Night: Elies Changes

In the beginning of Night Elie is a devout Jew, and wants to be able to studie the cabbala, but his father refuses to let him because he thinks that his son is too young. "During the day I studied the Talmud, and at night I ran to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple,"(Wiesel 1). He is twelve when he asks, and most men began to studie the cabbala at around thirty, He studies and talks with Moshe the Beadle about these things instead. Once they enter the concentration camp however, he sees such horrible sights that he cannot believe that his god would allow this to happen. Akiba the Drummer says that "God is testing us. He wants to find out whether we can dominate out base instincts and kill the Satan within us. We have no right to despair. And if he punishes us relentlessly, it's a sign that He loves us all the more,"(Wiesel 42). But Elie still has begun to doubt his gods absolute justice. How could he just stand by and let all of these horrible things happen after all. Eventually towards the end even Akiba looses faith and dies. The only reason Elie had to fight on was because he couldn't leave his father alone. “I was his only support”

His relationship with his father grows far closer during imprisonment than it was before everything happened. “He rarely displayed his feelings, even within his family, and was more involved with the welfare of others than with his own kin”(Wiesel 2) During their time in the camps they are each others only support when other sons turn on their fathers. On one of the trains they are given bread, and one beats their father to death for a slice without a second thought. Another time, during a death march, a Rabbis son leaves him behind when he realizes his father is starting to fall back in the line and go slower. Even when Wiesels father is struck down with dysentery he brings him rations of his own food and keeps watch over him when he can, even though its a lost cause and he should be taking his fathers rations for his own benefit. They stick with one another until his father dies, which is something a lot of families didn't do because of the hostile 'every man for himself' environment.