Themes In Night By Elie Wiesel

Chosen Bonds

“Blood of the covenant is thicker than water of the womb” - Common Proverb

This proverb means the bonds one makes himself/herself are stronger than bonds one is made to have, but in Night by Elie Wiesel, the author shows that people can form stronger bonds with family, as to become that covenant. Night follows the author’s experience as a young Jewish boy in Sighet Romania during the Holocaust; at a mere 15 years, Wiesel had been subjected to living in ghettos, being separated from his mother and sisters, being beat and worked to death in concentration camps, and losing his father. Throughout this book, many of the people mentioned struggled with self preservation versus familial commitment and it has grown to be one of the major themes portrayed in Night. The theme of self preservation versus familial commitment is evident in the author’s family, other prisoners, and in Wiesel himself.

One such example is when Wiesel and his two older sisters had the option of leaving their parents and living with their former maid, but they would not go as they “refused to be separated” from their parents and little sister (20). Wiesel and his sisters had a way out of their suffering, but they chose to stay with their family out of commitment. Another example is when the author’s mother stayed with his little sister, Tzipora. His father, albeit possibly to delude himself, considered his mother a “young woman” and Tzipora a “big girl”, so the two did not have to stay together, but they did out of commitment for each other (46). When faced with saving oneself and staying with family, Wiesel’s family chose each