Father and Son Relationship In Night By the time Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel was sixteen, he had witnessed the worst evils that humanity has ever had to offer, the Nazi Regime and The Holocaust. A dark time in history that had killed God in the eyes of over six million Jewish men, women, and children. Certainly the death of a god is enough to shake a boy to his core, but the death of a father is enough to shatter him. Wiesel records how he was forced to endure these events, and so much more in his memoir Night. Elie Wiesel was deported from his home as a youth and shipped to the death camp that has become infamous throughout generations for its cruelty, Auschwitz. Shortly after arrival, Wiesel was stripped of nearly everything including
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This becomes overwhelmingly apparent in contrasting father/son relationships throughout the memoir. Take for consideration, the son of Rabbi Elianhou, over the course of three years in concentration camps the Rabbi and his son had suffered through every blow and every blessing together; side by side. Tragically this had fallen apart when they leave the camp to begin a death march. Rabbi Elianhou asks Wiesel if he had seen his son, for he had lost him during the march. Wiesel tells Rabbi Elianhou that he has not and the rabbi goes on his way. This is not the end of it however, Wiesel recalls that he had in fact seen the rabbi’s son, he was running ahead during the death march in order to abandon his father who was limping in the back, thus ridding himself of the burden. Wiesel describes his reaction to this shocking revelation;” And, in spite of myself, a prayer rose in my heart, to that God whom I no longer believed My God, lord of the Universe, give me the strength never to do what Rabbi Elianhou’s son has done”(87). Wiesel was so desperate not to lose his father, and so worried that he himself would give into the temptation of abandoning him that, he prays to a deity in which he does not hold legitimate. Proving that he is willing to do anything that offers even a glimmer of hope to keep his father. For a father’s point …show more content…
Wiesel remained more human than most during the ordeals of The Holocaust, therefore he must have had something that kept him grounded. This anchor of sorts could not be his religion because Wiesel constantly writes about his loss of faith during his memoir. Therefore, his father must have been what kept him grounded. In fact Wiesel’s father is the among the only reasons that Wiesel survived, during the death march from Buna to Gleiwitz Wiesel is fascinated by the idea of death, the fact that if he were to simply stop moving and it would all be over. His father is the only thing that keeps him moving, Wiesel states;”My father’s presence was the only thing that stopped me[...] I had no right to let myself die What would he do without me? I was his only support”(82). Wiesel cared a great deal for his father, even though at times he believed him to be nothing more than a burden, without his father he would have fallen very early on, and vice versa is also
This becomes overwhelmingly apparent in contrasting father/son relationships throughout the memoir. Take for consideration, the son of Rabbi Elianhou, over the course of three years in concentration camps the Rabbi and his son had suffered through every blow and every blessing together; side by side. Tragically this had fallen apart when they leave the camp to begin a death march. Rabbi Elianhou asks Wiesel if he had seen his son, for he had lost him during the march. Wiesel tells Rabbi Elianhou that he has not and the rabbi goes on his way. This is not the end of it however, Wiesel recalls that he had in fact seen the rabbi’s son, he was running ahead during the death march in order to abandon his father who was limping in the back, thus ridding himself of the burden. Wiesel describes his reaction to this shocking revelation;” And, in spite of myself, a prayer rose in my heart, to that God whom I no longer believed My God, lord of the Universe, give me the strength never to do what Rabbi Elianhou’s son has done”(87). Wiesel was so desperate not to lose his father, and so worried that he himself would give into the temptation of abandoning him that, he prays to a deity in which he does not hold legitimate. Proving that he is willing to do anything that offers even a glimmer of hope to keep his father. For a father’s point …show more content…
Wiesel remained more human than most during the ordeals of The Holocaust, therefore he must have had something that kept him grounded. This anchor of sorts could not be his religion because Wiesel constantly writes about his loss of faith during his memoir. Therefore, his father must have been what kept him grounded. In fact Wiesel’s father is the among the only reasons that Wiesel survived, during the death march from Buna to Gleiwitz Wiesel is fascinated by the idea of death, the fact that if he were to simply stop moving and it would all be over. His father is the only thing that keeps him moving, Wiesel states;”My father’s presence was the only thing that stopped me[...] I had no right to let myself die What would he do without me? I was his only support”(82). Wiesel cared a great deal for his father, even though at times he believed him to be nothing more than a burden, without his father he would have fallen very early on, and vice versa is also