In Eliezer Wiesel’s Night, he focuses on father and son relationships. In the beginning Elie and his father did not have a very strong relationship. “my father was a cultured man, rather unsentimental. He rarely displayed his feelings, not even within his family, and was more involved with the welfare of others than his own kin”, Elie says. His father was not a man of emotion and treated Elie as if he was a spoiled rotten kid. Wiesel details father-son relationships to show how natural, loving bonds deteriorate when individuals are faced with intolerable situations. For example, a prisoner murders his father for a taste of bread, demonstrating the breakdown of humanity. The prisoner then ends up getting jumped and is also killed. Another …show more content…
He was running next to me, out of breath, out of strength, desperate. I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his sole support.” Eliezer and his father lived for each other, they depended on each other because it was all that they had. Elie’s father got sick with dysentery and became very weak. Eliezer sacrificed his rations of bread and soup for his father, and saved him from being taken to the crematorium when he fell asleep. Eliezer gets advice that he shouldn’t give his rations to his father because he is going to die soon anyways. He agrees with the advice but feels extremely guilty for thinking this way. A few days later, his father is taken to the crematorium and burned. Elie did not weep, no prayers were said over his tomb, and no candles were lit in his memory. Eliezer Wiesel focuses on father- son relationships to show that being faced with intolerable situations has different effects on people. Some people let these turns of events change them for the bad, while others change for the good. Wiesel and his father’s relationship grew stronger as they only had each other to lean on. Although his father was slowing him down, Elie didn’t let go, he held on and helped his father as much as he could throughout this unforgettable, heartbreaking