Elie Wiesel Conflicts

When Elie Wiesel is taken away from most of his family, it´s up to him whether or not to stay and support his dad throughout the journey in-and-out of concentration camps, or to abandon the last of his family and fend for himself. Wiesel illustrates the critical external conflict between Elie and his father by using internal monologue in order to show the struggles the two go through together while they fight for their lives in concentration camps. In the beginning of the story, Elie’s father isn’t very close or connected with any of his family. Elie states, “He rarely displayed his feelings, not even within his family, and was more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin” (Wiesel 4). This shows that Elie and his father didn’t really depend on each other much, and focused on their own thing at the time. His father’s first priority wasn’t family most people, and instead spending more time with his work than kids. This puts a strain on the relationship since the one wouldn’t be aware of how the other …show more content…
Elie states, “He was running next to me, out of breathe, out of strength, desperate. I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his sole support,” (Wiesel 87). This describes how the events in the concentration camps are taking a massive toll on his father, leaving him unable to be by himself the rest of the way. Although this moment shows how close they have gotten by this point, but also implies that Elie has to start thinking of what would be better in the long run: leave his father, which might break the relationship the two have created, or drag his father further along in the journey with the risk of slowing himself down and them both dying. Elie struggles with this decision throughout the book, until it’s already too