Father-Son Relationships In Night

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Father-Son Relationships in Night The relationship between fathers and sons is a powerful theme in the novel Night written by Eliezer “Elie” Wiesel. The connections that fathers and son’s share are exposed first hand to Elie while other experiences are visualized. Though partial encounters are horrid and dreadful, Elie and his father do their absolute best to persevere the harsh times. Elie and his father remain extremely close in their long journey for survival. During the long run to Gleiwitz, he says, “My father’s presence was the only thing that stopped me from allowing myself to die . . . I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his only support.”(Wiesel 34) Elie has demonstrated his love and selflessness for his father. Elie will not allow himself to die when all hope is lost for him for he feels it is unjust to his father. They share a very strong relationship in which Elie has a tremendous amount of respect for him. Elie’s father was not in favor of allowing Elie to study Jewish mysticism and had refused to be his mentor. “Your too young for that. Maimonides tells us that one must be thirty before venturing into the world of mysticism. You must first study the basic subjects, those you are able to understand.” (Wiesel 4) Elie was disappointed, but out of respect towards his father he absorbed the situation for what it was. When the two had first arrived at Auschwitz, his father begins to cry. Elie had never seen his father cry before and Elie begins to feel the love his father has for him. Elie and his father quickly adapt to sharing a relationship based on love and emotion rather than respect in obedience in their stay at Auschwitz. Over the coarse of Elie’s stay at these brutal concentration camps, Elie’s interpretation of life has become dramatically altered. When his father had passed away, he had felt more rejoice
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