Night By Elie Wiesel Essay

727 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Elie wiesel and religion at night

The novel “Night” by Elie Wiesel is a story of torture, survival and most importantly relationships. Elie tells the story of how he and his family are forcefully removed from Sighet, their home town in Transylvania and taken to the concentration camp Auschwitz, where they are tortured and starved for months on end. After losing both his mother and sister at the camps, he starts to doubt the existence of God. This affects not only how he lives his life, but his relationship with his father. Elie shows how that in times of great worry even the strongest relationships can fall to pieces. At the start of the novel Religion is a major part of Elie’s life. Before he was taken away from his home, he had faith in god. This faith was so strong that …show more content…

When Elie and his father are first moved into the concentration camp they live for each other, risking their lives to stay together and to make sure that each other survive another day. But in the end it is the desire to survive that ultimately tears their relationship apart. At the start of the novel Elie would do anything to make sure he could stay with his father and that they could both survive, and his father would do the same for him. They shared food when one needed it more than other and made sacrifices for each other. “My father had a present for me….. a half ration of bread.” As time went on and they became weaker and more desperate to survive their relationship started to suffer. Towards the end of the novel Elie’s father started to get very sick, resulting in Elie having to look after him. It is this extra stress that causes Elie to believe that he would be better off without his father. “....a thought crept into my mind …. If only I were relieved of this responsibility, I could use all my strength to fight for my own survival, to take care only of myself.” After realising this and hearing it from people around him, Elie no longer cares for his father, ignoring his pleas for water and allowing him to be beaten. When his father dies, Elie realises that he is “free at last” and no longer has the responsibility of making sure his father

Show More
Related

  • The Dangers of Fear

    948 Words  | 2 Pages

    After being forced into concentration camps, Elie was rudely awakened into reality. Traumatizing incidents such as Nazi persecution or even the mistreatment among fellow prisoners pushed Elie to realize the cruelty around him; Or even the wickedness Elie himself is capable of doing. This resulted in the loss of faith, innocence, and the close bonds with others. Throughout his recollections, it is clear that Elie has a constant struggle with his belief in God. Prior to Auschwitz, Elie was motivated, even eager, to learn about Jewish mysticism.

    Read More

  • Changing Relationship in Elie Wiesel’s Book Night

    573 Words  | 2 Pages

    At the beginning of the book, Elie mentioned that his father, Shlomo, was admired and respected by all the family members. Outside the family, “The Jewish community of Sighet held him in highest esteem” (Wiesel 4). Through the first few days in the concentration camps, Elie had relied on his father’s presence and protection to get him through his daily life. He was dependent on him as evident during the initial selection when he states that “My hand ti...

    Read More

  • Adversity In Night By Elie Wiesel

    986 Words  | 2 Pages

    Eliezer thinks of his own father and prays, “Oh God, Master of the Universe, give me the strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahu’s son has done” (Wiesel 91). He didn’t want to admit it but he could already feel his father falling behind. He feared that there may come a time when he would have to choose between his father and his own survival, and that was a choice he didn’t want to make. That choice came one night after being transferred by train to another camp. Once off the train they waited in the snow and freezing wind to be shown to their quarters.

    Read More

  • Faith and Family in Elie Wiesel's Night

    961 Words  | 2 Pages

    The novel starts out in a small highly Jewish populated Hungarian town named Sighet. The people's lives and community somewhat revolve around each other and religion (Judaism). More importantly we see immense care and concern among the citizens; they all help one another and are true to their similar beliefs and values. Eliezer's life starts out revolving around God, as he goes on his journey studying the cabbala and other forms of Jewish religious texts. Initially Eliezer's belief is a product of Jewish mysticism that God is everywhere and that nothing exists without God, and in the start his faith in God is absolute.

    Read More

  • Night by Elie Wiesel

    988 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...e has to deal with the death of his family, the death of his innocence, and the death of his God at the very young age of fifteen. He retells the horrors of the concentration camp, of starvation, beatings, torture, illness, and hard labor. He comes to question how God could let this happen and to redefine the existence of God in the concentration camp. This book is also filled with acts of kindness and compassion amid the degradation and violence. It seems that for every act of violence that is committed, Elie counteracts with some act of compassion. Night is a reflection on goodness and evil, on responsibility to family and community, on the struggle to forge identity and to maintain faith. It shows one boy's transformation from spiritual idealism to spiritual death via his journey through the Nazi's failed attempt to conquer and erase a people and their faith.

    Read More

  • Loss of Faith in Night by Elie Wiesel

    428 Words  | 1 Pages

    His father is getting old, and weak, and Elie realizes his father does not have the strength to survive on his own, and it is too late to save him. "It's too late to save your old father, I said to myself..."(pg 105). He felt guilty because he could not help his father, but he knew the only way to live is to watch out for himself. "Here, every man has to fight for himself and not think of anyone else. Even of his father..."(pg 105). He thinks of himself, and

    Read More

  • In god we trust?

    603 Words  | 2 Pages

    There is a visible transition in Elie’s beliefs towards God. At the very beginning of the book his confidence in God was impervious. He asked himself “Why did I pray? Why did I live?” and “Why did I breathe?” He questioned about God and his dad responded “Man comes closer to God through the questions he asks Him, he liked to say. Therein lies true dialogue. Man asks the God replies we cannot understand them. Because they dwell in the depths of our souls and remain there until we. The real answers, Elizer, you will find within yourself. And why do you pray, Moishe? I asked him. I pray to the God within me for the strength to ask Him the real questions.” (Page 5)

    Read More

  • Father And Son Relationship In Elie Wiesel's 'Night'

    715 Words  | 2 Pages

    When his father was beat up by the guard or even he was getting beat up by the Kapo. Elie could only think of himself, which is a good thing not wanting to get hurt for others in my opinion. Also, when Rabbi’s son ran away from him I would guess Elie would think of the same thing but instead wanted to protect his father. Then last when Elie’s father was about to die his last words was, “Elizer” which was Elies name. Elie was finally think that his duty is over on protecting his father. Also, Elie also thought, “free at last” which meant his can fend for him. So, his relationship with his father wasn’t good. Cause Elie thought the reason he is alive because of his father. That is why his relationship with his father wasn’t a good

    Read More

  • Father Son Relationships In The Novel Night By Elie Wiesel

    855 Words  | 2 Pages

    At last, his father was free. He wasn't taking any more beatings, he isn't suffering, and he doesn't have to be in the concentration camps anymore. Elie is free, he doesn't have to carry the weight of his father anymore. Three months after his fathers death nothing mattered to him anymore. The father son relationship shown in this novel, is something no one else has ever seen before. As you can see the roles switch throughout the story. In the beginning Elie’s father is strong, a role model a leader, but through the story he becomes child-like vulnerable, weak. On the other hand, Elie goes from admiring his dad, to worrying and carrying for

    Read More

  • Night

    831 Words  | 2 Pages

    Having faith in something can help one with survival in tough times. Elie and his family were taken from their home to the concentration camp Auschwitz. His mother and sisters are killed and he and his father go to labor camp. They get little food and are transported to many camps. Elie undergoes operation for a foot injury. In the end his father dies of a sickness and he is liberated. Elie survives the Holocaust through a battle of conscience - first believing in God, then resisting his faith in God, and ultimately replacing his faith with obligation to his father.

    Read More

  • Night

    598 Words  | 2 Pages

    Elie really needs and wants his father to live. When the SS guards yell "Throw out all the dead! Corpses outside!" the guards were going to throw Elie's father out but Elie said, "I threw myself on top of his body, he was cold. I slapped him. I rubbed his hands crying: Father! Father! Wake up! They are trying to throw you out of the carriage" The SS guards yelled" Leave him. You can see perfectly well that he's dead." Elie replied, "No! He isn't dead! not yet!!" On page 286 of the interview with Oprah, Elie explains how he needed his father to live and survive himself by saying "As long as my father was alive, i wanted to live- but only because of him. After he died, between January and April [of the year we were released], I didn't really live."

    Read More

  • Significant Changes in Eliezer’s Relationship With His Father

    849 Words  | 2 Pages

    Eliezer goes through a dynamic change with his father. At the beginning of the story, Eliezer and his father are very distant, and there is no close relationship between them. They are never intimate or dependent on each other, before the deportation. After living through death, despair and starvation every day in the concentration camps, Eliezer not only becomes sad, melancholy, also undergoes powerful changes in the relationship, he shares with his father. Their relationship used to be distant, but their bond becomes strong, and filled with trust over time.

    Read More

  • Relationship Between Hamlet And Night

    1780 Words  | 4 Pages

    Having a supportive father can help one drive for success. At the beginning of Night Elie’s bond with his father is weak but

    Read More

  • The Unforgettable Impact of the Holocaust

    1083 Words  | 3 Pages

    And his explanation of the fight for food that he eyewitnesses on the train to Buchenwald. In which a son strikes his father till he is dead. All of these times of cruelty are generated by the environment the prisoners are forced to live in. In order for their own survival, these sons betrayed their fathers. Even with the love and care, he has shown his father Elie still feels that he has somehow betrayed his father for his own survival.

    Read More

  • Faith In Night By Elie Wiesel

    620 Words  | 2 Pages

    Night, written by Elie Wiesel, takes place in Nazi, Germany. It describes terrifying predicaments during the Holocaust that discusses the harsh conditions of the Jewish society. There are three major quotes in this novel that show the Jew's unyielding faith in God has slowly declined due to their suffering. These quotes are undoubtedly significant for many reasons. They show the effects of someone being treated so terribly that they begin to lose faith in their God and how being surrounded by pain and death changed the very meaning of who they are.

    Read More

More about Night By Elie Wiesel Essay

Open Document