Elie Wiesel's stirring book Night describes his experiences during the Holocaust. The story follows the journey of a young boy named Eliezer who, along with his family, is transported from their home in Siget, Transylvania, to a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. After experiencing several horrific events, Eliezer changes from an innocent boy to an emotionally scarred, deeply traumatized adolescent. Under the cruel influence of the concentration camp, Elie undergoes a transformation marked by the deterioration of his body, apostasy, and relational estrangement. Elie had a strong physical frame and was a healthy kid before the concentration camps. This was especially notable during the long march between camps where, despite the harsh …show more content…
He had a deep spiritual outlook and devoted abundances of time to learning the Torah, as well praying each day at the Synagogue and even sought out a mentorship under Moché the Beadle in studying the kabbalah. Elie's faith is put to the test, however, when he is brought to the concentration camps and forced to endure its brutal conditions. He experiences horrific atrocities and cruelties and finds it difficult to comprehend how God could permit such evil to exist. His once unwavering faith is shaken as he starts to doubt himself and his confidence in God after the death of a young pipel, “‘Where is He? Here He is—He is hanging here on this gallows….” (72). When he is forced to watch the inhumane and slow, agonizing death of the pipel, he is left wondering how God could remain silent and permit such brutality. His once-firm faith is replaced by a strong sense of rage and despair as he develops a deep feeling of cynicism and …show more content…
In the beginning of the story, they lean on each other as their situation in the camps gradually worsens. They share rations, comfort one another, and Elie even makes sure to keep his father from the verge of death by not allowing him to sleep in the snow, which would have inevitably lead to his death. However, as the book progresses their relationship deteriorates when the brutal conditions of the concentration camp forces them to prioritize survival over their previous bond. Elie starts to emotionally withdraw as he grows more detached and distant from his father. The loss of hope and the overwhelming despair of their circumstances takes a heavy toll on their relationship.. Elie frequently finds himself reflecting back on another prisoner's words about abandoning his father, “He was right, I thought in the most secret region of my heart, but I dared not admit it. It's too late to save your old father, I said to myself…”(115). Through the later chapters of the book, he constantly mulls over the idea of leaving his father behind for the sake of his own survival, as it seemed everything was against the odds that any relationship would survive the brutality of the
Elie had been captivated with making sure he had remained with his father. He had not wanted to be alone and at any cost wanted them to remain together. By the middle of the novel, his father had weakened and their relationship
This shows how Elie wants his father to realize that he has to fight, not give up. He did not sacrifice his father for its own good, as many children do to their parents in order to survive. However, as the days passed, he began to feel some resentment when he was unable to protect himself from the brutality of the guards instead of pitying
At the end of the story, he’s all alone with no family and his only responsibility is to keep himself alive. When Elie and his family arrive at the camp, they’re quickly separated from each other and Elie is only with his father, which was relieving to him. Even though he wasn’t with his family, small friendships with other prisoners helped Elie a little bit. “Our morale was much improved. A good night's sleep had done its work.
It was only a fraction of a second, but it left me feeling guilty” (111). Elie starts to hope his father dies so he can focus on himself and not have to deal with the old man who was getting abused and was too weak to do
First, Elie goes through many different physical changes, like when he first gets to the concentration camp and gets branded with a tattoo on his arm. Elie declares, “The three ‘veteran’ prisoners, needles in hand, tattooed numbers on our left arms. I became
During the trauma of the concentration camps, Elie changes physically, spiritually, and emotionally. During Elie’s imprisonment by the Nazis, he undergoes a physical transformation. As the Nazis forced them to march Elie wrote, “I had no strength left. The journey had just begun and I already felt weak…”(Wiesel 19).
but Elie still wants a close relationship with God. In the novel, Elie tells his father that he wants a master to guide his studies of kabbalah but his father is reduced. Despect that Elie still found a way to increase his understanding of God. But as Elie and his father are subjected to increasingly horrific conditions in the concentration camps, Elie begins to question his belief in God and how he could allow such atrocities to occur. As Elie's faith in God is being tested, Elie continues to hold onto his humanity and compassion for others.
His father needed him the most in this moment, but he left him for dead. The younger Elie would’ve sprung up in the defense of his father, after his experiences of the sons in concentration camps he decided to leave his father for a gruesome and brutal
Elie and his father struggle through hard times, but together they still manage to push through. Each time the prisoners come to a close call with their lives, Elie and his father manage to find a way to stay together. “My father was sent to the left. I ran after him. An SS officer shouted at my back: 'Come back here!'
The most tragic events in our lives can also be the most transformative. The memoir Night, by Elie Wiesel, describes the time Weisel spent in the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust. Elie begins the memoir as a fifteen-year-old boy, full of hope and innocence. By the end of the memoir, he underwent a transmutation into a cynical man, full of enmity, physically like a corpse, but forever changed mentally. He witnesses terrible acts of genocide and inhumane by the Nazis towards himself, and his fellow Jews.
When the neighbors were watching them leave for the ghetto, they had already been moved to a smaller ghetto, to them a former “friend” would visit them and offers to hide them in her village. Things that happen and that are being said about god can hit the others hard because some are being treated differently in the camps. Elie claims that his faith is utterly destroyed, though he says that he will never forget these things even if he can or will live as long as god
Elie said at one point that he lived not for himself, but for his father, who couldn’t continue with the loss of his son. This shows the importance of a father son relationship, especially in conditions like concentration camps. Elie’s father was the only family he had left, his mother and sister
Elie and his father’s relationship begins to take a big turn when the dynamic of Elie depending on his father switches. This is also when
During the book,his relationship with his dad was strong, but could have been stronger. While they were in the concentration camp, Elie tries to “give [his] father lessons in marching step, in keeping time”. While they were running, Elie feels like dying, but “[his] father 's presence was the only thing that stopped [him]. He was running
Elie has to endure being split from his family, being taken away from his home, and then being forced to work until he’s at the brink of death. Although Elie has never been close to his father, that all changes as he is suddenly put in these cruel environments. Eventually Elie’s care for his father grows so much that his only reason to keep working is because of him. This backfires on him as when time goes on his father only grows weaker, both physically and mentally. Elie goes out of his way to help his father thrive instead of himself, and even goes as far as to share the little rations he has with his father.