Night Elie Wiesel's Lies

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White Lies and Fatherly Ties
"You cannot help him anymore. And you are hurting yourself. In fact, you should be getting his rations" (Wiesel 110-111). Not every lie that one tells is inherently meant to hurt someone else. Most people lie to help their own "conscience and they ask how they would feel if they were on the receiving end of the lie" (Ethics - Lying). People lie to the others who are dear to them if they feel as if the truth is too horrible for them to bear. People also lie to themselves if the truth is too horrible to them to bear as well. In both the memoir Night and the movie Life is Beautiful lies are told to protect others, in Night it is Eliezer who lies to his cousin about his family and also lies to himself about his mother …show more content…

The first time this is shown is when Stein enters the barracks asking for a Wiesel and when he finds who he is looking he attempts to get information on the whereabouts of his wife and two boys. Eliezer reassures Stein by telling him that his wife and two children are perfectly fine because Eliezer's mother knows that they are perfectly safe. This is a lie of course but Eliezer does this to protect his cousin Stein from the truly terrible reality that not only did Eliezer not have any idea where they were but also that they are all almost absolutely dead. The outcome that comes from his lie is bittersweet because even though Stein is "weeping with joy" right now he will never find his family and even if he does find them he will certainly not find them alive (Wiesel 44). Eliezer and his father lie to themselves when they choose to believe that Eliezer's mother and younger sister are still alive because "they would like to believe that" (Wiesel 46). They only do this to make themselves feel better even though Eliezer and his father both know perfectly well that they are both dead. If they do not do this then there will be nothing else to do but to mourn their loss and from that, they are going to perish even faster in the concentration camp because they no longer have the will to live. When Guido and Giosue enter the concentration Guido thinks of the idea that their entire stay is one huge game …show more content…

The harsh and even deadly conditions put a very big strain on every relationship between father and son. Some groups persevere and can stand to actually help out their family member but other times they can just contribute to each others downfall. Every character in the memoir, Night, is in an environment where it is every man for himself. During the movie, they are in the same situation but Guido chooses to care for his son. In the memoir, the fatherly role switches back and forth between Eliezer and his father. Most of the fatherly advice that Eliezer receives is about rationing his food to make it last longer. Eliezer has to take on a more mature active role in the memoir one example being when his father could not march in step and Eliezer starts to "practice in front of their block" even though his father still does not get it (Wiesel 55). The strain on the father-son relationship can come when either the father or son becomes too sick to carry on living. Night expresses this when Eliezer's father contracts dysentery and becomes bedridden, Eliezer brings his father his daily rations even though his father does not want to eat and just wants something to drink. From Eliezer helping his father all he doing is hurting himself he is carrying too heavy of a weight to bear and by struggling to keep his father alive the weight is just getting heavier and heavier. In

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