Examples Of Decisions In Night By Elie Wiesel

“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed....” –Elie Wiesel expressed shortly after his harsh experience with the Holocaust. As many read through Elie’s book Night, they recognize what Elie fought through while he was staying in the Concentration Camps. People have realized the brutal conditions that the he had gone through and have came to the thought of how it effected his future and what he has done ever since the horrible Holocaust.

In his book, Night, Elie Wiesel spoke about his experience as a young Jewish boy in the Nazi concentration camps. During this turbulent time period, Elie described the horrifying events that he lived through and how that affected the relationship with his father. Throughout the book, Elie and his father’s relationship faced many obstacles. In the beginning, Elie and his father have much respect for one another and at the end of the book, that relationship became a burden and a feeling of guilt. Their relationship took a great toll on them throughout their journey in the concentration camps.

The book opens with Elie’s life before him and his family were taken away. The story continues talking about how when they arrived in Auschwitz his mother and sister were taken to the crematorium with other women and children who were not strong enough to work in the camps. The only people left from Elie’s family were him and his father. Throughout the whole book Elie talks about how his father was his only motivation to keep going. When Elie’s father dies he contemplates to keep going or just to give in. In the end he is liberated and is freed.

When Elie first arrives at Auschwitz, he is completely overwhelmed. He meets another inmate and the three are all very optimistic about their futures. This is not the case for all inmates, though. The very next person Elie meets has adopted an indifferent attitude about his situation, and has become so tauntrimized by the hardships of life in a concentration camp that he does not care if he lives or dies. When he approaches Elie and his father, his only advice is, “You should have hanged yourselves rather than come here” (30). Because of his traumatic experiences, the inmate has become so numb even death seems better than the life he is being forced to live.

Since Elie loves his father so much, it helps signify the meaning of this death. “I held onto my father’s hand—the old, familiar fear: not to lose him” (99). Since Elie had such a deep love and a need to stay with his father, he was rather startled and confused when he saw that son, murder his own father. Elie and his father’s love held the test of the concentration camps for much longer than this son and his father.

As Elie’s life continues he endures more tests that at his age majority of the people would not have experienced. Elie's father was suffering from dysentery and other maladies. On the night of January 28th in 1945, Elie goes to his bunk in exhaustion with his father still alive and in the bunk below him, “I had to go to sleep. I climbed into my bunk, above my father, who was still alive. The date was January 28, 1945”(112). In the morning, Elie wakes up to a new person in the bed where his father had laid. Elie realizes that he has no emotion left to show, especially not sympathy, “I

The Holocaust was a very terrible time in history over six million Jews perished in concentration camps. Even though in every tragedy there are survivors. Elie Wiesel was a little boy when all of this happened. He experienced all of the terrible things that happened during this time frame. While suffering in the terrible condition of the camp Elie and his father’s relationship goes through a drastic change.

For Jewish prisoners, life in the camps is a persistence of anxiety and fear and Elie’s form of relief and control over his sanity is family. Throughout his text, he continues to think of his father as frequent as himself. He says, “I was no longer in the same block as my father. The had transferred me to another Kommando…” As he

Several SS men rushed to find me, creating such confusion that a number of people were some my father and I. Still, there were some gunshots and some dead” (Wiesel 96). Because Elie ran after his father, some people were shot and dead, that could have been him, but Elie did not care. As long as he stayed with his father, he was okay. Even though his father was getting weak, Elie never left his side, even if it meant putting his own life in danger. Most people in the camp did abandon their fathers, however, and would even beat their own fathers to death for a few crumbs. Elie was the different one in this case, he was one of the only people that did not abandon his father and did not just think of himself the whole time. His father and him relied on each other in the camp and because of that they were both able to be so resilient depsite the terrible conditions thy faced. Without his father by his side, Elie did not feel alive. For example, after Elie’s father

Because of the dehumanization that results from being imprisoned within a concentration camp, prisoners put their own survival needs over their family’s, transforming themselves into brutes in the face of atrocities and cruel treatment. However, unlike most concentration camp prisoners, Elie escapes the fate of demoralization, as he puts his father's well being above his own, even when his father hampers his own chances of survival. For example, Elie sacrifices his ration of soup, giving it to his dying father, stating, “I took one gulp. The rest was for him” (Wiesel 106). The selflessness Elie maintains, giving up a life sustaining resource to a man whose days are numbered, proves that Elie, despite all hardships, keeps his morals intact.

One night while at dinner he angrily thinks “what are you, my God?”(Wiesel 66). Elie’s confusion and anger with God affects his emotions during his stay at the camp. . Elie is also troubled by his lack of proper nutrition, and at one point he describes himself by ”I was a body. Perhaps less than that even: a starved stomach”(Wiesel 50). This physically damages Elie’s body and lowers his chance at survival.

Elie becomes embarrassed that his father couldn't March with the other prisoners. And Elie is faced with debating between his love for his dad and how much easier it would be if his father (Chlomo) was dead. When a not her prisoner shares the idea that Elie should take his dying father’s food in order for Elie to become stronger. He said, “Listen to me, kid. Don't forget that you are in a concentration camp.

Lastly, after all the trauma and mistreatment that Elie Wiesel and his father go through together, their relationship strengthens, until Elie’s father becomes a burden to him. Elie does truly want to take of his

Elie cares about his father and does not him to just give up and die, he forces him to get up and take a shower. Later when his father was taken to the infirmary the nazi’s did not give him any food. Elie gives his father half of his soup instead of giving him all of it. This shows that Elie is more concerned with himself than his father. Like the son that killed his father on the way to Buchenwald.

Elie was slowly losing hope throughout the story, but while the transports would come and go, they were tortured to death at their Camp. At one point they wondered if it would be best to give up. “The good days were over. We began to wonder whether it wouldn't be better to let ourselves be chosen for the next transport”(70). This is significant because if Elie gave up and left on the next transport, he would be giving in. Elie would be leaving his dad, only caring about himself. Self-preservation. Furthermore, this questions the fact of self-preservation or family importance. Elie, in this horrific situation, is debating life or death based on his family. In addition, Elie faced hopelessness when he was shoved into a cattle car with his father. Elie had already been through so much. Therefore, he had no hope for his next encounter with a concentration camp, “The instincts of self-preservation, of self-defense, of pride, had all deserted us. I thought of us damned souls wandering through the void, seeking redemption, without a hope of finding”(Wiesel 36). This demonstrates hopelessness because Elie wandered if it would be best to be sent off so the suffering can stop. If he gives up his whole family history will be gone. Elie’s father would also give up if he did. Therefore, his father is all he has left so if he gives up his family will not be remembered and there would be no, “Night by Elie Wiesel”. Elie has to live through every day with the only hope of a little soup. Because of these experiences, Elie overcame hopelessness by believing in