Family: together through everything and can drag each down, or carry each other up. No matter what, they are there, but sometimes it isn’t truly in person but in spirit. The author of Night, Elie Wiesel, had to deal with his hardships while his family was either dead or just dead weight. He endured so much throughout his life, and his family changed his perspective for the majority of it. With the thought of his family and his short term friends, he ends up surviving the brutal Holocaust while in the concentration camps at Auschwitz. Imagine a bunch of weights strapped to a small boy’s ankles while having to work and run all the time. That was Elie. His father just ended up being not only the thing that kept him going, but the one thing that was getting him closer to death. Elie gave up the majority of his rations to his father in order for him to be strong enough to go on. …show more content…
He eventually got advice from the Blockalteste: “In this place , it is every man for himself, and you can not think of others. In this place there is no such thing as father, brother, friend.Let me give you good advice: stop giving your rations of bread and soup to your old father” (87). Thus realizing in the final moments with his father that no matter what he does, he cannot help his father without hurting himself. His father might have died, but it was the weight he needed to be lifted off to endure the pain yet to come with the possibility of surviving all of this. Family, a type of support system that can either work, or make things worse.
Typically, families can either be in tact and optimist, or they can be broken and dreadful. Elie’s family was very neutral about everything in the beginning. They believed that Hitler wouldn’t do anything too drastic, but in the end their foolishness, along with a lot of other Jews, were killed because of him. His family supported his faith, but didn’t want him to learn right away about the Talmud and all of its teachings. If they just went to Palestine like Elie wanted to, they could have all been saved. His father explained: “I am too old, my son. Too old to start a new Life. Too old to start from scratch in some distant land” (9). Shlomo pretty much states what will happen to him anyways as a prisoner of the camp. A majority of Elie’s family did die after the first selection, hence him slowly starting to see the independence that he needs which was growing for the sake of his safety. He always had his family in his heart and tried to save them for the most part, but in doing so his family he was able to
survive. Along the way, Elie has met some friends and family members that gave him hope, and helped him power through the weakness. The first man that changed him was Moishe the Beadle, who told his whole town of what was to come even though they didn’t believe him at all. One of his own family members, Stein, was at the camp and just wanted to know about his family’s safety. Unfortunately, he ends up lying to him and Stein later on finds the truth. I believe Juliek made Elie see in a way that wasn’t just ordinary but artistic. All Juliek wanted in the end was the safety of his violin, even though it was crushed later on. Elie later heard the music that Juliek was anxious to play, but couldn’t under Hitler’s rules. “It had to be Juliek. He was playing a fragment of a Beethoven concerto. Never before had I heard such a beautiful sound. In such silence” (95). He might not have truly heard him, but his love of playing truly touched his heart. All in all, his family and friends helped alter his life and created a survivor out of him to one day share them with the world. The Wiesel family may have all been separated and later on killed, but the made him who he is, and turned him into a survivor. Family makes a person, can create a burden, and can liberate each other. The Holocaust was a dreadful and disturbing piece of history, but it forged everyone to see what true horror is. A majority of the survivors can probably say how their family and friends are what made them keep going, and to be honest some people might even think that without his father, Elie would not have made it either. Even though Elie’s family may not have lived to tell the tale like he has, they would be proud of his accomplishments and all he has done.
An estimated 11 million people died in the Holocaust. 6 million were Jews. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel tells his story as a Holocaust survivor. Throughout his book he describes the tremendous obstacles he overcame, not only himself, but with his father as well. The starvation and cruel treatment did not help while he was there. Elie makes many choices that works to his advantage. Choice plays a greater factor in surviving Auschwitz.
“My father's presence was the only thing that stopped me. He was running next to me, out of breath, out of strength, desperate. I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his sole support.” This quote from the book night represents the father son relationship in the book written by Elie Wiesel. Elie Wiesel was a famous writer and a Holocaust survivor. He wrote many nonfiction books, and night being one of his most successful. Through this book, Elie Wiesel indicated that when night came bad things happened. Elie, a young Jewish boy, and his family were forced into small ghettos by Nazis during World War II. Elie and his family later departed to the unknown were the Nazis sent them to a concentration camp in Auschwitz.
with his father being a burden on his shoulder. Something that was holding him back but even though his father slack sometimes almost caused their demise and caused him to slowdown. In certain situations he kept moving forward and not giving up on his father and on himself. Also trying the best he could to survive and help his father survive.Elie even though he was a young boy took on an adult role and push through his situation handling it as an adult. It seemed to be that his father became a distraction towards the end of Night. Even though it hurt him to see his father in his last days or moments before his death even though we don’t know if he died we
In the book “Night” by Elie Wiesel The main character was effected by the events in the book because he didn’t care if he died, he wasn't mournful over death, and he was psychologically affected. Elie Wiesel was affected because of his time in the concentration camp and the things that they did to him and others. While ending here, the effects of the concentration camps during the holocaust left many people with nothing to live for and nobody to live for. The holocaust was one of the worst times in history and should never have happened, and will never happen
A statement from the nonfiction novella Night –a personal account of Elie Wiesel’s experience during the Holocaust—reads as follows: “How could I say to Him: Blessed be Thou. Almighty, Master of the universe, who chose us among all nations to be tortured day and night, to watch as our fathers, our mothers, our brothers, end up in the furnaces” (67). War is a concept that is greatly looked down upon in most major religions and cultures, yet it has become an inevitable adversity of human nature. Due to war’s inhumane circumstances and the mass destruction it creates, it has been a major cause for many followers of Christianity, Judaism, and other religions to turn from their faith. Followers of religion cannot comprehend how their loving god could allow them to suffer and many devout
Night by Elie Wiesel was a memoir on one of the worst things to happen in human history, the Holocaust. A terrible time where the Nazi German empire started to take control of eastern Europe during WWII. This book tells of the terrible things that happened to the many Jewish people of that time. This time could easily change grown men, and just as easily a boy of 13. Elie’s relationship with God and his father have been changed forever thanks to the many atrocities committed at that time.
When his father was beat up by the guard or even he was getting beat up by the Kapo. Elie could only think of himself, which is a good thing not wanting to get hurt for others in my opinion. Also, when Rabbi’s son ran away from him I would guess Elie would think of the same thing but instead wanted to protect his father. Then last when Elie’s father was about to die his last words was, “Elizer” which was Elies name. Elie was finally think that his duty is over on protecting his father. Also, Elie also thought, “free at last” which meant his can fend for him. So, his relationship with his father wasn’t good. Cause Elie thought the reason he is alive because of his father. That is why his relationship with his father wasn’t a good
In his novel Night, Elie Wiesel shows the importance of family as a source of strength to carry on. The main character of the novel is a thirteen-year-old boy named Eliezer. He and his family were taken from their home and placed in a concentration camp. He was separated from his mother and sisters during the selection once they arrived in the camp. His father was the only family he had left with him to face the inhumane environment of the camp. Many of the prisoners lost the will to live due to the conditions. During the marches between camps some of these broken souls would drop to the side of the road where they we...
Upon their arrival of Birkenau, Elie was stuck like glue to his father “I felt the pressure of my father’s hand: we were alone.” (pg. 27) He would do anything to make sure his father did not feel a burden for him “ I bit my lips so that my father did not hear my teeth chattering.” (pg. 31) For some reason, Eliezer felt that it was his responsibility to care for his father and make him as relaxed as possible. Despite that, he eventually started to drift away from his original intentions. While his father was on his deathbed he begged for water, and frequently Eliezer would deliver him some, except for one time. During this one time, his father yelled out and was told several times to be quiet. Eliezer lay on the top bunk of the bed and watched the SS men deal him a violent blow on the head. Even after, he begged again for water and Ellie just lay there until the morning when he discovered his father was taken away to the crematories. If this were to happen in the very beginning, Eliezer would have gone right to his father's side with some water to hush him
In the novel Night, Elie Wiesel faces the horrors of the Holocaust, where he loses many friends and family, and almost his life. He starts as a kind young boy, however, his environment influences many of the decisions he makes. Throughout the novel, Elie Wiesel changes into a selfish boy, thinks of his father as a liability and loses his faith in God as an outcome his surroundings.
...ith his near-death experiences that cause him trauma. As he and his father invert roles, and Elie becomes the bread-winning patriarch of the bunch, obligated to tending and making sure his father is fed properly, Elie’s loss of innocence and childhood evaporate with his restoration of faith in humanity. He learns that among the prisoners, fending for their own individual weight is the only way to survive. Separate from Elie and his father’s relationship throughout, fathers and sons collide, and friends betray other friends. But Elie’s own weight comes from his father, and yet when he refuses to betray him also, Elie’s own bravery reveals itself, making him the key survivor out of all of them. While he chooses to battle out his conscience to decipher these decisions to survive for his family or for he himself, he gains courage, and the courage to oblige to his faith.
Why did Elie let it happen? What could Elie really have done as an alternative to save his father from dying? He could not have helped his father from being beaten up by the SS guards but he did try to help him from being attacked by his own men in his sleeping barracks. Elie really wanted his father to live. Elie does everything possible to help his father unless it would do harm to himself.
The ground is frozen, parents sob over their children, stomachs growl, stiff bodies huddle together to stay slightly warm. This was a recurrent scene during World War II. Night is a literary memoir of Elie Wiesel’s tenure in the Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel created a character reminiscent of himself with Eliezer. Eliezer experienced cruelty, stress, fear, and inhumanity at a very young age, fifteen. Through this, he struggled to maintain his Jewish faith, survive with his father, and endure the hardships placed on his body and mind.
Family is an important theme in Night. The relationship between Elie and his father is the most important relationship in the story (Bosmajian). Before every crucial decision Elie makes in the story, he first asks his father what he should do. Mostly due to if Elie or his father went somewhere the other would go with. For example, when Elie had surgery on his foot and was recovering in bed at Buna. The camp was ordered to evacuate because of the eminent Russian presence. The prisoners in the hospital had a choice either to stay or go with. Elie’s father could have stayed with Elie, but Elie did not want to stay because he did not believe that the Nazis would let the sick and injured behind to live (Wiesel 88).
Self-sufficiency was encouraged throughout the concentration camps, therefore Elie was forced to grow up and leave his innocence behind. Because of this self-reliance, many started to view their friends and family as a burden rather than a motivation.