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
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and younger sister. In Life is Beautiful it is Guido who lies to his son Giosue about their stay in the concentration camp being one huge game. Father and son relationships can differ dramatically from family to family but especially during the Holocaust. Fathers and sons rely on each other to survive or they can tear each other down either literally or metaphorically since every character in the book is in a place where it is every man for himself. In Night one can see the strain that the brutal conditions of the concentration camp can have on each other. In Life is Beautiful the father-son relationship never changes since Guido has to protect his son from the reality that they are in. Guido is put in a situation where the relationship with his son cannot change or he will risk his son, Giosue, life in the process. Lies are told in both the memoir and the movie to protect others and one's self.
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…
with everyone in the camp being a contestant and the grand prize being a real tank. When someone has a child they will do everything in their power to protect the child from any type of harm whether it is a mental or physical pain. In this case, it was both, the physical pain coming from the painful death in the gas chamber that Giosue will need to suffer if he is found and the mental pain coming from the traumatic experience of realizing that someone is stuck inside of a concentration camp. Father and son relationships can vary from family to family but they are very different during the Holocaust.
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
Life is Beautiful Guido and his son take on a more tradition father and son relationship where the father needs to protect the son. Guido needs to take care of his son or he will die in the concentration camp. Guido does what he feels is best for Giosue during the movie which in this case which was lying about the actual situation that they are in. Throughout Night and Life is Beautiful the themes of lies and father-son relationships are ever present. Whether it is Eliezer lying to protect others and himself or it is Guido lying to protect his son lies in memoir and in the movie people do not use lies for ill-intent but are instead used to protect others or one's self. The Holocaust brought out the best and worst in people and unfortunately, that translates over into fathers and their sons.
Night is a dramatic book that tells the horror and evil of the concentration camps that many were imprisoned in during World War II. Throughout the book the author Elie Wiesel, as well as many prisoners, lost their faith in God. There are many examples in the beginning of Night where people are trying to keep and strengthen their faith but there are many more examples of people rebelling against God and forgetting their religion.
In Elie Wiesel’s Night, he recounts his horrifying experiences as a Jewish boy under Nazi control. His words are strong and his message clear. Wiesel uses themes such as hunger and death to vividly display his days during World War II. Wiesel’s main purpose is to describe to the reader the horrifying scenes and feelings he suffered through as a repressed Jew. His tone and diction are powerful for this subject and envelope the reader. Young readers today find the actions of Nazis almost unimaginable. This book more than sufficiently portrays the era in the words of a victim himself.
I find that the relationship between Eliezer and his father experience to demonstrate a switch in roles during their time in concentration camp. The dark conditions were a void to all of the relationships in camp. Eliezer ’s book Night depicts the life a father and a son going through immeasurable, suffering and testing their bond as a family.
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...
...was almost no relationship. The father is a busy, well respected member of the Jewish community who has almost no interaction with his family. Eliezer recalls that his father was “cultured, rather unsentimental man. There was never any display of emotion, even at home. He was more concerned with others than with his own family” (2, Wiesel). When the two arrived at the camp we notice a switch in their relationship. The horrible experiences they encounter together at Auschwitz bring them closer to each other. Eliezer’s father becomes more affectionate and shows emotions toward his son who starts feeling this love. This is clear when Eliezer states “my father was crying, it was the first time I saw him cry, I had never thought it was possible” (19, Wiesel). It is clear that their relationship transforms from obedience and respect to love and caring about each other.
The significance of night throughout the novel Night by Elie Wiesel shows a poignant view into the daily life of Jews throughout the concentration camps. Eliezer describes each day as if there was not any sunshine to give them hope of a new day. He used the night to symbolize the darkness and eeriness that were brought upon every Jew who continued to survive each day in the concentration camps. However, night was used as an escape from the torture Eliezer and his father had to endure from the Kapos who controlled their barracks. Nevertheless, night plays a developmental role of Elie throughout he novel.
Change is an unpredictable and inevitable thing. One cannot know what alteration it may bring but it can, without doubt, be expected said Hazel M, an Honor English student (par.1). Eliezer, the protagonist in Night, encounters change numerous times. One of the mainly considerable changes he comes across, while in the concentration camps, is that of his relationship with his father. Before the Holocaust, Eliezer’s relation with his father was very distant, I will say non existent. Throughout the novel, enormous remarkable changes occurred in the father son relationship between Eliezer’s and his father. To highlight a few, we will discuss Eliezer and his father’s emotional change, the connection between them as father and son, and how their build trust in their relationship. Eliezer’s relationship with his father is quite important as it allows them both to live through the anguish and despair brought upon them. And their love for each other helped them both stay alive during the course of torture that Jews people were put through.
Inked on the pages of Elie Wiesel’s Night is the recounting of him, a young Jewish boy, living through the mass genocide that was the Holocaust. The words written so eloquently are full of raw emotions depict his journey from a simple Jewish boy to a man who was forced to see the horrors of the world. Within this time period, between beatings and deaths, Wiesel finds himself questioning his all loving and powerful God. If his God loved His people, then why would He allow such a terrible thing to happen? Perhaps Wiesel felt abandoned by his God, helpless against the will of the Nazis as they took everything from him.
Elie Wiesel was considered to be one of those men, for he had his father working side by side with him. In the memoir Night, by Elie Wiesel, a young boy and his father were condemned to a concentration camp located in Poland. In the concentration camps, having family members along can be a great blessing, but also a burden. Elie Wiesel shows that the relationship with his father was the strength that kept the young boy alive, but was also the major weakness. Before Elie Wiesel and his father were deported, they did not have a significant relationship.
In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, it talks about the holocaust and what it was like being in it. The Germans were trying to make the German race the supreme race. To do this they were going to kill off everyone that wasn’t a German. If you were Jewish or something other than German, you would have been sent to a concentration camp and segregated by men and women. If you weren’t strong enough you were sent to the crematory to be cremated. If you were strong enough you were sent to work at a labor camp. With all the warnings the Jewish people had numerous chances to run from the Germans, but most ignored the warnings.
In this tiny novel, you will get to walk right into a gruesome nightmare. If only then, it was just a dream. You would witness and feel for yourself of what it is like to go through the unforgettable journey that young Eliezer Wiesel and his father had endured in the greatest concentration camp that shook the history of the entire world. With only one voice, Eliezer Wiesel’s, this novel has been told no better. Elie's voice will have you emotionally torn apart. The story has me questioning my own wonders of how humanity could be mistreated in such great depths and with no help offered.
#28- Stein has hope for his wife and children; he claims that this hope is the only thing sustaining him. Eliezer knows that they are likely dead, but he lies by giving Stein false hope that his family is alive. In your opinion, is Eliezer justified to lie, or should he be completely honest? Write a short paragraph explaining what you think you would do if you were Eliezer.
As humans, we require basic necessities, such as food, water, and shelter to survive. But we also need a reason to live. The reason could be the thought of a person, achieving some goal, or a connection with a higher being. Humans need something that drives them to stay alive. This becomes more evident when people are placed in horrific situations. In Elie Wiesel's memoir Night, he reminisces about his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust. There the men witness horrific scenes of violence and death. As time goes on they begin to lose hope in the very things that keep them alive: their faith in God, each other, and above all, themselves.
In the memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel remembers his time at Auschwitz during the Holocaust. Elie begins to lose his faith in God after his faith is tested many times while at the concentration camp. Elie conveys to us how horrific events have changed the way he looks at his faith and God. Through comments such as, “Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God, my soul, and turned my dreams into dust,” he reveals the toll that the Holocaust has taken on him. The novel begins during the years of 1942-1944 in Sighet, Transylvannia, Romania. Elie Wiesel and his family are deported and Elie is forced to live through many horrific events. Several events such as deportation, seeing dead bodies while at Auschwitz, and separation from his mother and sisters, make Elie start to question his absolute faith in God.
Wiesel refused to listen to the other prisoners who thought there was no hope for his father surviving. Wiesel woke his father up every time he would lie down and gave him his own rations of food to his father instead. Wiesel’s link to his father affects his will to survive. It has to do with Eliezer's love and care for his father. At one point, he wanted to give up but he convinced himself that he couldn’t because he didn’t want to leave his father alone. Eliezer, at point did get angry, but that shows his love and stress for his father. He was using all his strength to survive with his