Elie Wiesel’s “Night”

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“Among many other themes of interest, Elie Wiesel’s “Night” documents the evolving relationship between a father and son. What is your observation of that development and how does it affect your own expectations of child/parent relationships? What brought about change and could such a transition occur in settings other than concentration camps?” Changes always occur unpredictably and it’s an essential part of life. One cannot know what change will bring out or how it will impact on one’s life, but it is certain that change will occur in a random moment throughout one’s lifetime. Indeed, it will leave its mark behind and has some sort of change. Elie, the protagonist in Night, faces changes during the course of the novel. It can be argued that the most significant alteration that Elie experienced happened during the concentration camp. Certainly, I believe the major change Eli had to face was the relationship with his father. Before they were sent to the concentration camp, Elie had little respect for his father and they both lived quite an independent life. The distance between his father and himself is so great that Elie describes his father as one who “was more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin” (Wiesel 3). Elie soon realized that his father held a greater priority for others in the Jewish community rather than his family. Elie’s realization further shows how distant they are from each other because he has learned to just leave things the way they are. Instead of demanding attention from his father, he busies himself with frequent praying and studying the cabbala with Moshe the Beadle, growing closer to him instead. Elie lives with his family but he does not receive the love and affection that a son would usually get from a father. Despite this strained relationship, the bond between father-and-son shifts to a great extent

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