In Elie Wiesel’s “Night”, he explains his horrific experiences as a holocaust survivor. He endures many hardships, like losing his mother and sister forever. However, if it were not for his father’s confidence and support during these times, Elie may have not survived this dark chapter of history. Every time Elie feels he has nothing left to live for, his father encourages him to keep moving forward, in hope of a brighter future. In response, Elie never succumbs to the animosity that other sons and fathers endure, killing each other in the process. Elie and his father constantly keep each other in check, both helping each other survive and suppressing them from killing each other to do so.
Both Elie and his father strive for not only their own survival, but also each others. Even before Wiesel faces the full might of the German concentration camps, he already knew he needed his father. When the two of them first arrive at Birkenau, the assembly is forced to small groups. He states, “My hand shifted on my fathers arm. I had one thought - not to lose him. Not to be left alone. The SS officer gave the order: ‘Form Fives’. Commotion. At all cost we must keep together” (Night 27). Even when he is midway through his teenage years, Elie still has a very close relationship to his father. This relationship, shared by father and son, is further shone as the two confide in each other and do near anything for the other’s survival. Elie and his father’s close friendship keeps the both of them and their morals alive.
As the story progresses, the officers become more harsh as the battlefront moves closer to the camp. The rationing of food drops to less than a piece of bread. And they begin to enjoy the suffering of the prisoners. In one scene, Elie witnesses a son killing his own father for a ration of bread. According to the book, “With remark in his eyes, [the father] drew [the bread] out and put it in his mouth. His eyes gleamed; a smile, like a grimace, lit up his dead face. And was immediately extinguished. A shadow had just loomed up near him. The shadow threw itself upon him. Felled to the ground, stunned with blows, the old man cried: ‘Meir. Meir, my boy! Don’t you recognize me? I’m your father...you’re hurting me...you’re killing your father! I’ve got some bread...for you too...for you too...” (Night 96). Here, he witnesses a situation not too different from his own: son and father; starving; desperate. However, Wiesel is much closer to his father than Meir. He does not fall to the temptations, putting him at risk of his own survival, yet he willingly does so.
When Elie is faced with a similar situation - his father ill with dysentery and no longer being rationed; with no hope for survival - Elie still gives up his daily rations to take care of his father. He states, “For a ration of bread, I managed to change beds with a prisoner in my father’s bunk” (Night 103). Elie is willing to give up a ration of bread just to change beds with a block-mate that bunks with his father. Here not only is he giving up his survival for his father; he is also risking his is own life getting closer to his father’s disease. And even when he is questioned for his generous acts and he feels slightly in question, he immediately feels guilty. In his conversation with his superior, it states, “Listen to my, boy...Here, every man has to fight for himself and not think of anyone else. Even of his father. Here, there are no fathers, no brothers, no friends. Everyone lives and dies for himself alone. I’ll give you a sound piece of advice - don’t give your ration of bread and soup to your old father. There’s nothing you can do for him. And you’re killing yourself. Instead, you ought to be having his ration.’ I listened to him without interrupting. He was right...but I dare not admit it...Only a fraction of a second, but I felt guilty” (Night 105). His superior questions why he would give his own life to a man who would die with or without the sacrifice. He states that Elie should take advantage of the situation and reap his fathers rations and clothes. And even though Elie immediately dismisses the idea, the split second that he thought about it made him feel guilty. Unlike Meir, Elie is completely unwilling to sacrifice his father for even the smallest gain.
Elie’s powerful relationship with his father allows him to not only survive, but to survive with the same humanity he had when he first entered Auschwitz. Elie depends on his father for motivation and support when he feels he is in a hopeless situation, and his father is protected by Elie’s unwavering morality. Both of them have something the other needs, and respectfully, the help each other survive with it. “Night” reflects the importance of a strong friendship, or any other type of relationship.
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