Emma Ortiz
Mr. Hershey
English II
April 2, 2009
Role Reversal in Night
The book Night, told by Elie Wiesel, describes a tragic story about a boy and his father
living in the concentration camps. Elie and his father, Shlomo, go through many tough times
each approaching on the verge of death. As they experience these grueling tasks, Elie and
Shlomo undergo some changes in their lives. The most important change was the change in their
relationship as a father and son. During Elie’s time in the concentration camps, he matures into
the fatherly role.
In the early months of Elie’s concentration camp life, Elie and his father have a normal
father/son relationship. This normal relationship shows the father protecting the son, the father
providing for the son and the son depending on the father. During this time Elie needs a lot of
protection, mostly emotionally. For example, when Elie and his family were first separated Elie
says “I kept walking, my father holding my hand” (Wiesel 29). This shows how Shlomo
protected Elie by keeping him close and letting him know he was not alone. This concept is
further explained by Kelly Winters when she says “He clings to his father, contriving to stay
close to him in the camps; this closeness is his sole source of reassurance and safety” (275).
Shlomo also provides for Elie during their time of need, “…he didn’t even start his own. “Me,
I’m not hungry” (Wiesel 44). Shlomo says that when Elie made a wrong choice and swallowed
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all of his rations at once. Elie’s father gave him his rations to provide for Elie so that Elie can
survive. Elie also greatly depends on his father to support him and keep him safe. This
dependence is displayed in the camps as Susan Sanderson says “Father and son often walk
together holding hands in the camps, afraid that they will be separated” (277). Elie thought of
this idea, of not being separated from his father many times in his camp life. One time he said
this, was in the confusion of checking into Birkenau “My head was buzzing….not to be
separated from my father” (Wiesel 35). In the beginning, Elie and Shlomo’s relationship was
normal, where the father is above the son.
As their time progresses in the camps Elie and Shlomo change their relationship from a
normal father/son relationship to a normal friendship. Their relationship now displays mutual
respect, equal treatment and equal support for each other; “At this moment of complete
awareness, Eliezer stands next to his father as a fellow man and equal” (Sanderson 278). Elie
starts to show this new friendship by teaching his father to march: “I decided to give my father
lessons in marching in step” (Wiesel 55). He does this because Shlomo is being beaten for Elie’s
stubbornness to give up his gold tooth. Shlomo keeps up his end of the friendship by saving
Elie’s life on the cattle cars when Elie was being strangled. Although Shlomo could not defeat
the felon himself he was smart enough to call for help: “Come, come quickly! Someone is
strangling my son!” (Wiesel 102). With their new friendship also comes a new understanding of
each other. Just like what Elie said at Rosh Hashanah when Elie and Shlomo silently decided
survival comes first: “Never before had we understood each other so clearly” (Wiesel 69). They
also demonstrate their friendship when they watch each other sleep at the brick factory after
running forty-two miles. Elie and Shlomo therefore depend on each other for survival. Ellen S.
Fine describes this dependency by saying “….the primary relationship between father and son
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appears to be more an interdependency based upon mutual support in the midst of surrounding
evil” (99). Elie says “We’ll take turns. I’ll watch over you and you’ll watch over me. We won’t
let each other fall asleep. We’ll look after each other” (Wiesel 89). Elie and Shlomo’s
relationship has grown into a friendship where no one is above the other.
Towards the end of their nightmare or concentration camp days, Elie finally switches
roles with Shlomo to become the fatherly role. This relationship is exactly like a normal
father/son relationship where father takes care of son, father stays by son’s side and son depends
on the father. Elie starts to show his new maturity; “….as he spends his own energy and food to
try and nurse his father and keep him alive” (Winters 275). Elie first shows this when his father
desperately asks for some coffee, and he shows that he will do anything to take care of him. Elie
expresses that trait when he says, “I fought my way to the coffee cauldron like a wild beast”
(Wiesel 106). Elie also twice demonstrates the second part of a normal father/son relationship
which is staying by his “son’s” side. First he bargains with the other prisoners to get a cot beside
his father’s: “For a ration of bread I was able to exchange cots to be next to my father” (Wiesel
108). Secondly, Elie did not want to leave his sick father’s side to go work so he stayed in the
blocks. Elie decided “The sick were allowed to stay in the block. So I would be sick. I didn’t
want to leave my father” (Wiesel 111). Elie becomes the father in many other ways as well for as
said here, “Shlomo adopts the behaviors of a child and begins depending on Eliezer even more
than before” (Sanderson 278). Shlomo depends on him for food, water and protection. For
example, one day when Elie came back from working he found his father crying in his bunk: “I
found my father crying like a child: My son, they are beating me!” (Wiesel 109) Elie then stood
up for his father and rudely cursed at the beaters. In their last days Elie and Shlomo’s
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relationship become a father/son relationship again where father is above son, except now their
personal roles are switched.
As time in the concentration camps progressed Elie matures into the fatherly role. Elie
and Shlomo go through many rough experiences together which change their lives by switching
roles in their father/son relationship. Each event in their life changed both men into a different
role generally for the better. “On Elie’s journey from childhood to adulthood, Eliezer becomes an
adult to help both himself and his father survive” (Sanderson 277).
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Works Cited
Fine, Ellen S. "Fathers and Sons." Readings on Night. By Ellen S. Fine. Ed.
Wendy Mass. Literary Companion to World Literature. San Diego: Greenhaven,
2000. 99-107. Rpt. of "Fathers and Sons." Legacy of Night. 1982. By Ellen
S. Fine. New York: State University of New York , 1982.
Sanderson, Susan. "Critical Essay on Night." Nonfiction Classics for Students.
Ed. David Galens. Vol. 4. New York: Gale Group, 2002. 276-279. Gale Virtual
Reference Library. Gale. Conestoga Valley High School Lib., Lancaster, PA.
26 Mar. 2009 <http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/?db=GVRL>.
Wiesel, Elie. Night. 1958. Trans. Marion Wiesel. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006.
Winters, Kelly. "Critical Essay on Night." Nonfiction Classics for Students. Ed.
David Galens. Vol. 4. New York: Gale Group, 2002. 274-276. Gale Virtual
Reference Library. Gale. Conestoga Valley High School Lib., Lancaster, PA.
26 Mar. 2009 <http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/?db=GVRL>.