Theme Of Father In Night By Elie Wiesel

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Throughout Night, many of the characters have to do difficult things in order to survive. These processes sometimes involve a son mistreating his father. Ranging from a father not making a bed properly (Wiesel 70) to a son attacking his father (Wiesel 106) are two examples. Elie Wiesel spent his last days as a prisoner at Buchenwald (Unsdorfer 151). Family is an important theme in Night. The relationship between Elie and his father is the most important relationship in the story (Bosmajian). Before every crucial decision Elie makes in the story, he first asks his father what he should do. Mostly due to if Elie or his father went somewhere the other would go with. For example, when Elie had surgery on his foot and was recovering in bed at Buna. The camp was ordered to evacuate because of the eminent Russian presence. The prisoners in the hospital had a choice either to stay or go with. Elie’s father could have stayed with Elie, but Elie did not want to stay because he did not believe that the Nazis would let the sick and injured behind to live (Wiesel 88). Being together …show more content…

When Elie first arrived in Auschwitz, Elie told his father that he did not believe the Nazis could burn people because humanity would not allow it to happen. His father responded saying that, “Humanity is not concerned with us. Today anything is allowed. Anything is possible, even these crematories…” (Wiesel 42). In their losing of their faith in humanity they lost their faith in each other. Humans, being the social being they are, without their beliefs in each other and to a common faith eventually become hollow and cold. Only concerned with doing what they have to in order to survive. Elie saw this happening all around him and even had the same thoughts bubble up in his own mind. He fought hard against it throughout the story, but towards the end he gave up. He had lost everything: his God, his family, his faith in humanity all gone

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