People rarely value their relationship with others, especially with parents who they believe will always be around and therefore allow themselves to be rude to them. Yet, when people experience a traumatic event together, they often become closer and start realizing the significance of honoring and respecting their loved ones. In Night, the novel by Ellie Weisel, Ellie, and his father did not have a close relationship before they were taken from their families by force and placed in a concentration camp. Nevertheless, only while at Auschwitz camp, Ellie and his father were able to strengthen their father-son bond out of fear of losing each other. Their relationship gets deeper as their time in the concentration camps develops, and they learn to love and care for one another. In the novel Night, the author portrays how a son who, due to being placed in an extreme situation together with his father, rediscovers his love and responsibility to his parent.
At the beginning of Night, the reader can observe a conflict that exists between Ellie and his father and which arises due to the lack of attention. Ellie openly states the main reason for his attitude by saying, ‘he was more concerned with others rather than his own family’ (Weisel 2). Essentially, Ellie feels that he does not receive much attention from his father, who chooses to spend his time with other people rather than his own family. Ellie, as a teenager, needs his parents to be involved in his life, but the distance from his father makes him resentful of him. As a result, Ellie stops valuing his relationship with his father and disregards him as a person who does not participate in his life.
Yet, as the story progress and Ellie and his father become placed in a concentration camp, Ellie’s attitude towards his parent start to evolve. Ellie recognizes that he and his father are one family who has a responsibility towards each other and says, ‘I had no right to let myself die… I was his whole life support’ (Weisel 86). In other words, the difficult situation forces Ellie to discover that despite having a negative attitude in the past, he still loves his father. The experience in the camp enables Ellie to reconsider his feelings towards his father, and he once again begins to value their relationship. Moreover, Ellie comes to understand that as a son, he also has a responsibility to his father to support him during hard times.
The novel Night highlights the capacity of extreme conditions to make people once again start valuing their relationship with their friends and family. The concentration camp experience enables Ellie to reconsider his resentful attitude towards his father and begin to love him and recognize his responsibility for him. The book allows the reader to remember that the relationship with loved ones should never be taken for granted and be full of resentment.
Works Cited
Weisel, Ellie. ‘Night.’ Hill and Wang, 2006.