Elie Wiesel Sparknotes

He was still alive when I passed him. His tongue was still red, his eyes not yet extinguished.” In other words, Elie Wiesel explained how hard it was to watch people being tortured and couldn't do anything about it. When Elie’s dad was being tortured by the SS men, Elie couldn't do anything about it because he wasn't strong enough to take them down. Most of the time people would like to help others but sometimes it’s hard because they will get themselves into trouble.

In the midst of their average lives, Elie and his fellow Jews find their lives being turned upside down. Separated from his mother and sisters, Elie is left with only his father, along with many strangers. In this unfamiliar place, Elie faces both physical and emotional abuse each day. Just a slight drop in his determination could cost Eliezer his life. On the verge of giving up, Eliezer reminds himself that he is all that his father really has, his only support.

Elie protects and helps his father as well as he does not sacrifice him for his own survival as so many sons have done to their fathers. However as days pass by, he starts to feel some resentment toward his father especially when he is unable to protect himself from the bestiality of the SS instead of pitying him. In addition to that, toward the end of their way to Buchenwald his father becomes weak and cannot move, maybe because of fatigue or loss of hope. He leaves his father and sleeps deeply, when he wakes up, he could not find him and searches for him half-heartedly because a thought tells him maybe he could increase his chance of survival if he was alone. Fortunately, he finds him, ”Father!

Furthermore, Elie’s relationship with his father worsened as they spent more time at the concentration camp. In this scene, Elie’s father is extremely sick after having been in the concentration camp for a long time. After his father is gone in the morning and assumed to have been sent to the furnace because of his poor condition, Elie expresses to the reader how he did not necessarily feel sad after his father got sick and died. While explaining his emotions surrounding his fathers death,

Holocaust-Researcher and author Daniel Schwarz remarks that "[Elie’s] father is the eternal flame to which he returns as a boy" (Schwarz 12). His father is the link back to Sighet, his family, and his innocent childhood. Out of the need for a reason to live, Elie clings to the final thing he had left: his

Everyone has hopes and dreams in life. Some people’s dreams can be ruined in very little time. Elie Wiesel changes as a person through Night as a result of his father dying, receiving little food and seeing unpleasant sights. Elie relied on his father for useful advice and some skills. His father taught him many things that stuck with him for the rest of his life.

Even in the wretched situation that the Jews were going through, Elie prays that he himself did not think like the son that he would stay by his father. Elie, who still had his innocence and was not yet aware of the changes in his life, had a major shift of opinion later on in the book when he wrote “if I felt anger at that moment, it was not directed at the Kapo but at my father. Why couldn't he have avoided Idek's wrath?” (Wiesel 54) Elie had lost his identity and himself but that was what living in a concentration camp had made Elie turn into and eventually his survival began to mean

In Night, Elie feels guilt at the mere thought of giving up on helping his father, “He was right, I thought deep down, not daring to admit it to myself. Too late to save your old father… You could have two rations of bread, two rations of soup… It was only a fraction of a second, but it left me feeling guilty” (Wiesel, 111). Elie feels as if it’s his responsibility to take care of his father.

When they were being evacuated on the death march Elie was quickly losing strength and “the idea of dying, of ceasing to be, began to fascinate” him (86). He was put in a hard spot where if he stopped for a break he would be trampled or shot, but to continue to run meant more pain, especially for his throbbing foot, and he was already so exhausted. In this case, it was Elie’s father who helped him survive. Elie knew he was his father’s sole support and that if he died his father probably would too. Since his father was there, Elie gave himself the mindset that he had to push on, but if his father had not been there beside him he could have easily chosen the other option and let himself fall to the ground.

When they first arrived at Auschwitz Elie and his father looked to each other for support and survival, Sometimes Elie’s father being the only thing keeping him alive. In their old community Elie’s father was a strong-willed and respected community leader, as the book went on you could see how the roles were becoming reversed he was becoming weaker and more reliant on Elie to take care of him. Their father son bond had always been strong and only grew stronger with the things they had to endure. “My God, Lord of the Universe, give me strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahou’s son has done” Elie was disgusted when he saw Rabbi Eliahou’s son abandon his father to help improve his chances of his survival he prayed he’d never do such a thing, but as his father becoming progressively more reliant on Elie he started to see his father as more of a burden than anything else.

Near the beginning of the novel, Elie wanted to be in the same camp with his father more than anything else. The work given to both his father and himself was bearable, but as time passed by, “. . . his father was getting weaker” (107). The weaker Elie’s father got, the more sacrifices Elie made. After realizing the many treatments Elie was giving his father compared to himself, each additional sacrifice made Elie feel as if his “. . .

Over the time period that Elie and his father spent in the camps, their bond grew greatly, and it this change had a large impact on Elie’s life and

Eventually, Elie’s train wound up at the Auschwitz Death Camp. Here is where Eliezer was separated from his mother and three sisters, he had missed out on the crematorium at the first selection. Elie and his father managed to stay together on the transports and other selections. In the camp of Buna, Elie’s

Elie was held captive in concentration camps from 1944-1945. During his time in the concentration camps, he became grateful for what he had, overcame countless obstacles, and more importantly kept fighting until he was free. [The Holocaust is very important to learn about because it can teach you some important life lessons.] You should always be grateful for what you have, no matter what the circumstances are. This lesson can be learned when Elie says, “After my father’s death, nothing could touch me any more”(109).

After Elie’s father dies, Elie is a little bit glad because the responsibility is off him, “And deep inside me, if I could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience, I might have found something like: Free at last!?” Elie will certainly miss his father because they were very close. Yet part of Elie is glad to have the stress and responsibility off him. Elie is a little bit selfish in this, that he does not care that his father is dead, but he is a little bit relieved. Elie has lost his integrity, he is glad he has to take care of one