Morality In Elie's A Confederacy Of Dunces

Before the atrocities within the Holocaust take place Wiesel's relationship with his father is distant and cold. Ellie writes “My father wept. It was the first time I had ever seen him weep. I had never imagined that he could”(Wiesel 16). By stating that he couldn't imagine his father cry, it hammers home the idea of how removed Elie was from his father's emotions. There is an emotional disconnect between them; expressing emotion wasn't prevalent. This allows for a harsh contrast to the emotions felt by both Wiesel and his father after they arrive at Auschwitz. When Wiesel describes his father at the beginning of the book he describes him by stating “My father was a cultured, rather unsentimental man. There was never any display of emotion, even at

Before Elie was sent to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, he displayed positive character traits. He was faithful, courageous, and smart. In the beginning, Wiesel states, “He had watched me one day as I prayed at dusk” (4) Elie was talking to Moishe the Beadle (teacher in Sighet) and was not afraid to express his faith. Obviously, Elie was faithful because he was praying. In addition, this showed that he was also very passionate about his faith and did not care if people knew if he was Jewish. Elie had this trait before he was sent to Auschwitz, and he made his faith the top priority. Elie’s faith was an outlet for him, and he was a very positive person because of it. Further into his stay at the Auschwitz concentration camp, Elie started to let his faith drift away, leaving him with almost nothing. Next, Wiesel says, “There could no longer be any doubt: Germany would be defeated. It was only a matter of time, months, weeks perhaps.” (8) Elie and his family were getting worried about the Nazi’s invading many Jewish homes. Elie became very confident about the situation and told himself that the Germans would be defeated. Confidence was deeply displayed in this piece of text evidence because he begins to make it a fact that the Germans would lose the war and everything would be okay. Elie’s confidence was a big part of his positive personality before he was in the camp because it gave him hope. Elie has a complete change of heart once he is in the death camp for a while and becomes very hopeless. Lastly, Wiesel explains, “I continued to devote myself to my studies, Talmud during the day and Kabbalah at night.” (8) Elie listened to the radio and heard that there were bombings from Germany and

In the beginning of the story Elie Wiesel and his father were not that close. He says his father worked a lot. This is how Wiesel describes him “My father was a cultured, rather unsentimental. He rarely displayed his feelings not even with his family, and was more involved with the welfare of others than of his own kin”(Wiesel 4). He describes him as a man that worked and didn’t really express his feelings to anyone. Him and his father weren’t that close. Throughout all the events that happen to them in the book he then realizes family is the only thing he has now and he doesn’t want to lose him. Later on, they’re sent to camp and Elie Wiesel and his father are together and that is when they become closer. When they were at these concentration camps he says, “ I tightend my grip on my father’s hand. The old ,familiar fear not to lose him”(Wiesel 104). Before they weren’t that close, later on when they went to these camps they were faced with inhumanity. That got them closer. Now, he feared to lose his father. In the end, this demonstrates that when they faced these cruel things they learned to be closer to each other because they don’t want anything to happen to one

“One more stab to the heart, one more reason to hate. One less reason to live.” Elie’s personal relationships are destroyed, he is faced with a question as to why he is still

Elie Wiesel reveals quite a few things when his attitude towards himself changes. The reader can be find in Wiesel's memoir, “Night” on pages 113 finds on page 113 that Elie no longer cares about anyone or anything other than survival and food at this point of his life during the Holocaust, on the very last pages of his book. For the longest time Elie only cared for his father and that was what kept his thrive to survive alive, watching over him, worrying about him, and protecting him was all he seemed to do. Once his father died, Elie had an entirely different view point set in his mind "Since my father's death, nothing mattered to me anymore. ...I spent my days in total idleness. With only one desire: to eat" (Wiesel 113). Elie only wanted

many times during the book it talks about Wiesel’s problems. Elie’s first problem would be when he was in Buna, a concentration camp. This was a problem for Wiesel because he didn't have food, water, and at sometimes air. In the book Elie says “ At ten o’clock we were given our daily ration of bread” (Wiesel 34 ). This quote shows how that they only got bread once a day from their SS Officers, and that they didn't have food. Another problem Wiesel had is the loss of family. Elie got taken away from his mom and sister when they were deported on the train but got to stay with his father. Elie says “ I certainly do. But on one condition: I want to stay with my father” (Wiesel 35). With Elie being taken away from his mom and sister, he wanted to stay with his father through the whole thing. Wiesel’s father was his strength to stay alive. Elie had tough adversities he had to go through in his life and he was strong and overcame them.

In the book, our narrator, Elie, is constantly going through changes, and almost all of them are due to his time spent in Auschwitz. Prior to the horrors of Auschwitz, Elie was a very different boy, he had a more optimistic outlook on life. During the first few pages of the book, Elie tells us a bit about how he viewed the world before deportation, “ I was almost thirteen and deeply observant. By day I studied Talmud and by night I would run to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the temple.” ( 3). Elie was, as he says himself, deeply observant and devoted most of his time to his faith. He spent almost all of his time studying and worshiping. At this point, Elie’s faith is the center of his life. Elie is also shown to do a few other things and has a few more early character traits aside from being dedicated to what he believes in. Elie also sees the best of people, a few pages later he says, “The news is terrible,’ he said at last. And then one word: ‘transports’ The ghetto was to be liquidated entirely… ‘Where will they take us?” (Wiesel 14). This is one of the only time we hear about Elie being worried or scared because of the Germans before Auschwitz, and still, despite the warnings that were given and the rumors circulating, Elie doesn’t think that the Germans are actually going to do all of those terrible things. Around this time in the book, Wiesel starts to become more emotionally weighted, but none of what has happened takes full effect until much later. There are multiple instances in the book where Elie is given reason to distrust or even hate the Germans, he talks about how the Gestapo treated him and his family on page 19 “‘Faster! Faster! Move, you lazy good-for-nothings!’ the Hungarian police were screaming.”. Yet he then goes on to say, on that very same page, that “Still our first

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

In conclusion, the interview with Elie Wiesel portrays an abundant amount of themes: the consequences of human judgment, loss of faith of God, and father-son relationships. The collage showcases the themes, father-son relationships, and loss of human freedom. Completing this ISU assignment taught me a variety lessons, that would help me in the future. I really enjoyed working on this ISU assignment on Night, by Elie

Before Wiesel traveled to this gruesome death camp, he showed an abundance of positive traits. Some of these being his love for his religion, his strong hope for his future, and his powerful, loving family. In the first few pages Elie confesses his love for his religion and his ambition to pursue it to a teacher of the Jewish religion. He says that “...I told him how unhappy I was not to be able to find in Sighet a master to teach me the Zohar…” (5). He was stating that he wanted to branch off of his current religion and learn a new form of it, but he was limited because no one in his area also studied this form of Judaism. We can also learn that he was hopeful because you can tell that he is still trying to learn this other religion. Elie also writes that “Naturally, we refused to be separated” (20). He was speaking about his family in this quote and how he and his sisters had the opportunity to leave their mom and dad so that they could get to a safer place with the family maid. The mother did not want to go, so no one went; Instead they stuck together in the ghettos. They had an immensely strong family bond and it is shown through this passage. The children chose their family over a more certain safety. The next quote came after they were all in cattle carts, and were traveling to the new place. Elie recalls “It was as though madness had infected all of us” (27). Elie was scared during this time, but also reserved. He just kept to himself on while he was in this cart that was heading somewhere that he did not know.

In the story Night, Elie Wiesel’s refusal to take action results in consequences that affect Wiesel negatively and leaves him guilty for years to come. The first time Wiesel refuses to take action was after he and his father entered Auschwitz and his father attempted to communicate with an authority figure which resulted in a hit to the face. As Wiesel witnesses his father being struck, he stands still and questions his identity more and more until his father “guessed [his] thoughts… whispered in [his] ear: ‘it doesn’t hurt’”(Wiesel 39). Wiesel’s father’s words of reassurance are to calm Elie down because his father knows Elie felt guilt and remorse for not taking action. Yet, Elie’s father’s own actions would leave Elie feeling more guilty as he notices his father, the one who was struck, is taking more action to the act of the injustice. Wiesel drags these feelings of guilt all the way to his father’s own death, consequently further impeding recovery from the mentioned events. Elie’s father, on his deathbed, “called out to [Elie]”(Wiesel 112). His father wants Elie by his side, even if his son was to witness his passing right then and there because responding to his father was the

Elie’s faith in his Lord and his instinctive love for humanity are put to their final tests as the novel approaches its climax and conclusion. After witnessing the malicious, brutal hanging of an innocent child, Elie comes to the

In the beginning of the book he studies the Talmud and other Jewish texts, “I continued to devote myself to my studies. By day, the Talmud, at night, the Caballa.” This text shows that he was a devoted jew who followed the texts. This religiousness soon came to change when Elie was in the concentration camps. Elie started to question god where an example of this would be in the quote “But these men here you have betrayed , whom you have allowed to be tortured,..., they pray for you! They praise your name!” This quote shows that Elie realizes that god has not devoted his time to his followers, and is angered that his “brothers” are dying and God is doing nothing about it. This quote changes his view of god showing the theme that the holocaust was a very difficult time for jews and that it made them lose faith in god.

Lost hope, brutal disciplinary actions, and mistrust among starving men, Elie Wiesel’s autobiography, Night, sets in 1944-45 in Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. An optimistic, 15 year old German, perseveres the harsh living conditions as a Jewish boy and is forced to abide commands of SS officers in concentration camps. Witnessing Chlomo Wiesel nearing death first hand made Elie realize “... there was no more reason to live.”(93). His father, his only blood, was a symbol of motivation to continue Elie’s desire to live. Without Chlomo, Elie would have approached death sooner. He could not abhor the thought of his father bereft of life, as he “slapped him as hard as I could”(94) till he was conscious. Elie grasps to the hope of being

Toward the start of the connection between the reader and the relationship amongst Ignatius and