Elie’s Essay
In the book Night by Ellie Wiesel, the holocaust is happening. Two people, Elie and his Father are both Jewish. They, in the beginning of the tale, are living in the small Jewish town of Singhet. Everyone in the town procrastinates, saying “Oh the Nazis don’t care about such a village as ours” and their army will never reach us. But they were wrong, the Nazis did come and they took Elie and his father to concentration camps. While in these camps Elie and his Father changed; Elie comes to the point where only survival matters. His father gives up and stops hoping for change. These changes humble them and bring them closer together and, yet, strangely, farther apart as well.
Before Elie was put into the camps, he was very religious. After being in the camp for a few months, he things to himself, . . .”Lord of the universe, face of all this weakness, this decomposition, . . . “ (chapter 5) He then later looses hope. When Yom Kipper, the Day of Atonement, comes Elie does not fast and sees eating as; . . . “ an act of rebellion against Him.” (Chapter 5) Now only survival matters to Elie. He even resists an offer to sleep, …” I knew that to sleep meant to die.” (Chapter 6)
Later in the story Elie's father reverts to; “ a child’s state of mind, timid, weak, vulnerable.” According to Elie. He (the Father) is near death, and becoming quite bothersome to other persons living at these camps. “They couldn’t stand his father, they said because he was no longer able to drag his corpse outside and relieve himself. (Chapter 9)
Elie and his father’s relationship changes drastically. If they had both escaped these camps, they would have lived on the remainder of their lives being completely inseparable. “Naturally we refused to be separated.” (Chapter 1) They grew apart on a deeper level. At the camps it was every man for himself, and some choices were made. “ Elizer, Elizer, tell them to stop hitting me!” Instead of helping his father and speaking out against...