Night-Father/Son Relationship
Chloe Kennison
Honors English 10
Mr. MacNamee
April 3, 2013 1
Relationship: From Night to Day (Rough Draft)
In the short but gripping memoir named “Night,” author Elie (Eliezer) Wiesel deeply reflects on his experiences in various concentration camps with his father during the Holocaust. Before the Jews were shipped off to incessant fear and starvation, Elie’s father didn’t have a significant relationship with his family, particularly Elie. After they were shipped away and got separated from the females in their family, however, Elie and his father became close and by the end of the book, they were each others’ strength. “Night” shows a distinct change of relationship between Elie and his father: it goes from a felt obligation to more of an emotional attachment because of the circumstances they endured together during the Holocaust. In the beginning of “Night” Elie is very interested in religion: he wants to study the Kabbalah. When he tells his father about this on page 4, his father does not encourage him to study. Instead he says, a bit condescendingly it seems, “You are too young for that. Maimonides tells us that one must be thirty before venturing into the world of mysticism, a world fraught with peril. First you must study the basic subjects, those you are able to comprehend.” Elie proceeds to say that his father “wanted to driver the idea of studying Kabbalah from my mind,” showing that he wasn’t supportive of Elie’s decisions and future. Afterwards, Elie states “My father was a cultured man, rather unsentimental. He rarely displayed his own feelings, not even within his family, and was more involved in the welfare of others than with that of his own kin. On page 18, Elie tells that when they were first sent away, before anything terrible happened, his mother was the one to send him and his siblings to bed early in order to conserve their strength. She tucks them in and comforts them, while his father just tells them
Honors English 10
Mr. MacNamee
April 3, 2013 1
Relationship: From Night to Day (Rough Draft)
In the short but gripping memoir named “Night,” author Elie (Eliezer) Wiesel deeply reflects on his experiences in various concentration camps with his father during the Holocaust. Before the Jews were shipped off to incessant fear and starvation, Elie’s father didn’t have a significant relationship with his family, particularly Elie. After they were shipped away and got separated from the females in their family, however, Elie and his father became close and by the end of the book, they were each others’ strength. “Night” shows a distinct change of relationship between Elie and his father: it goes from a felt obligation to more of an emotional attachment because of the circumstances they endured together during the Holocaust. In the beginning of “Night” Elie is very interested in religion: he wants to study the Kabbalah. When he tells his father about this on page 4, his father does not encourage him to study. Instead he says, a bit condescendingly it seems, “You are too young for that. Maimonides tells us that one must be thirty before venturing into the world of mysticism, a world fraught with peril. First you must study the basic subjects, those you are able to comprehend.” Elie proceeds to say that his father “wanted to driver the idea of studying Kabbalah from my mind,” showing that he wasn’t supportive of Elie’s decisions and future. Afterwards, Elie states “My father was a cultured man, rather unsentimental. He rarely displayed his own feelings, not even within his family, and was more involved in the welfare of others than with that of his own kin. On page 18, Elie tells that when they were first sent away, before anything terrible happened, his mother was the one to send him and his siblings to bed early in order to conserve their strength. She tucks them in and comforts them, while his father just tells them