Consider the question below and either respond directly to the question or read through your peers' responses and react to someone's comment. Please remember rules of discussion (they apply to on-line discussions); be courteous to other's thoughts and feelings, respond using appropriate language, and to support your claims, use textual evidence.
Question:
In the concluding pages of Night, Eliezer’s father is dying a slow, painful death
in Buchenwald. But Eliezer is there to comfort him, or at least to try. Does Eliezer
see his father as a burden by this point, or does he feel only pity and sorrow for him?
Compare and contrast the father-son relationship you see at the end of this
memoir with the one you saw at the beginning.
The relationship between Elie and his father change throughout the story. In the beginning Elie feels comforted by his presence and they help each other through things. But towards the end of the memoir, as Elie's father gets sick and unable to keep up and work properly,their relationship changes. As Elie's father gets dysentery and becomes increasingly weaker, he becomes more of a burden. But Elie, in order to do the right thing and not feel ashamed of himself, tries to help his father in any way possible. He gives his father his ration of food, brings him water, tries to get the doctors to help him, and even stays with him in the hospital when he can. However, when the camp official gives Elie a piece of advice and tells him how life in the camp is, Elie understands that it is time to say farewell to his father. The official told Elie that in the camp, one must only care about themselves and that to survive, one must not get close to anyone as it will lead to their fall as well. So Elie, in the beginning, was very helpful and had his father's help to get through the tough life at the camp, but as the memoir nears its end, Elie stays helpful and cares about his father but questions whether he is doing the right thing or not. Elie was increasingly thin and needed the ration of food he had given his father nearly daily, and he needed the rest he lacked from taking care and looking out for his father. Therefore, I believe Elie became more interested in his survival as the memoir reached its end.
ReplyDeleteYeah oath
DeleteI agree with Erik, however, I believe that Elie feels pity for his father. Even when he is told to take his fathers ration he does not. Elie may think of his father as a burden, but still helps him until the end, because he feels that it is almost his duty as a son.Their relationship, like Erik said, changed dramatically throughout the story. Elie gives him his food, at times, and brings him things to make his death less painful. You can tell that Elie feels that he is obligated to help even though he would like the rations. Saying that Elie knew that his father was going to die and that he wouldnt need to give up his rations for much longer, so he went with it. If his father was not dying so quickly it may have been different.
ReplyDeleteTowards the end of the memoir Elie does think of his father as a burden only after recieving the advice given to him by an official. Elie goes from a boy who perfectly content with caring for his father, to a person who would only think about thier well bieng.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Erik's comment on the subject because, as he said, Elie and his father begin their long and painful enprisonment by being there for each other and by trying to stick close and not leave each other behind. However, as the book progresses and Elie's father becomes weak and sick, Elie tries to help him out as much as he can by feeding him and by caring for him in all possible ways, but he does eventually become a burden because Elie has no more strenght to care for him and he realizes that he needs his ration of food in order to survive the concetration camps, himself. When Elie's father does die and he is cremated, Elie feels both sad and relieved. I say this because when Elie sees that his father is missing, he thinks to himself that he has lost his father and that the hole left behind by his loss cannot be filled, but at the same time he feels relieved because he can finally focus on staying alive and surviving the misery to which he is put. And so, I say that Elie feels noth relieved and depressed by the loss of his father.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Caleb in saying that the consentration camp has completely broken their father-son bond by the end of the book. Elie doesn't see his father as he did in the beginning. He is seeing his father more as a burdon and not a comfort.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Erik in saying that their relationship changes throughout the story. However, in the concluding pages of the book, I believe he wanted to help his father out as best he could but he realized he had to worry about himself, too. Elie does question himself if he is doing the right thing but I agree with Maria when she said that "if his father wasn't dying so quickly, it may have been different" for the relationship between Elie & his father.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Cara about Elie wanting to help his father out the best he could , but in the end Elie had to worry about himself.In the beginning of the story, Elie looks up to his father. Yes towards the end Elie does see his father as a burden. Elie feels that perhaps his father is better off dead rather than having to struggle to survive.Also I agree with Caleb about the concentration camp breaking Elie and his father's relationship.(father son relationship)
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