How Does Elie And His Father's Relationship Change

Night Essay
In the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, a bunch of relationships change dramatically according to Elie. This novel shows many changes with people that really affects the story. His relationship with with his father is the biggest change of all. It can be seen from the beginning to the end. Elie’s relationship with God changes as well. He had strong faith in God but yet as the story goes on, the camp starts to affect him and slowly loses faith. Another is the relationship with his friends. As the the story progresses, he slowly grows apart. He became more more independent except for being with his father.
His relationship with with his father is the biggest change of all. It can be seen from the beginning to the end. When the novel first started, one could tell that he and his father was distant from his father. The didn’t do much but they still loved each other. As seen on page 20, “ ‘ If you wish, go there. I shall stay here with your mother and the little one’ Naturally, we refused to be separated...” - Wiesel. You can see that his father is

wanting him to go to a friends house that is willing to hide him but Elie rejects the offer because he doesn't want to separate from them, his father, mother, and sister. However, you can see towards the end, he is really attached and loves him even more because he’s all he has left in life and doesn’t want to lose him as well. You can see this on page 104, “ I tightened my grip on my father's hand. The old, familiar fear: not to lose him.”. Elie loves his father so much and doesn’t want to lose him because he's all he's got in his world.
Elie’s relationship with God changes as well.

He had strong faith in God but yet as the story goes on, the camp starts to affect him and slowly loses faith. At the beginning, Elie is really close to God and expresses his faith greatly. “ By day i studied Talmud and by night I would run to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the temple.” (4). He studied the Talmud, which is the study of Jewish faith, everyday when he wasn’t in the camp, and he wept over the destruction of the temple. He wouldn’t have cared for any of this if he didn't have strong faith and believe in God. Now as the story progresses, that slowly begins to change. “ Blessed be God's name? Why, but why would i bless him? Every fiber in my body rebelled.” (67). Elie couldn’t find a reason to. He thought, why would a God let something so horrible happen to all the Jews. He couldn’t apprehend it therefore he questioned his faith in

God.
Lastly his relationship with his friends .As the the story progresses, he slowly grows apart. He became more more independent except for being with his father. Moishe is a great example of this. When the book starts, he becomes friends with a man named Moishe. He asks Moishe lots of things about religion and why does he do the things he does. “And why do you pray, Moishe?... I pray to the God within me for the strength to ask Him the real questions.” (5) Later on, Moishe is forced to go on a train to where he would see horrible things. He was forced to dig graves and do work. He saw the SS throwing babies up in the air and shooting them like targets. He got shot and somehow makes it home and decides to warn the people. “ … Jews, listen to me! That’s all I ask of you. No money. No pity. Just listen to me… Even I did not believe in him.” (7) Even though he was his close friend, he didn’t believe him because he thought that he was mad, delirious, and just crazy even though he was telling the truth.

As one can see, lots of relationships change throughout the book change dramatically. His relationship with his father was the most traumatic and the biggest of all. Secondly his relationship with God changed. He lost faith but not all of it. And lastly, his relationship with his friends changed. It was horrible, but he didn't know any better than not to believe in him at all.