Motif Of Father And Son In Night By Elie Wiesel

The book “Night” contains the motif of father and son. One of the stories from the book includes a son who does not stay devoted to his father. However, Elie Wiesel remains true to his father throughout the book for three main reasons: he sacrifices his rations of food for his father; he protects and stands up for his father; and he avoids being separated from his father.

Elie cedes his rations of food for his father. For example, “I gave him what was left of my soup” (page 112). Elie gives his father his soup even when his father is sick and will not survive for much longer. This is relevant, because the prisoners were given insufficient amounts of food, and they were severely malnutritioned. Therefore, Elie was basically killing himself to ease his father’s pain. In contrast, “But it was with a heavy heart. I felt that I was giving it up to him against my will” (page 112). In other words, he gave his father his soup unwillingly, and he didn’t necessarily want to help his father.

Elie protects and takes care of his father during the entire story. For instance, “But alas, Franek knew where to touch me; he knew my weak point … This was Franek’s chance to torment my father and thrash him savagely every day… I decided to give my father lessons myself…” (page 63). Eliezer helps teach his father how to march, so that Franek would stop abusing him.

Franek knows that Elie’s weakness is his father, and that he would do anything for his father. On the other hand, “They must have taken him away before dawn to the crematory… And, in the depths of my being, in the recess of my weakened conscience, could I have searched it, I might perhaps have found something like― free at last” (page 116). After his father died, Elie remorsefully felt relieved of the burden of his father.
Eliezer makes sure he is not separated from his father.

As an illustration, “... I did not want to be separated from my father. We had already suffered so much, borne so much together; this was not the time to be separated” (page 88). During the Holocaust, Elie and his father could only trust each other. He does not want to be separated from his father, because he knows that they need each other in order to survive. However, “ ‘Here, every man has to fight for himself and not think of anyone else’... He was right…” (page 115). Elie realizes that in the concentration camps everyone has to worry about themselves

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In the book “Night” Eliezer Wiesel persists to stay honest to his father for three particular reasons: he gives his rations of food to his father; he defends his father; and he tries to prevent being separated from his father.