Eliezer “Elie” Wiesel tells the story of the days he had spent in concentration camps among other Jewish people in his 1956 memoir, Night. He narrates first hand what he and his family experienced and their journey throughout this very horrific time. He shares how the Wiesel family was moved from their home in Sighet, Transylvania to a ghetto, and later on to Auschwitz in which they are seperated from one another. Elie loses everything he has once known and loved except for his father. As the novel, Night, progresses so does Elie as a person, mentality and physicality wise. Because of his newly changed perspective on faith, how the relationship with his father takes a drastic turn, and all the cruel events he witnessed, he evolves from an ordinary
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“At first my father simply doubled over under the blows, but then he seemed to break in two like an old tree struck by lightning. I had watched it all happening without moving. I kept silent.” (Wiesel 54). It then becomes evident that Elie’s mentality is beginning to slowly change. Elie changes from devoting himself to keeping his father alive to most likely realizing that, although cruel as it may seem, it would make surviving much easier just by letting go of the role he undertook of being a more caring parental figure to his very own father. They seemed to play reversed roles as parent and son throughout their times spent in the various camps across Europe. Later on in the novel, a Blockälteste approaches Elie as his father, Shlohmo laid ill, and dying, “You cannot help him anymore. And you are hurting yourself. In fact, you should be getting his rations…” (Wiesel 111). It was incredibly hard for Elie to come to terms with the fact that these conditions were turning him against his father, that he very well could be parting ways with his father at any time now. Elie later saw his father die right in front of him, “His last word had been my name. He had called out to me and I had not answered” (Wiesel 112). The death of his father changed him, he became somewhat forced to withhold his emotions as he watched his father die helplessly. “In Auschwitz and Buchenwald this young boy is forced
“At first my father simply doubled over under the blows, but then he seemed to break in two like an old tree struck by lightning. I had watched it all happening without moving. I kept silent.” (Wiesel 54). It then becomes evident that Elie’s mentality is beginning to slowly change. Elie changes from devoting himself to keeping his father alive to most likely realizing that, although cruel as it may seem, it would make surviving much easier just by letting go of the role he undertook of being a more caring parental figure to his very own father. They seemed to play reversed roles as parent and son throughout their times spent in the various camps across Europe. Later on in the novel, a Blockälteste approaches Elie as his father, Shlohmo laid ill, and dying, “You cannot help him anymore. And you are hurting yourself. In fact, you should be getting his rations…” (Wiesel 111). It was incredibly hard for Elie to come to terms with the fact that these conditions were turning him against his father, that he very well could be parting ways with his father at any time now. Elie later saw his father die right in front of him, “His last word had been my name. He had called out to me and I had not answered” (Wiesel 112). The death of his father changed him, he became somewhat forced to withhold his emotions as he watched his father die helplessly. “In Auschwitz and Buchenwald this young boy is forced