Father Son Relationship In Night By Elie Wiesel

The Holocaust was a very terrible time in history over six million Jews perished in concentration camps. Even though in every tragedy there are survivors. Elie Wiesel was a little boy when all of this happened. He experienced all of the terrible things that happened during this time frame. While suffering in the terrible condition of the camp Elie and his father’s relationship goes through a drastic change.

Do you ever feel like your parents slow you down? In Night by Elie Wiesel, Wiesel’s developed devotion to his father portrays through the motif of father son relationship, that his father holds him back by making poor choices, taking Elie’s rations of food, and his constant need for Elie’s help. Would Elie be better off without him? Elie’s father made some poor choices that could have resulted in Elie’s death.

First, the reader views Wiesel’s personality changes as a result of life in Auschwitz. Perhaps the most obvious change is his steadily increasing disinterest of religion. Before his internment, Wiesel demonstrates a growing interest in the religion of his parents. During the day, he studied Talmud, a legal commentary on the Torah, or the Jewish Ten Commandments. At night, he would worship at the synagogue, “to weep over the

When Wiesel was talking about how he and his fellow people were being treated very poorly it had made me feel sorry for them because no person should have to be treated like that. They were being hit with guns and some of them were even getting killed by the german soldiers. I’m glad that I don’t have to go through that because if I did I know that I would not last. The german soldiers had made them take showers together. Wiesel was jewish so it was bad during that time in which the germans had hated the jewish people. The germans had made the jewish people work 12 hours a day.

To make matters even worse him and his father were separated from his mom and sister, men to the left women to the right, he did not realize “that this was the moment in time and place where” he was leaving his mother and sister forever. (29). Since his father was a tad bit old to survive in the camp alone Wiesel took on the role of the father. Any chance he could get to save his father he did, if his father needed food he would get it, if he father was about to be sent to the crematorium he would make sure that it would not happen. Wiesel learned that only the strong survive and the weak get killed.

There were also several negative father/son relationships found in the book. One such relationship is that of a young pipel, and his father. Wiesel writes, “I once saw one of them, a boy of thirteen, beat his father for not making his bed properly. As the old man quietly wept, the boy was yelling, ‘If you don’t stop crying instantly, I will no longer bring you bread. Understood?’” This is an example of how life in the concentration camp causes a boy to throw aside his relations for the sake of his own survival. A second example is that of Rabbi Elihou and his son. While Rabbi Elihou cared deeply for his son, the Rabbi’s son viewed his father as a burden and left him behind. Shortly following the passage about the Rabbi looking for for his son, Wiesel writes, “But then I remembered something else: his son had seen him losing ground, sliding back to the rear of the column… A terrible thought crossed my mind: What if he had wanted to be rid of his father?” The third example of a poor father/son relationship occurs in the cattle car. A worker throws bread into the cars causing immediate desperate fighting. An old man manages to grab a piece of bread shortly before this passage, “Stunned by the blows, the old man was crying: “Meir, my little Mier! Don’t you recognize me… You’re killing your father...I have bread... for you too…. for you to…but the other threw himself on top of him. The old man

The bond between Wiesel and the Jewish children counteracts the Nazi's attempts at suppressing their faith and says that despite their attempts at suppression, Judaism was and still is alive. During this time, Wiesel was so deeply affected by the Holocaust that he believed that as a Jew, he had an obligation to bear witness. He felt this way due to him knowing how badly other Jews were treated, therefore making him believe that if he was somehow saved and other Jews were tortured and killed, then he would not be able to live with himself. This selfless behavior by Wiesel is also demonstrated during his public humiliation by Idek when, while being beaten, he states "I was thinking of my father. He was suffering more than I." These selfless concerns highlight Wiesel's sympathy towards other prisoners and express his feelings of having a "moral obligation" to live through the Holocaust.

How strong can a relationship between a father and son be? Elie and his father never had the best father-son relationship. His father was rather unsentimental towards his family. But when they find themselves alone in a concentration camp,all they have is each other.Before this their relationship was fragile. Thier bond grew stronger during the time they spend together alone. At the end Elie will remember the experiences he and his father went through.

Multiple times in Buchenwald, Wiesel realizes his father is becoming less of an asset to his own survival, calling his father a “dead weight” (101) and giving up food to him “with a heavy heart” (102). His father’s death is inevitable; therefore, the barrier forming between father and son is a blessing in disguise. Despite the misfortune that his father cannot survive too, this allows Wiesel to let go of the burdens his father puts upon him. Had his father continued to live on the brink of death much longer, Wiesel would likely have felt obligated to continue giving up his own food and energy for the good of his father. Ultimately, this would have simply resulted in the death of both Wiesel and his

The relationship between Elie and his father gradually grew stronger throughout the Holocaust. Religion was a really important role in the Wiesel family. Elie was eager to study Kabbalah and disobeyed his father to do so. “ My father

Wiesel tells us how he took care of his dad like his dad used to take care of him. When Elie’s dad got lost and Ellie found him, Eli said “father! I've been looking for you for so long...Where were you? Did you sleep? How are you feeling?”(pg.106). Not only he asked him that, later(when his dad got really sick) he gave his food portion to his dad and fed him. I wish I will have a son like elie. What Ellie did to his father, not only he extended his dad's life for a while, but he gave hope to himself that he could treasure the only thing he had (his dad) while the war was going on and the Holocaust. This affected Elie's life forever.

This strong bond built between both father and son has truly benefited them both and helped them to survive the Holocaust and its’ horrible conditions in both emotional support and physical support. They both look out for each other, stick together, and confide in each other. For example, when Wiesel’s father became sick, he looked almost dead when he was asleep. A man told the others who were throwing corpses out to throw the father out as well. Wiesel, once indifferent to all the other bodies being thrown out, now states, “I woke from my apathy just

During the years prior to Elie's Wiesel's experience in the Holocaust, Elie and his father shared a distant relationship that lacked a tremendous amount of support and communications but, eventually, their bond strengthens as they rely on each other for survival and comfort.

many times during the book it talks about Wiesel’s problems. Elie’s first problem would be when he was in Buna, a concentration camp. This was a problem for Wiesel because he didn't have food, water, and at sometimes air. In the book Elie says “ At ten o’clock we were given our daily ration of bread” (Wiesel 34 ). This quote shows how that they only got bread once a day from their SS Officers, and that they didn't have food. Another problem Wiesel had is the loss of family. Elie got taken away from his mom and sister when they were deported on the train but got to stay with his father. Elie says “ I certainly do. But on one condition: I want to stay with my father” (Wiesel 35). With Elie being taken away from his mom and sister, he wanted to stay with his father through the whole thing. Wiesel’s father was his strength to stay alive. Elie had tough adversities he had to go through in his life and he was strong and overcame them.

In the story, Night by Elie Wiesel, there were many different types of relationships of father and son. The relationship with a son mistreating his father, a son leaving his father to die, a son attack a father just for his food and lastly the relationship between the author and his own son. It is true that self-preservation is a human instinct in which we all have, but would it be enough ruin everything between a father and son. It seems like nothing can separate a father and a son relationship since from the beginning a father will see their son like someone that can be a mini them. Just one thing can ruin everything, the feeling of only caring about yourself, self-preservation.