Charissa May
Mr. Hershey
Honors English II
November 11, 2009
Elie and Schlomo’s Relationship in Night
Elie Wiesel illuminates his personal experiences with suffering in his memoir,
Night. In this book, Elie shares the story about his life in Sighet and being taken into
concentration camps. He recalls these horrific events and tells them. Rena Korb, literary
scholar, says:
These infamous Nazi concentration camps were places of slave labor, torturous medical
experimentation, sadistic violence, and, most significantly, genocide on a scale heretofore
unimaginable. The prisoners who lived within the barded-wire walls of the concentration
camps experienced the gradual stripping of their human qualities…and relationships with
other people become a hindrance to individual survival (271).
He and his Father fight a battle for survival. Despite the fact that Elie’s emotions are
somewhat contorted by the conditions at the concentration camps, many relationship
changes occur throughout the course of his memoir. Elie’s many experiences in the
camps lead to several relationship phases with his Father.
In the beginning of the book, before the camps, Schlomo (Elie’s father) and Elie
are not very close. When Schlomo is introduced in the book, he is described as, “…a
cultured man, rather unsentimental. He rarely displayed his feelings, not even within his
family, and was more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin”
(4). Elie is bitter towards his Father, Schlomo. They have a very tensional relationship
because Schlomo did not spend much time with his son and he disapproves of Elie’s
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desire to learn the Zohar and Kabbalistic works. “He wanted to drive the idea of studying
Kabbalah from my mind. In vain.” (4). This quote shows that Elie and his Father have
opposing views, and that Elie ‘rebels’ to a point by seeking his own teacher, Moishe the
Beadle. Elie also finds himself in argument with his father over whether to move or not.
“I had asked my father to sell everything, to liquidate everything, and leave. ‘I am too old
my son,’ he answered. ‘Too old to start a new life. Too old to start from scratch in some
distant land…” (9).Despite his earlier feelings toward his father, Elie’s feelings are
definitely subject to change.
The most significant change in the book is when Elie and his family are taken
away from their ghetto in Sighet and transferred to the concentration camps. During this
time, Elie and Schlomo are forced to rely on each other for support; emotionally,
physically and spiritually. Kelly Winters, freelance writer, says, “He [Elie] clings to his
father, contriving to stay close to him in the caps; this closeness is his sole source of
reassurance and safety, although he knows it is precarious” (275). When Elie and
Schlomo are waiting while their fate is decided, Elie thinks, “We did not know, as yet,
which was the better side, right or left, which road led to prison and which to the
crematoria. Still, I was happy, I was near my father” (32). Even though they are possibly
facing death, all Elie can think of is this father. Miraculously, Schlomo and Elie remain
together throughout most of their time at the camps, and into a more co-dependant
relationship develops between them. Ellen S. Fine explains, “They fight to keep alive by
mutual car and manage to create a strong bond between them in the most extreme of
circumstances” (98).When Elie and his Father wait in line at their first selection, Elie
shows his need for his Father, “My hand tightened its grip on my Father, all I could think
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of was not to lose him” (30). Their co-dependant relationship continues when others in
the camp are destroying relationships with their family members. For example, shortly
after Rabbi Eliahou’s son outruns his father, leaving him behind, Elie is trying to get
Schlomo to rest from the run; he says “I’ll watch over you, you watch over me” (89). In
this instance an others, a relationship that is too dependant can cause pain and trouble
later.
As time goes on, although Elie and his father depend so much on one another,
extreme conditions cause an alteration in their relationship. Elie’s Father begins to
become a burden instead of a help. Every time Schlomo is beaten, it is “One more stab to
the heart, one more reason to hat, and one less reason to live” for Elie (69). Elie first
realizes that his Father is hindering him is when they are running from one camp to the
next. Elie considers giving up and dying, but he thinks better of it, “My father’s presence
was the only thing that stopped me…What would he do without me? I was his sole
support?”(86-87). Later in the book when his father is sick, Elie realizes that Schlomo is
only taking from his health; but Elie cares for him too much. Rena Korb says, “Although
Eliezer quickly realizes the best way to protect himself is to forsake his father, he never
does so. He chastises himself for even acknowledging this bitter truth in his own
consciousness; he differs from the other sons in his group because he does not take action
to free him of the responsibility his father imposes” (273-274). Although this thought
process caused him guilt, he knew he had to let Schlomo go. When Schlomo dies, Elie
admits, “And deep inside me, if I could I have searched the recesses of my feeble
conscience, I might have found something like: Free at last!” (112). The father/son
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relationship between them diminished along with their health and ability to think clearly,
and they are driven apart.
In conclusion, the relationship between Elie and his father, Schlomo, changes
with/because of the situations Elie and Schlomo are forced to overcome. Their father-son
relationship goes from being tensional, to co-dependant, to independent. In the end, they
no longer care about their families, their friends, and find it hard to care about
themselves. The unbelievable events Elie and his Father endured changed their outlook
on life, spirituality, and most of all, how they viewed the other. Rena Korb, literary critic,
sums it up best, “As Wiesel’s narrative shows, in Auschwitz and Buchenwald, victims
turn against other victims, Jews against Jews, and even sons turn against their fathers”
(271).
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Works Cited
Winters, Kelly. “Critical Essay on Night.”Nonfiction Classics for Students. Ed. David
Galens. Vol. 4. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2002. 274-76. Gale Virtual Reference
Library. Web. 3 Nov. 2009. <http://www.galegroup.com>.
Wiesel, Elie. Night. Trans. Marion Weisel. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006.
Print.
Korb, Rena. "Critical Essay on Night." Nonfiction Classics for Students. Ed.
David Galens. Vol. 4. New York: Thomson Gale, 2002. 271-74. Gale Virtual
Reference Library. Web. 3 Nov. 2009. <http://www.galegroup.com>.
Fine, Ellen S. Legacy of Night. New York: n.p., 1982. N. pag. Rpt. in
Readings on Night. Ed. Wendy Mass. Bonnie Szumski ed. San Diego:
Greenhaven, 2000. N. pag. Print.