Night presents many ideas and creates many themes along the way. One that I really took notice of was the theme of the importance of family, not just to Elie but to so many people experiencing the same things as him. In the preface Elie mentions witnessing his father being beaten to death and that experience being one of the most mentally crippling things he experienced during the Holocaust. Elie was near his father while this was taking place but an SS officer was nearby as well.
“"Well?" The SS had flown into a rage and was striking my father on the head: "Be quiet, old man! Be quiet!" My father no longer felt the club's blows; I did. And yet I did not react. I let the SS beat my father, I left him alone in the clutches of death. Worse: I was angry with him for having been noisy, for having cried, for provoking the wrath of the SS. "Eliezer! Eliezer! Come, don't leave me a l o n e … " His voice had reached me from so far away, from so close. But I had not moved. I shall never forgive myself” (page VI).
This tore Elie apart, to watch his own father die and on top of that, to have him beckoning Elie the entire time. As he described, “My father no longer felt the club's blows; I did.” It really brought to life the way he was feeling and gives you a sense of the pain an experience like this one can bring a person. Elie’s father was the only person he had left, and watching him have his life taken was so awful for Elie to witness. Later on in the novel Elie and his father are in line for selection while on the death march just before the prisoners got on the train.
“The SS officers were doing the selection: the weak, to the left; those who walked well, to the right. My father was sent to the left. I ran after him. An SS officer shouted at my back: "Come back!" I inched my way through the crowd. Several SS men rushed to find me, creating such confusion that a number of people were able to switch over to the right—among them my father and I. Still, there were gunshots and some dead.” (Page 96)
Elie risked his life by going out of line just to prevent the murder of his father. His father is so important he risks his survival to prevent his father’s life coming to an end. His father means so much to him, and in a way he is one of the forces driving him to continue on his path of survival. Elie put in so much effort and energy into saving his father, and then when the time finally came and Elie’s father died he felt relieved. This burden he had to carry while struggling through such a hard time was finally removed and so no wonder he was relieved. Elie’s diction choices in this section were wonderful and it really made me feel like I was running through a crowd to save Elie’s father right alongside him.
Alex,
ReplyDeleteYour blog post was well written and very interesting. It was well written and interesting that the theme you picked was the importance of family. I agree with everything you said, and I really think you wove your post together well.
Alex,
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think, after all that fighting to keep his father alive, that Elie felt almost relieved of his father's burden? This is something we can even look to today with many people be very attached, maybe not to their fathers but, to a family member and are often very affected by their loss of those people.