- How did the relationship between Eliezer and his father change in the course of the year on which the book focuses? How do you account for that change? What has each come to represent to the other? How do the changes in his relationship with his father affect the way Eliezer sees himself as an individual?
- How does Eliezer respond when his father is beaten for the first time? How does that response affect the way he sees himself? What does he fear is happening to him?
- What advice does Eliezer’s cousin from Antwerp give his father? How is it like the advice the Polish prisoner offers? What do both pieces of advice suggest about the meaning of a word like family in a place like Auschwitz?
- What does Eliezer mean when he refers to his father as “his weak point”? Why has he come to view love as a weakness?
- Why did his father give him the spoon and the knife as his inheritance? What is the significance of such a gift in Auschwitz?
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Explore the relationship between Eliezer and his father.
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Eliezer and his father both managed to stay together throughout the year that they spent traveling from one concentration camp to another. To each other they represent hope, support and a reason to stay alive. Eliezer was his father’s “only support” which, I think, began to take a toll on him (82). When Eliezer witnessed Rabbi Eliahou’s son abandon him on the relentless evacuation from Buna, he prayed to God: “give me strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahou’s son has done” (87). But when Eliezer’s own father became ill, selfish thoughts started to occupy his mind: “Don’t let me find him!” he thought, “If only I could get rid of this extra dead weight” (101). Eliezer was told, “there’s nothing you can do for [your father]” and by giving up his rations in hopes of making his father better he was slowly killing himself (105). Eliezer was ashamed and tried to ignore these thoughts, but when his father was finally taken away, he could only think, “free at last!” (106). In the end, Eliezer is relieved by his father’s death. Not only would his father no longer have to suffer, but he could focus on his own survival.
ReplyDeleteNell S.
In agreement with Nell, I believe that Eliezer and his father were a comfort and support to each other; they reinforced one another’s hope to survive the concentration camp and uphold their faith. When Eliezer’s father is first beaten, he can’t believe who he was become: “What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, before my very eyes, and I had not flickered an eyelid…I should have sunk my nails into the criminal’s flash. Had I changed so much, then? So quickly?” (37). Eliezer sees how the affect of what this battle of survival is turning him into. He was unable to help his father, and in a sense, this made him feel weak and helpless. His father was slowly no longer becoming a support for him to carry on, but a burden that was slowing him down. While Eliezer’s father was lying on his deathbed, he even made it clear that “[he] dared not admit it. It’s too late to save your old father, [he] said to himself”, and he knew that there was nothing he could do (105). After his father passed, Eliezer felt relief and could finally concentrate on his own survival, as did many of the others that surrounded him.
ReplyDelete- Christina
I agree with Nell and Christina as they say that Eliezer had feelings that his life in the concentration camps would be easier without the burden of his father, but I also think he kept his promise to himself. After hearing what happened to Rabbi Eliahou, Eliezer prayed to God to “give [him] strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahou’s son [had] done” (87). Eliezer kept this promise; he never intentionally tried to separate himself from his father just because he was weak. He may have had thoughts about how things would be easier but he never carried through with them. At all times Eliezer tried to keep track of his father, “I held onto my father’s hand - the old, familiar fear: not to lose him” (99). When his father was sick, Eliezer was there by his bed side, encouraging him to eat soup and drink water, and “[he] did all [he] could to give him hope” (102). Eliezer did all he could to keep his father alive as long as possible, by giving him his leftover food, or even shouting at him to get the point across that he could not give up, he could not die. Eliezer kept his promise to himself and “[did] not leave [his] father” (105).
ReplyDelete-Britt
I completely agree with the other posts, and believe that for the majority of this hell, the two people actually completed each other- one could not survive without the other. They were constantly supporting, and comforting each other with small gestures: “I pressed my fathers hand” (31). For the majority of the book, both Elie and his father fight for survival, but towards the end, Elie starts to realize that his father has given into death. As was previously mentioned, Elie started to think of his father as a burden, but at this point his father was not actually his father anymore. They started arguing and Elie realized that he “was not arguing with [his father], but with death itself” (100). When Elie’s father thought he was going to be taken in the selection, he gave Elie a spoon and a knife as an inheritance. In Auschwitz a real inheritance of money, or valuables was worthless because inside the camps money had no value. The spoon and knife however, had a large value within the walls of Auschwitz. From the book Maus which we read over the summer, we learn from Vladek that a spoon allows a person to eat their entire bowl of soup instead of drinking from the edge and spilling some of the already small portion. A spoon was one of the items which was also in a high demand, and at one point Vladek trades the spoon for a pair of shoes (or it may have been bread, cigarettes and chocolate… something valuable). A knife also has trading value and can be used to help for personal safety and to receive materials which may be helpful. Therefore, by providing a spoon and a knife as an inheritance it was more valuable than money, gold and jewels.
ReplyDeleteJulia
As the other post have wonderfully stated how Elie and his father, Cholmo, have been constantly supporting each other and to keep them self to survive. Through out their struggle they have been given advices from their cousin, Stein in the beginning of their struggle and then from a polish prisoner in Buchenwald. These advices defines the word family differently in at Auschwitz. With their cousin, Stein, he advices Elie’s father to “take care of your son” and he also states that the only think that keeps him alive is that Reizel and the children are still alive”(43). However the polish prisoner gives Elie an advice that “here, there is no fathers, no brothers, no friends…there’s nothing you can do for him”(100). These two advices differ from each other, one keeps them have a strong bond as father and son while the other chooses to survive by taking away the burden.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Eliezer had mixed feelings about his father. Although Elie describes most of his time in Auschwitz about his struggles that he endures with his father, right from the beginning Elie thinks that his father " was more concerned with others than with his own family (2). However, several times, when Elie and his father are in jeopardy of being split up, his only request to God is to be with his father. One young boy offers to trade Elie a good labor camp for his shoes. Elie agrees but "on one condition: [he] want[s] to stay with [his] father" (46). I respectfully disagree with Nell and Christina; I believe that without his father, Elie would have no hope and no reason to fight. His father gave him a perspective and some sense of comfort. Why else would he want to stay with his father constantly? I fully understand not wanting to see your father die or have the constant fear of having your father to see you die but how would it be completely alone?
ReplyDelete---Matt
Eliezer has a strong connection with his father, one that other prisoners and their families do not have. Night describes as prisoners how detached family members became from one another and on pages 41-42, the importance of family during this war time is expressed as the prisoner Stein talks about his will to survive: "'The only thing that keeps me alive,' he used to say, 'is that Reizel and the children are still alive. If it wasn't for them, I couldn't keep going.'" In this scene Stein's longing for the bond that Eliezer and his father have been able to maintain is evident. As Desal mentioned above, the advice that Stein gives the father and son helps the two understand what is important in the ghetto. We get a clear understanding how valuable family is towards the end of the novel when Eliezer protects his dying father from being thrown out of the train cart. As other prisoners are throwing corpses out of the train in order to make room for the living, and they come across Eliezer's father's still body, Eliezer "threw [himself] on top of his body. He was cold. [Eliezer] slapped him. [Eliezer rubbed his hands, crying: 'Father! Father! Wake up. They're tyring to throw you out of the carriage.'" The fact that Eliezer has been able to stay with his father from the beginning of the book until the end is an amazing feat for prisoners. And now that Eliezer is faced with the realization that his father may be dead, his support for survival gone, we truly see how important his father was.
ReplyDelete--Alex T.
--page number for the last quote is (94).
ReplyDeleteAlex T.
Eliezer refers to his father as his "weak point." This seems cold of course, coming from a son, but if one looks at the situation more objectively one can see that Eliezer was reacting in the most rational way he could in the sitution. While in a concentration camp, a prisoner's main objective is to survive. People's bodies and minds adjust to the environment; they eat and use their foor more sparingly, they monitor their actions so as to remain inconspicuous, and they shed everything that is not necessary to survival so that these things do not weigh them down. As conditions worsened, Eliezer no longer had as strong of an attachment to his father because in terms of Elizer's survival, his father was just weighing him down, worsening his chances. As Nell said, by the end of the book, Eliezer is relieved by his father's death. Although he feels guilty, Eliezer begins to realize the inevitable and try to make the best of it to benefit his own chances of survival. He thinks, "It's too late to save your own father. ... You ought to be having two rations of bread, two rations of soup" (105). Eliezer is forced to go through many changes when he is a prisoner, and with these changes comes a new set of guidelines for his life. Keeping his old, sick father alive for a few months longer is unconciously dropped from his list so he can save himself.
ReplyDelete-Deirdre
I agree with Christina about Eliezer’s feelings after his father was beaten. He felt helpless and ashamed that he could not do anything to help his father, who was beat only for asking where the bathroom was. Even though he claimed to have wanted to “sunk [his] nails into the criminal’s chest” before, he could not do so after his own father was beaten in front of him (37). After this incident Eliezer detached himself from his father and focused more on his own survival. He became angry with his father for making the officers mad, and showed little sympathy for him. Eliezer distanced himself from his father as a way to deal with the horrible situation he is in. By staying detached, Eliezer did not have to feel the pain that his father went through. He knew that there was a good chance that his father was not going to make it, and figured that he would be more likely to survive if he did not have to grieve over his death. Even though it might sound like he is turning evil, his change in thinking might have kept him alive in the end.
ReplyDelete