Night by Elie Wiesel is a memoir of his experience as a young Jewish boy, during the Holocaust, who was sent to a concentration camp. Eliezer has a difficult time maintaining his faith when he sees the other prisoners lose faith and humanity. He takes the audience through his daily life during this time, showing what he went through and the battles he faced. In Night, Elie deals with many tragic instances where he thought of how he would be better off taking care of just himself and not his father. Self-preservation versus family commitment is the most important theme in the novel because, throughout the whole story, Elie shows the audience his commitment to his father and his family, but in the end, Elie chooses himself. Elie shows the struggles …show more content…
Elie’s family was important to him and he tried to not let himself lose sight of that but his self-preservation took over that commitment. "A terrible thought crossed my mind: What if he had wanted to be rid of his father?" (Wiesel 91). With a heavy heart, Elie takes care of his father by surrendering his soup. Elie feels that because he was resistant in handing his father the soup, he is just like Rabbi Eliahu's son and he “did not pass the test”. When it looked like he wouldn’t survive any longer Rabbi Eliahu’s son abandoned him. Elie realizes that this is a situation he and his father may be put in as well. Elie’s father was getting weaker and this separation freed him of a burden that eventually was going to decrease his chances of surviving. When Elie’s father died because he was sick, Elie was not affected by this, which shows a somewhat similar connection between Elie and Rabbi Eliahu’s son. He was relieved that he didn’t have to worry about his father anymore. "I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. But I was out of tears… [I was] Free at last!" (Wiesel 112). If Elie wanted to keep surviving, he knew something had to change. When his father is taken to the crematorium and he finds out about this, he feels both guilty and relieved by his father's passing, knowing he no longer has to worry about anyone but himself. Elie struggles with an internal conflict that he could
Night is a book that is based on the holocaust. Elie Wiesel talks about the things he and his dad endured while in Auschwitz. Through the book you go through Elie and his dad's relationship and how they got closer while being here. Night showed us the cruelty's and what each person had to endure during the holocaust. A few important topics in the book are, His journey in faith, dehumanization.
Night is written by Elie Wiesel and is about his time during the Holocaust. Elie’s family is sent to a concentration camp where he is seperated from his mother and sisters. He and his father stay alive for a while but eventually his father dies befor liberation. The role of the realtionship between father and son plays a big part in this novel.
“Night”, demonstrates the living conditions of a Holocaust era and the atrocious situations the people were placed in. An example of this lifestyle leads to a boy named Elie and his father who went through many maddening events together until their relationship eventually withered. In the novel, “Night” by Elie Wiesel, shows how the Holocaust changes the relationship between Elie and his father. At the beginning of the novel, Elie had worried about the separation of him and his father, “I had one thought- not lose him” (39).
While Elie’s father was suffering from Dysentery, in the back of his mind he hoped that his father would die. Elie from time to time would think of his father as a burden while he was sick since he couldn’t hold his own. When his father died he couldn’t shed any tears, he was actually kind of happy that he finally parished. Elie started to give his food to his father so he could keep his strength but felt like he should’ve gotten his and his father’s
As Elie and his father live through all the movements from camp to camp, Elie’s guilt becomes much more apparent and a burden on him. Elie Wiesel displays this survivor’s guilt with the following quotes, the first being, “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!” (Wiesel 112)
He doesn’t care about anything, anyone, other than the idea of his next meal. After the death of his father, Elie no longer had family with him or anyone he thought about. Even once he is freed, Elie’s only concern is getting food as quickly as possible. “Our first act as free men was to throw ourselves onto the provisions. That’s all we thought about.
When his father died and he only had to care for himself he says “free at last,”(112) representing the relive he felt in being able to just not have to depend or be depended on by anyone. At this point in the memoir, Elie felt defeated and he had no strength to continue, but he by himself kept himself alive. In the memoir, he says “I no longer thought about my father (...) I only thought about soup, and only soup,”(113) meaning that he considered himself more important than anything towards the end on the memoir, he had finally learned that depending on god or on others wasn’t what was getting him through the Holocaust but maintain himself going and at the end depending on himself got him through. Most Humans still can’t accept that others won't be the ones to solve their problems, and believing in God can help, but the only thing that can make everything go away is having strength within
He started losing his father as the hard labor and rest slowly takes over him. Knowing that he has to help his father no matter what happens, it doesn’t end that way. Remembering back, Elie witnessed the act of Rabbi Eliahu and his son’s relationship. No way did he ever think what couldn’t be true become true: “I gave him what was left of my soup. But my heart was heavy.
When they first arrived at Auschwitz Elie and his father looked to each other for support and survival, Sometimes Elie’s father being the only thing keeping him alive. In their old community Elie’s father was a strong-willed and respected community leader, as the book went on you could see how the roles were becoming reversed he was becoming weaker and more reliant on Elie to take care of him. Their father son bond had always been strong and only grew stronger with the things they had to endure. “My God, Lord of the Universe, give me strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahou’s son has done” Elie was disgusted when he saw Rabbi Eliahou’s son abandon his father to help improve his chances of his survival he prayed he’d never do such a thing, but as his father becoming progressively more reliant on Elie he started to see his father as more of a burden than anything else.
He was able to continuously replenish his weak, old father little by little by making sacrifices such as by giving up his “ration of bread and soup” (110) due to his health and youth. But one aspect that he did not notice was that “every man for himself and . . . each of us lives and dies alone” (110). Elie does not discard his hopes of killing two birds with one stone, until at the end of the novel, when the doctor points out
First, Elie's relationship with his father changes. At the beginning of the book, he at least has a little bit to do with his father, and he cares about him. However, he gave ‘him what was left of [his] soup. But [his] heart was heavy. [He] was aware that [he] was doing it grudgingly.
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.
“I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. But I had no more tears. And, in the depths of my being, in the recesses of my weakened conscience, could I have searched, I might perhaps have found something like-free at last!” (106). After Elie’s father dies he has no emotions even though he wants to feel sorry.
Although he only did so in thought, Elie was aware and it made him question himself as his old mentor Moishe the Beadle taught him to do. Eliezer did not shed a tear for his father, and so he wouldn’t allow himself to dig deep into his feelings because he knew exactly what he would find; a sense of relief. The dehumanization that the Jews had experienced, threw all of their emotions out of place. Rather than feelings sad because his own father died, Elie was happy and relieved when his father had passed. Once dehumanized, the animal instinct to drop the load and keeping moving forward kicks
After Elie’s father dies, Elie is a little bit glad because the responsibility is off him, “And deep inside me, if I could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience, I might have found something like: Free at last!?” Elie will certainly miss his father because they were very close. Yet part of Elie is glad to have the stress and responsibility off him. Elie is a little bit selfish in this, that he does not care that his father is dead, but he is a little bit relieved. Elie has lost his integrity, he is glad he has to take care of one