Theme Of Family In Night By Elie Wiesel

In night there were many times when Elie and his dad wanted to give up but they did not because they had each other. They used family to get through the terrible things that were happening to not only them but millions like them. Before the concentration

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

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)

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

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!...

The relationship between a father and son is one of the strongest relationships between family members. A son looking after his father might seem unusual, but in unusual circumstances, relationships are often forced to adapt. The father is the mentor and the son should look up to the father for support and guidance. This relationship plays out in Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, through the concentration camps. Hitler and the Nazi’s have been deporting Jews to concentration camps and eventually killing them. Wiesel travels through the horrible circumstances. In 1944, Elie Wiesel lives in Hungary with his parents and his three sisters, but they deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and is split up, but remained with his father. Wiesel describes his experiences traveling through different concentration camps with his father, Shlomo. Wiesel tells about the different people he meets and events that happen. Wiesel meets other fathers and sons, whose relationships are not going well. Elie and his father stick together as they face many challenges. As time went on in the camps the fathers became weaker and their chances of survival decreased. The sons helped their fathers go on, but this would slow the sons down. In his Holocaust memoir Night, Elie Wiesel uses the motif of father-son relationships to show that while there are benefits to having a strong connection with someone amidst extreme circumstances, there are also disadvantages because the other person may become a burden.

When the Blockalteste told him that he couldn’t help his father anymore, Elie thought, “He was right” (111). In the end, Elie’s father died and therefore cutting their relationships even more. Another example is when Mier killed his father over a piece of bread. The need for survival in the Holocaust made people even kill their family. Meir and his father’s relationship was torn up because of the Holocaust. Elie noticed that “Sons abandoned the remains of their fathers without a tear” (92). This shows the inhumane behavior the Holocaust evoked between sons and fathers. Towards the end of the book, people were ready to kill anyone to survive, even their family. Last but not least, when they all were running in the snow so that the Russians would not find the prisoners, Rabbi Eliahu’s son abandoned his father. Rabbi Eliahu and his son’s relationship was broken right when his son felt the need to abandon him. Elie had saw him intentionally run faster than his father and described the son’s actions as “letting the distance between them become greater” (91). This can have a literal and a figurative meaning behind it. The son running faster than his

They were both afraid to be separated from each other. As Elie says “ All I could think of was not to lose him. Not to remain alone.”pg. 30. There bond was unbreakable during their time in the camp. They were each others reason to live.They helped each other. For example ,when Elie had to give up his crown do that they wouldn't beat his father. They felt each others pain and sorrow.They listened to each other and lived for each other. “ My father’s presence was the only thing that stopped me.”pg.86. Towards the end things got rough in camp.

At the end of his last couple of days at Auschwitz, a family member called Stein came looking for Eliezer and his father. He was hoping to hear good news about the survival of his wife. “Yes my mother had news from your family, Reziel is very well. The children too” [Wisel 41] Eliezer was counting his blessings. Elie never knew he had a cousin in fact he had no idea he had any family in Auschwitz. What goes around comes around, Elie’s father always gave him hope to continue living and Elie forthwith did the same thing to this so called “cousin” . Meanwhile Elie also gives himself a reason to continue surviving through the most horrific years of his life. This is how survivors become rescuers instead of victims, there is always others they are helping instead of

Elie Wiesel’s book “Night” shows the life of a father and son going through the concentration camp of World War II. Their life long journey begins from when they are taken from their home in Sighet, they experience harsh and inhuman conditions in the camps. These conditions cause Elie and his father’s relationship to change. During their time there, Elie and his father experience a reversal in roles.

Elie Wiesel’s book “ Night “ takes place during the crucial events of the Holocaust. Elie and his family are taken to a ghetto and later on taken to a concentration camp called Auschwitz. They were taken there for one reason and one reason only, they were jews. Elie witnessed murder and soulless acts at his stay in Auschwitz, death was in the air. Elie and his father only had each other. One theme that is seen throughout the novel is that times like this can bring two people together to build a better relationship.

Death camps-A very heart wrenching subject. As a young boy, Elie had to experience the pain and suffering that was considered “normal” in a concentration camp. Death become just death, people became numb, life went on until one day you couldn’t go on and were then sent to the crematorium. Survival was a huge aspect in the book ‘Night’. The daily rations were a piece of stale bread and some soup. As time went on rations got less and people began to get ravenous. As stated in the text “You’re killing your father…I have bread…for you too…for you too…” (Wiesel 101) The theme of survival relates not to just this book and the Holocaust, but in the real world. It is our humanly instincts to stay alive. Once that factor kicks in you start to lose sight of what matters in your life, like happiness and relationships. That’s why on page 101 the boy killed his father for just

Elie starts to have doubts about god he misses his mother and his sister but he lost all hope because the camps were dehumanizing him and made him lose his character and who he used to be but his old self never thought to ever look down on god but he had no other options but too he didn't know if he would ever make it

To start, as the men of the camp are called to an assembly, a young Jewish boy, Elie, begins to crave independence and dreams of leaving his father behind, who is all he has left. He wants to “get rid of this dead weight, so that [he can] use all [his] strength to struggle for [his] own survival, and only worry about [himself]” (Wiesel 111). At first, when Elie and his father are brought to the camps, Elie can’t stand the thought of being separated from his dear father, but as the situation grows worse, Elie grows selfish, only looking out for himself. It is a natural reaction for people to be selfish when put in difficult and testing situations, therefore a crisis can blind people to their morals and change their views on life. In addition, Elie’s father grows very sick, and the camp’s doctor tells Elie that given the situation, he should begin to focus on only himself, devoid sympathy for his father, and allow him to die. The doctor’s claim that “there are no fathers, no brothers, no friends. Everyone lives and dies for himself alone” clearly captures how selfishness can easily develop, given the right hardship (Wiesel 115). Rather than continue to help his father, Elie is told to only think of himself during this hardship. During a crisis, everyone longs for survival, and they are willing to hurt their loved ones to reach that goal. Selfishness spreads when times get tough, and rather than work together, one would much rather secure their personal safety than risk their sanity to help others. Selfishness is very common in people during a crisis, because many will secretly seek self preservation over group

This book interested me because it is a great example of what so many people went through in concentration camps throughout Europe in World War II. So many books have been written about personal accounts of war hardships suffered by the Jews but so few capture the true problems faced by prisoners. The impossible decision between survival and family was a difficult one faced by many during this time. Elie had an unfaltering will to live when his father was alive with him but once his father died the reason for living disappeared. But he once was faced with the decision of helping to keep his father alive or let him die and have an extra ration of food. How can one be stuck with a decision like this and not choose survival? Only true unselfishness can cause you to help someone