All around him people were dead or dying and I found it heartbreaking how people were just accepting it when at first they were afraid of death, including Eli. The only thing that gave him hope was his father. I really find it surprising how Eli and his father have kept their relationship so strong despite the cruelty they've faced, because it must take a lot of energy in that situation to care for someone's else's well being along with yours. At times Eli's father had weighed him down because of his age. Yet they stuck together unlike Rabbi Eliahu's son, who had seen his father fall behind and continued to run ahead. It made me think of a quote from White Oleander by Janet Fitch, "I was always mortified. Didn't they know they were always tying their mothers to the ground? Weren't chains ashamed of their prisoners?"
Chattahoochee River
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Ch 6 - Death & Eli's father
In this chapter it seems that the constant battle with death and the relationship with his father is more apparent than in the previous chapters. As they began to march/run, Eli witnesses Zalman break rank and assumes he got trampled by everyone and the idea of dying begins to fascinate him. It becomes a fantasy to Eli to no longer feel anything, to no longer exist, to let himself fall. However, he regains his senses when he remembers his father next to him and realized that he could not abandon him. His father constantly gives him reason to go on, just as Eli does for him. Death plagues him again as he's tempted to let death claim him in his sleep because of his fatigue, but his father wakes him and they agree to take turns sleeping
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I also find it somewhat surprising that Elie and his father have been able to stick together through so much. I imagine that in a situation like this it would be difficult to abandon your family to better your own chances of survival, but I keep thinking back to the beginning of the book when Elie said that he didn't see his father very much because he was always working. I wonder how this comes into play. Does it make it more challenging for Elie to stick with his father because he feels like he's having to save a stranger? Or does it make it easier because he wants them to both survive so they can possibly build a better, closer relationship than the one they had before?
ReplyDeleteYou know, I think the bond between family, especially between father and son, is strong enough to get through almost anything. And the only thing worse than losing his father would probably be leaving him behind to endure such trials alone. They are both one another's reason to keep on.
ReplyDeleteI think that Elie hightlights his relationship with his father in this chapter in order to show the type of character that he was and became in contrast to all the other men's sons who abandon their fathers. I think he knew that his father survival depends of Wiesel's survival and so his father is his motativon to live.
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