How Does Eliezer's Relationship With His Father Change Throughout The Book Night

Elie and his father, Schlomo, carried one another through the horrific times of the Holocaust. Elie feels as though he did not do enough to keep his father alive. It was not Elie’s fault that his father passed. Elie did as much as he could especially under the circumstances, yet that is not how Elie feels about it. By the end of “Night,” Elie reflects on how he treated and cared for Schlomo, and he immediately feels disappointment in himself. Elie feels like he did not take care of his father, but he did much more than most.

The one person in Elie’s life that means everything to him is his father. During his time in the concentration camps, Elie’s bond with his father

Eventually they stayed alive because they were each other motivation to live. After discovering that the front line was closing on the camp, everyone is worried that they will be killed. When confronted by the news, Elie thought, “As for me, I was thinking not about death but about not wanting to be separated from my father. We had suffered so much, endured so much together”(Wiesel 82). Even though Elie and his father were never that close, since the German occupation, they have started to support each other. Yet when confronted by his own mortality, he still sticks by his father's side. Not only is his father helping him, he is Elie’s motivation to continue fighting the urge to give up. If it hadn't been for his father, Elie would not have made it as far as he

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.

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)

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 the story Elie was whipped savagely by the Kapo, and all he can think about is his father. Later in the new camp Elie's father is giving up on life and Elie tries to make him move. There is an allied air raid and for the first time Elie leave his father.(wiesel pg. 106) This proves he finally gave up on his father. He started off in the story really caring about his father sacrificing his own safety just so he could stay close to him. After his father was struck ill in the new camp he gave up on him. In the story Elie wanted to keep his shoes even if that meant he would get tormented even more. This show he has a very strong will and loves things that give him a glimmer of hope. At the end when his father died he stopped caring and lost all hope in surviving the

Nearing the end of their arduous journey, the mutual dependence was slowly dwindling as Elie began to have to take care of his father. One example of this is when his father was sick and in the camp infirmary and had not been fed so Elie “gave him what was left of [his] soup. But [his] heart was heavy. [He] was aware that [he] was doing it grudgingly,’ (107). Being that he did this grudgingly, the reader is shown that, to Elie, taking care of his father had become more of an unwanted task rather than a kind action coming from his heart. Elie begins to see his own father as a thorn in his side much rather than his source support. His father is no longer there as a person who will provide motivation to survive but now instead a burden. In another instance, still in the infirmary, when his father pleaded for water and the officer came to silence him, Elie states, “ I didn’t move.

He offers his dad soup but doesn't actually want to give it to him. THis was a bit after the death march when elie started to see his father as a burden. “I gave him my soup. but my heart was heavy. ”(wiesel 107).Ellie has a talk with the block leader who changes his perspective on how he feels about his father.

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

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

Dementia and physical illness rendered him too weak to rely on, so rather than asking how Elie would live without his father, a new question was presented: How would his father live without Elie? Immediately after arriving to a liberation camp, the surviving prisoners were divided into various groups, so Elie grabbed his father’s hand and refused to let go. Unfortunately, exposure to such unforgiving environments had introduced Elie’s father to the kind of seductive release from pain mentioned earlier. This was confirmed through an argument the two had where Elie refused to let his father sleep, knowing quite well he wouldn’t wake up. However, the latter was obstinate, begging to rest because he was so unbearably weak. The one-sided quarrel caused Elie to admit, “I knew that I was no longer arguing with him but with Death itself, with Death that he had already chosen” (105). Elie had previously demonstrated the strength to fight for his life, because that was what survival was, a fight. However, his father was not as fortunate, and didn’t possess the same willpower as his

At the beginning of the novel , Elie's relationship with his father is fairly close. Slowly but surely, through out the novel their relationship changes. The reason for their father-son relationship tobe fairly close and not extremely close as it should be is because his father, Chlomo’s commitments to the community, affects his life at home.

“We had never understood each other so quickly so clearly, I raised my eyes to look into my father’s face leaning over mine, trying to discover a smile or something resembling one. ”(pg65) This quote shows the significance of the father son relationship showing that Elie’s father is not giving up once he sees Elie. If he did not have Elie he would have given up long

I’m your father… you’re hurting me… you’re killing your father! I’ve got some bread… for you too… for you too”(Wiesel 96). HIs son was so lost and desperate, that he attacked and hurt his own father, just for a bit of bread. Because it was so hard to survive in the conditions the Holocaust provided, he did a brutal act toward his father and ended up hurting him greatly. This is something that Elie and Artie would never do, even in hard times.