“Let there be comradeship among you. We are all brothers, and we are all suffering the same fate. The same smoke floats over all our heads. Help one another. It is the only way to survive.” (Elie Wiesel, Night). In the memoir Night, Elie Wiesel, the author, writes about his own experiences at Nazi concentration camps. Throughout the book, Elie is transferred from camp to camp experiencing, as well as witnessing, many hardships and tragedies. Through the slaughter and captivity of the Jews, Elie interprets that it became tests to who could keep their sanity and integrity. Following this he always looks out for his father to the end and remains faithful to him,because he could not stand the sight of his father’s suffering over his own pain. …show more content…
He is really put to the test when is father gets dysentery and thoughts of abandoning him rings through his mind. His innate sense of right and wrong takes over and steers him away from making the wrong decisions. Elie Wiesel does not become a brute because of learning from witnessing atrocities, his good nature, and his loyalty to his father. One of the immoral acts Elie has witnessed at a concentration camp was Rabbi Eliahou’s son leaving his own father behind when he started losing strength after being marched for miles. “He had seen him. And he continued to run in front, letting the distance between them grow greater” (Wiesel, 67). Elie’s analysis reveals he has learned how people have become barbarians themselves. The cruelty of abandoning a family member suggested the qualities of a brute which is emphasized through imagery since readers will envision “the distance between them grow greater”.Furthermore, …show more content…
And you're killing yourself...I thought in the most secret region of my heart, but I dared not to admit it”(Wiesel 80). Exaggerating how the tiniest part of him, “in the most secret region of my heart”, illustrates the malicious part of him was nonexistent. It’s apparent that his good nature is reflected in his actions, since he could not come to terms in his thoughts and “admit it”. On the other hand, a brute would not hesitate to get rid of the responsibility of taking care of another individual, and in fact would not even bother to think of the decision using his “heart,” like Elie. After having these thoughts, Elie immediately regrets his actions. “Only a fraction of a second, but I felt guilty. I ran to find a little soup to give to my father.” (Wiesel, 80). The instantaneous regret of his actions was reflected with the hyperbole “only a fraction of a second.” His morals were so dynamic that they were shown through the exaggeration of the short amount of time it took for him to realize his thinking, as if it were a reflex. This further shows how Elie is not a brute, because even after having these thoughts he “felt guilty”. The guilt weighs heavily on him, and leads him “to find soup to give” to his father as an apology for thinking of such atrocities. His good nature was proven to be pure,
To start with, before the camps, Elie Wiesel’s father is described as an unsentimental and cultured man. Who never took the time to be with his family and was always too busy for them. Elie describes his father when he said” My father was a cultured man, rather unsentimental. He rarely displayed his feelings, not even within his family, and was more involved with the welfare of others than that of his own kin” (Wiesel 4). Elie Wiesel and his father quickly became reliant on each other for survival in the camps.They became closer together in order to survive the tortures of the camp. Later on, Elie Wiesel’s father is getting beat for not marching right so Elie Wiesel starts teaching his father how to march. Elie Wiesel writes ” Left, right: he punched him. Left, right: he slapped him. I decided to give him lessons in marching in step in keeping time” ( Wiesel 55). Elie Wiesel can’t keep watching his father get beat so he does something to to help him get better at marching. Him and his father start to become closer throughout this moment. In conclusion Elie Wiesel is a victim of inhumanity which allows him to become closer to love
Ever wondered how life would have been during World War II. Well, Elie Wiesel was a young Jewish boy living in Transylvania, Romania. He lived with his father, mother, and 3 sisters. All of which were sent to concentration camps. They both lied about their ages so they could be together in the same camps. Throughout the book there were many relationships between father and son, some were very different from others. Almost all of them died. In the book Night, Elie Wiesel uses Tone, Characterization, and Foreshadowing to portray the effect of father and son had in concentration camps.
“My father's presence was the only thing that stopped me. He was running next to me, out of breath, out of strength, desperate. I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his sole support.” This quote from the book night represents the father son relationship in the book written by Elie Wiesel. Elie Wiesel was a famous writer and a Holocaust survivor. He wrote many nonfiction books, and night being one of his most successful. Through this book, Elie Wiesel indicated that when night came bad things happened. Elie, a young Jewish boy, and his family were forced into small ghettos by Nazis during World War II. Elie and his family later departed to the unknown were the Nazis sent them to a concentration camp in Auschwitz.
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...
In Elie Wiesel’s novel, Night, he tells of his struggles as a victim during the Holocaust of World War II. The following quote exhibits one struggle faced by those participating in the war, the battle between staying true to family commitment or saving one’s self, “Listen to me, kid. Don’t forget that you are in a concentration camp. In this place, it is every man for himself, and you cannot think of others” (110). As designated in the passage the Blockälteste is warning Elie to start thinking of himself and not his father. The idea of leaving someone’s own father behind is a terrible outcome of war; however it is the reality of many people who have decided to save themselves. The choice between self-preservation and family commitment is a harsh reality that exists in all wars and is particularly present in related literature.
Elie has lost faith in mankind itself. To him, man was only good for following orders, or doing vile things to each other. “The absent no longer entered our thoughts. One spoke of them—who knows what happened to them?—but their fate was not on our minds. We were incapable
The Holocaust will forever be known as one of the largest genocides ever recorded in history. 11 million perished, and 6 million of the departed were Jewish. The concentration camps where the prisoners were held were considered to be the closest one could get to a living hell. There is no surprise that the men, women, and children there were afraid. One was considered blessed to have a family member alongside oneself. 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.
..., which made him more upset because it was his own father. Also, he speaks about reaching down into his inner conscious to find out why he really was not as upset and he would have been if it were the first week in the camp. Elie believes that if he reached into his thoughts he would have come up with something like: “Free at last!...”(112).
Elie, who was a teenager at the time of the novel, stood by his father’s side and assisted his father through physical challenges they had to face. Wiesel writes “I decided to give my father lessons in marching in step, in keeping time” (page 55). This shows that Elie is helping his father avoid the “selection” by giving him marching lessons to help him survive the death march. Elie stayed by his father’s side even in the harshest conditions. Elie writes “my father’s presence was the only thing that stopped me. He was running next to me out of breath, out of strength, desperate. I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his sole support” (page 86-87). This shows that Elie remained loyal to his father by staying with him no matter what. In conclusion Elie is considered a hero because of the familial commitment choice to stand by his
...ow much more independent he has become. His reaction to his father's death also represents this loss of innocence: “I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. But I was out of tears” (Wiesel 112). This scene reveals the fact that Elie has realized that there are many evils in the world. His lack of emotion and tears shows that he understands how bad the Nazis' actions are and how cruel the world can be. This realization ultimately represents his loss of innocence and maturation.
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
Rabbi Eliahou’s son goes missing after the long march and the Rabbi asks Elie if he’s seen him. Elie says he didn’t see him, but then he remembers, “ But then I remembered something else: his son had seen him losing ground, sliding back to the rear of the column. He had seen him. And he had continued to run in front, letting the distance between them become greater” (Wiesel 91). His son didn’t want to fall behind when the Rabbi started slowing down, so he sped up to not get shot or trampled. Elie is told to eat his dad’s rations so he can get double the rations. Elie agrees even though he feels guilty about it, “ He was right, I thought deep down, not daring to admit it to myself. Too late to save your old father… You could have two rations of bread, two rations of soup” ( Wiesel 111). Because he’s so hungry and desperate to get food, Elie considers taking his dad’s food. At some point Elie would never be able to imagine anyone ever doing anything like that. Once Elie’s father finally does die, Elie is relieved, “ I did not weep. It pained me that I could not weep. But I was out of tears. And deep inside me, if I could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience I might have found something like: Free at last!” ( Wiesel 112) As much as Elie loved and needed his father, taking care of him took a toll on Elie. He thought that he should focus on his own
...read. Again, Mr. Wiesel avoided this by deciding to not even try and fight for any food. Although the worst brutality would be knowingly and willing abandoning family members such as mothers, sisters, fathers, and brothers, any family member for that matter. Yes the prisoners had to survive by themselves, but it may help them live through the pain and fear knowing their family is still alive. It most likely helped Elie because no matter what, he always attempted to stay with his father helping keep at least some humanity. Therefore all of this proves that when forced and thrown into horrible situations with cruel treatment decent human beings can come out being not as decent as they were but they do not become brutes whatsoever.
Every day, people are denied basic necessary human rights. One well known event that striped millions of these rights was the Holocaust, recounted in Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night. As a result of the atrocities that occur all around the world, organizations have published declarations such as the United Nation’s Declaration of Human Rights. It is vital that the entitlement to all rights and freedoms without distinction of any kind, freedom of thought and religion, and the right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being of themselves be guaranteed to everyone, as these three rights are crucial to the survival of all people and their identity.
Wiesel has dedicated his life to helping others because he knows what it is like to be alone and suffering. As a great example to the people, he explains, “that every moment is a moment of grace, every hour an offering; not to share them would mean to betray them. Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately” (Wiesel 13). Elie makes the audience feel guilty for not helping those that needed their help the most and for taking their freedom for granted. By making them feel guilty, he is actually pushing the audience to do more to help their community. The reader feels inspired and challenged to dedicate their life, like Wiesel, to helping the oppressed. Wiesel has an impact on his listeners by using pathos and encouraging them to never stay neutral and to never stay silent.