Night By Elie Wiesel Analysis

Family is a precious gift that many people take for granted. They are there to celebrate the good moments and offer support during the bad. It is not until they are gone or their lives are threatened that the realization of how important they are takes affect. This idea is explored in Elie Wiesel’s memoir “Night”. The piece takes readers through Wiesel’s journey during the Holocaust and his experience spent at the Auschwitz concentration camp. In his memoir, Wiesel shares the changes in the relationship between him and his father while enduring their time at the camp. The readers are able to see how horrible situations can either strengthen or tear families apart. It also allows people to see how the presence of a family member can strengthen …show more content…
Wiesel and his father stay strong and have each others backs while at the concentration camp however, other fathers and sons turn on one another. Many sons feel the need to abandon their fathers. They begin to feel as though they are a liability because they continue to grow weaker as time goes on. They feel that “this separation [would] free [them] of a burden that could diminish [their] own chance for survival” (91). Wiesel witnesses this betrayal and prays “Oh God, Master of the Universe, give me the strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahu’s son has done” (91). Although Wiesel does not become as hardened as others, thoughts of resentment towards his father do cross his mind. When a German soldier begins beating Wiesel’s father with an iron bar, anger rises within him, “it was not directed at the Kapo but at [his] father” (54). Wiesel feels the need to turn his negative thoughts against his father rather than the people responsible for putting them in this situation. The environment at the concentration camp has the ability to turn son against father and father against son. They feel as though they should blame one another rather than blaming those who imprisoned