For Elie Wiesel's novel, Night, compare fathers and sons.

In Elie Wiesel's novel, Night, there
are several sets of fathers and sons.

First there is Elie
and his father Chlomo. They are in the camp together for a long time, and Elie's father
survives almost to the end. Elie's father looks out for Elie all the time. Elie tries
hard to make sure they are kept together where they bunk and where they
work.

Elie is tormented by the fact that there are times
when he believes he would be better off without his father; these thoughts leave him but
still he feels guilty. When Elie's father is beaten, Elie does nothing and feels guilty.
Even when someone seeing his father sick at the end advises Elie to eat his father's
rations because his father will soon die, and not to share his own food with the old man
either, Elie thinks of it for a moment, but does not do
so.

Another father and son are on the train that is
carrying them in the cold weather toward the end of the war. Many of their numbers die
on this trip. At one stop, someone throws bread into their car. Elie remains still, but
notices an old man has gotten the bread. When his son realizes it, he starts to beat his
father for the food, even while his father promises to share it. The rest of the men in
the car becomean angry mob. At the end of the melee, both father and son are
dead.

A third example of a father and son in the story
relates to a rabbi they have met in the camp. When they are running, the rabbi comes to
the Wiesels to ask if they have seen his son: he cannot find him. Elie lies and says he
has not seen him, but in truth, Elie saw the son sneak off and abandon his father. Elie
hopes he will never do the same thing.

There are several
examples of father-son relationships in the novel, but Elie and his father, despite the
hardships that come with such intolerable conditions, love each other and try hard to
see to the other's well-being and survival; the other father-son relationships are sad
or tragic.