The relationship between Eliezer and his Father - Essay Example

The relationship between Eliezer and his Father In the novel Night, Wiesel Eliezer is speaking about his experience as a young man in the concentration camp of Nazi. During this particular trying time, Eliezer tells a story of horrific events that took place in his life and how this influenced his relationship with his father. A close analysis of the novel shows that the relationship between Eliezer and his father had a rough time and characterized with many obstacles. When they are introduced to the audience in the beginning, the father and son relationship is of respect, care, and love.

However, in the end it is a strenuous relationship characterized with guilt and regrets.Just as the story begins, Eliezer’s father comes in as a busy community leader. His duties and community engagements leaves him little time to socialize and bond with the family. The lack of connection between father and son pushes Eliezer to lament. “My father was a cultured man, rather unsentimental. He rarely displayed his feelings, not even with his family, and was more involved with the welfare of others than that of his own kind” (Bloom 02).

However, as they enter the camp they display a normal relationship between them, the father values his son, he gives him advice and protects him. The son on the other hand depends and looks up to his father this mainly happens because of horror scare at the camp.The situation at the camp changed the angle of relationship between the two. They had little options at the camp because at arrival his father was no longer a community leader and neither was he busy. In this situation, they could focus on each other in order to deal with the situation at the camp.

Eliezer kept his eye on the father and his determination to be with him kept on burning. He says, “My hand tightened its grip on my father. All I could think of was not to lose him. Not to remain alone” (Bloom 8). As time passes by in the camp the duo, develop a peer like relationship. People who are involved in this kind of relationship help each other in terms of ideas and code of conduct. The two demonstrated their codependency when Franek asks for Eliezers’s gold crown. Eliezer’s refusal to give away the golden crown prompts Franek to beat up his father for not matching well.

To prevent this from happening again he decides to teach his father how to match in steps.Near the end of their stay in the camp Eliezer and his father, reverse roles where, he plays the role of a father and his father plays a childish role. The novel illustrates that after they had run to Gleiwitz. He noticed that his father had changed and started acting like a child. He was weak, vulnerable, and easily frightened. This is confirmed when Sanders says. “Chlomo adopts the behavior of a child and begins to depend on Eliezer more than before (Bloom 45).

”Crisis brings people together, father and a son comes together at this particular time. They hold each other tightly and so dearly for the sake of the other. When Eliezer’s father contracts dysentery makes things even unbearable and the good relationship turns to burden. He proves this when his father is taken to the grave and he wears an emotionless face. This shows the characteristic of fatigue and giving up in human race. Work citedBloom, Harold. Night - Elie Wiesel. New York: Infobase Pub, 2001.

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