Night

2 Pages 524 Words

Shame
The novel Night, by Elie Wiesel has many tragedies and losses suffered by the prisoners in concentration camps. One major loss was the deterioration of father-son relationships. Due to the inhumane conditions in the concentration camps, it is every man for himself and family ties no longer matter. Therefore, one must abandon his father or his son in order to survive. In the novel, Elie sometimes thinks of how his weak father is such a burden and how it would be a relief for own father to just die. More so, there are other incidents where father-son relationships are deteriorated.
To begin, in the episode where the S.S soldiers throw bread into the train, the prisoners are so focused on getting the food, that even their closest relations aren’t in their minds. "Wild beasts of prey, with animal hatred in their eyes; an extraordinary vitality had seized them, sharpening their teeth and nails", shows how the prisoners have become predatory animals. After being starved for ten days, the prisoners are willing to kill each other for bread. In this scene, a young man fights his own father for a piece of bread and eventually, they kill each other off. For they are no longer living in a world of social responsibility and morality, it makes sense for them to behave like animals. The Nazis have created this inhumane environment, and the prisoners have no choice but to take on their ways for survival.
Moreover, at one point in the novel, Elie, his father, and the rest of the prisoners were to transfer to another camp named Gleiwits; they were forced to run around forty miles in painfully cold weather, with stragglers shot. A scene that secured itself in Elie's memory is that of Rabbi Eliahou: “his son had seen him losing ground, limping, staggering back to the rear of the column. He had seen him. And his had continued to run on in front, letting the distance between them grow greater”. In this heartbreaking scene, Rabbi Eliahou’...