Night: Week of 3/30/15

Night focuses on a lot of father and son bonds; expressed through Elie, and many other character. The main bond is that of Elie and his father, but the others play an important role in the story line. The story starts off explaining Elie’s bond with his father before the he is taken to the camps: “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’s father was not very close to Elie, not anyone in the family, actually. This is also shown when Elie’s cousin approaches his father while they are in Birkenau: “My father had not recognized him. He must have barely known him, always being up to his neck in communal affairs and not knowledgeable in family matter. He was always elsewhere, lost in thought” (Wiesel 43). This shows that not only did Elie’s father not share his feelings with his family, but he didn’t socialize with other relatives.

Even though Elie’s relationship with his father wasn’t very solid, it held up when they were being separated from the women of the family. All Elie could think about was not losing his father in a time like this: “My head was buzzing; the same thought surfacing over and over: not to be separated from my father” (Wiesel 35). This was from the first time Elie stepped inside a concentration camp, but this behavior repeats throughout the story. In section five when Elie could barely walk with his injured foot, he didn’t want to be separated from his father: “As for me, I was thinking not about death but about not wanting to be separated from my father” (Wiesel 82). In section six when Elie’s father was chosen as weak, he wouldn’t accept it: “My father was sent to the left. I ran after him” (Wiesel 96). Lastly, in section eight when the same thing that happened at Elie's first time in a concentration camp occurred again, the old fear still remained: “I tightened my grip on my father’s hand. The old, familiar fear: not to lose him” (Wiesel 104). All of these are examples of Elie wanted to stay close to his father during their stay at the different concentration camps. At the beginning, staying with his father was an instinct, but at the end, it was a routine.

Elie wants to be close to his father, but that doesn’t stop him from feeling angry towards him. Elie feels a lot of anger when he is in Auschwitz, even towards those who don’t deserve it: “I had watched it all happening without moving. I kept silent. In fact, I thought of stealing away in order not to suffer the blows. What’s more, if I felt anger at that moment, it was not directed at the Kapo but at my father” (Wiesel 54). Elie’s father was being beat up and Elie watched in silence; not feeling anger toward the guard, (who also beat him) but towards the victim, his father. Elie isn’t the only one that felt anger towards their father. A pipel got anger at his father for simply not making his bed right: “In Buna, the pipel were hated; they often displayed greater cruelty than their elders. I once saw one of them, a boy of thirteen, beat his father for not making his bed properly.” (Wiesel 63). This young boy probably never did this before he arrived at the camps. This  shows that the concentration camps turn people into beasts, for example, “Meir, my little Meir! Don’t you recognize me… You’re killing your father...I have bread... for you too...for you too…” (Wiesel 101). This is a the words spoken from an old man whose son killed him for a little piece of bread. This shows that the concentration camps starve people and those people become desperate. The sad news, the son didn’t even get the bread, he was killed by the other men…He killed his own father for nothing.

A father and son have been together for three years in many different concentration camps. When they were forced to run, the old father couldn’t keep up and fell behind, what did the son do, he kept going: “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). This shows that this son either got tired of caring for his dad or he wanted to survive so he forgot about him; both happens to Elie. When the soldiers say run, Elie ran, even if it meant leaving his dieting father behind: “During the alert, I had followed the mob, not taking care of him. I knew he was running out of strength close to death, and yet I had abandoned him” (Wiesel 106) This is the start of Elie realizing that he needs to care for himself, and not his father in order to survive. Later, his father dies. Elie doens’t cry, but thought that he no longer needed to worry about someone else: “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). A few days later Elie only thought of himself: “I spent my days in total idleness. With only one desire: to eat. I no longer thought of my father, or my mother” (Wiesel 113). This shows that after a  few days of not worrying about his father, Elie simply forgets about him to protect himself. This shows that there really weren't any family or friends during the Holocaust; there was only survival.

Night also has many people begin to question God's ways. Night starts off introducing Elie faith, just like his bond with his father. Elie put life in religion studying and praying throughout the day: “By day I studied Talmud and by night I would run to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple” (Wiesel 3). This shows that Elie was devoted to God. Of course, this was before he was sent to Auschwitz.

When Elie arrives at Birkenau, he doesn't have doubt in his faith. When he is separated from his mother and sisters, he doesn't doubt his faith. When he sees innocent babies being thrown into fire is when Elie really starts questioning God's ways. Elie writes about his first night in a concentration camp, “Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes” (Wiesel 34). This was his first night and he already lost faith. Still near the beginning of his long stay at concentration camps, he no longer prays: “As for me, I has ceased to pray…I was not denying His existence, but I doubted His absolute justice” (Wiesel 45). This shows that Elie's faith just cracked under pressure. Further in the book, Elie questions why people are still praying to God when he has killed your loved ones: “But look at these men whom You have betrayed, allowing them to be tortured, slaughtered, gassed, and burned, what do they do? They pray before You! They praise Your name!” (Wiesel 68). This is one of the last times Elie mentions God within the book. This seems to be the last straw for Elie. Elie watched as men fasted for God, but in return, those men most likely died.

Elie was not the only one in the book who lost faith overtime. Akiba Drumer kept faith in the beginning, maybe even helped other keep their faith: “God is testing us…And if He punishes us mercilessly, it is a sign that He loves us that much more” (Wiesel 45). This shows that Akiba might question God's ways, but he still has faith that God will protect them. A while later a selection occurs. Akiba has grown weaker and doesn't have faith anymore: “But as soon as he felt the fist chinks in his faith, he lost all incentive to fight and opened the door to death” (Wiesel 77). This shows that Akiba was only living because of his faith, that's all he had. Another character, a Rabbi from Poland prayed all the time in the beginning, but fell off the wheel when he became weak as well: “He was always praying, in the block, at work, in the ranks…One day, he said to me: ‘It’s over. God’s is no longer with us’” (Wiesel 76). This shows that some people in the camps just gave up hope, which caused them to lose their faith. For some, faith was just something they had, but for others, faith was what kept them going.