Night By Elie Wiesel Analysis

Family relationships heavily influences a person’s development, and in times of crisis this correlation intensifies profoundly. Elie Wiesel, a Romanian-born American Jewish writer, writes a profound autobiography about his journey and experiences surviving the Holocaust. Many lessons can be learned while reading passage, one of these being family relationships. In the memoir Night, Elie Wiesel uses a couple different family relationships to show how family relationships have a huge impact on an individual’s ability to survive. An example of finding strength through family members during times of need is through a relative of Elie. In Night, Elie and his father meet one of their relatives in Auschwitz. Stein of Antwerp, was looking for news about the rest of his family. Elie knew nothing about the whereabouts of Stein’s family, but he decided it would be best to lie to his relative for some false comfort and relief. In the book, Elie mentions how Stein often said “The only thing that keeps me alive is that Reizel and the children are still alive. If it wasn’t for them, I couldn’t keep going.” This is a great line explaining Stein’s dependance on his family during survival. Once Stein figures out the blatant truth about his family he is no longer

Rabbi Eliahou was a very good man who was well loved by everyone in the camp. For three years he had been by his sons side, suffering and sharing with each other. During the grueling run before liberation, Rabbi Eliahou’s son had seen his father losing ground staggering to the back of the pack. Elie remembers this moment and realized Rabbi Eliahou’s son was trying to get rid of his father, seeing him as a liability to his own survival. Elie prays “My God, Lord of the Universe, give me strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahou’s son has done.” This prayer shows how Elie uses Rabbi Eliahou’s son as an example of what he cannot do to his own