Night By Elie Wiesel Analysis

In his autobiography, Night, Elie Wiesel relates how the atrocities committed during the holocaust deeply effect his belief in God and his relationship with his father. In the beginning of the book, Elie's relationships with his father is not so intimate. At the same time, his relationship to God is extremely close. By the end of the book these relationships change, leaving Elie closer to his father than to God. Before the Nazi occupation of his hometown, Sighet, Elie's relationship with God and his outlook on religion was quite extreme for that of a Jewish teenager in the 1930's. When asked why he prays to God, Elie thinks to himself, "Why do I pray? … Why do I live? Why do I breathe?"(p2) To Elie, praying was a natural part of life. Although it went against his father's wishes, Elie spent most of his time studying the Kabbalah with his mentor, Moshe. In a demonstration of his commitment to Judaism, Elie writes, "We would read together, ten times over, the same page of the Zohar. Not to learn it by heart, but to extract the divine essence from it." (p3) As opposed to his relationship with God, Elie's relationship with his own father was not intimate. Elie remarks, "My father was more concerned with others, then with his own family." (p2) Throughout most of
Elie became the caretaker and his father became the dependent. "Eliezer… Eliezer… tell them not to hit me…. I haven't done anything…. Why do they keep hitting me?" (p96) His father would say these things to Elie, like he was a little boy and Elie was his father. Elie would find extra rations for his father, tend to him when he was ill, bring him extra blankets for comfort, and most of all, provide verbal support for his ailing dad. "Father…. Only another moment more. Soon we can lie down - in a bed. You can rest…" (p99) He would suggest that the end of all the terror was near, and that he needed to hold on for just a while