself be overcome by sleep, Eliezer. It’s dangerous to fall asleep in snow.” By Eliezer’s father telling him this, it shows that even when his own life is own the line, he is looking out for his own son’s interest. Then Eliezer says to his father later on in the night, “Come, Father. It’s better there. You’ll be able to lie down. We’ll take turns. I’ll watch over you and you’ll watch over me. We won’t let each other fall asleep. We’ll look after each other.” This simple statement transfers the role of depender to Eliezer, showing he is now taking charge of making sure him and his father stay together and

In Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie and his father’s relationship before the concentration camps consists of little emotion shared between each other; their estranged relationship leaves no room for them to show affection towards each other. In Sighet before the Holocaust, Elie’s father engages more with the citizens of the town than with his own family. Later, when Elie and his father arrive in their first concentration camp in Birkenau, they grow closer very quickly, relying on each other to continue their fight to live with the little food and harsh treatments. When Elie and his father live their lives before the Holocaust in Sighet, his father spends most of his time tending to the needs of the community and less to the needs of his family; however, when the two of them arrive in Birkenau, their relationship rapidly changes as his father plays the role of a supportive parent and Elie the helpful son.

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.

Eliezer and his father never wanted to be separated. But as the book goes on the father gets very sick and Eliezer has to take care of him. While they were waiting in line they watch a load of children go into the fire. After that Eliezer debates running into the electric fence but he doesn’t. Eliezer’s father soon gets very sick and the Nazis ordered him to the furnace and after Eliezer loses his father, he feels a sense of relief because he no longer needs to take care of him but also misses him

Most people believe that family helps build you up and make you stronger, even through tragic events; this isn’t always true. In Elie Wiesel’s book, Night, he explains the hardships he and his father, Shlomo, experienced while in concentration camps. In the book, Elie and his dad went through many tough situations together: starvation, beatings, and health issues. As more and more horrific events occurred, Eliezer's relationship with his father began to fade. As Shlomo grew weaker physically, Eliezer grew weaker emotionally; the intense trauma numbed his heart. Because of these many difficulties, Eliezer was shaped into an independent young man who no longer relied on his family but on his own strength for survival.

In the book Night, there were three father son relationships. They were all very different but at the same time had many similarities. Being in the Holocaust really changed their relationships.

Adam Driver once stated, “it’s hard to kill a father-son bond.” Night is about a young kid named Elie Wiesel. Elie is a jew who got sent to the camps. Him and his father got separated from his mom and and 3 sisters. When reading Night, it is evident that the father and son is a very powerful theme.

Then, throughout the middle of the novel, the strength of family bonds of the Jews is tested. After the run, a Rabbi asks Elie if he had seen his son, Elie tells him that he had not. Then Elie realizes that he had seen his son on the run, but he does not tell the Rabbi because his son left him behind on purpose. The text states, “He had felt his father growing weaker… by this separation to free himself of a burden that could diminish his own chance for survival” (Wiesel 91). This is where the reader begins to see the toll that the concentration camps are having on the families. Elie includes this to show, that now, family members see each other as burdens rather than a blessing. Later in the novel, family members go as far as taking a life. One old man

But further on in the novel, they drift further and further apart. At some point in the novel, Elie starts to feel that his father is a bit of a burden. Elie and his father experience a reversal in roles, where Elie takes on the fatherly role and his father takes on the child role. After their run to Gleiwitz, Elie noticed how his father had changed from the time they arrived at the camps, “He had become childlike, weak, frightened, vulnerable” page 105. When they are finally at Buchenwald, Elie and his father spend an entire night apart. When Elie wakes the next morning, he frantically goes looking for him, as a father would look for his lost son. When he locates his father, he notices that his father was just sitting their like a lost child, waiting to be found. Elie says, “Father! I’ve been looking for so long….where were you? Did you sleep? How are you feeling?” pg.106.

Jewish prisoners that were alone during the holocaust survived better than being with family. In “Night” by Elie Wiesel, Elie had to be separated from his family; he never saw them again. Family made the holocaust even harder; Jewish prisoners perturbed about their family every second. On top of Elie worrying about his family, his dad was an old man. There were many times throughout the book Elie had to be a provider for his dad.

In Sighet, Elie would study the Jewish religion day, and night. He and his father disagreed on whether Elie was of age to be studying so much content. “He wanted to drive the idea of studying Kabbalah from my mind. In vain”(Wiesel 4). Elie’s father didn’t believe that Elie could study despite all that he already knew. This represents their disconnected relationship because Elie’s father should be close enough with Elie to know his intellectual potential. Elie’s dad was respected throughout the community. His advice was constantly needed for every affair. Helping the community was his main priority, rather than his own family. “He rarely displayed his feelings, not even within his family, and was more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin”(Wiesel 4). As a father its respected to be quiet and serious, but isolating one’s own family is extreme. Elie and his father were never able to have a close father and son bond due to the fact that Elie’s dad focused on his reputation rather than his primary responsibility. Later on while in Auschwitz, Elie and his dad meet one their relatives. Elie’s dad barely recognizes his own family due to always being out and not attending his family. “He was always elsewhere, lost in thought. (Once, a cousin came to see us in Sighet. She had stayed at our house and eaten at our table for two weeks before my father noticed her presence for

Mclaughlin #1 The book “Night” shows that father son relationship means that you would give your own life for someone, but it also shows how it can be twisted that you would kill a member of your family for as much as a piece of bread. In the book “Night” by Elie Wiesel the author uses many scenarios of father son relationship such as , when Elie tough his father to march at one of the concentration camps. Another example of father son relationships is when Elie saved his dad from being thrown out of a train. If he hadn’t done that his dad would be thrown into a pile of dead people when he was still alive. Lastly an example of father son relationships is when a child killed his father for a piece of bread.