The prisoners travel to Buchenwald in chapter 8. Eliezer is starting to want to leave his father, and there relationship is tested in this chapter. Eliezer's father is very ill, and Eliezer brings him bread, only after contemplating keeping it for himself, to better his chance for survival. Men beat up his father and take his rations. He pleads to Eliezer to bring him water. At the end of the chapter Eliezer wakes and his father is gone.
I was shocked at the fact that Eliezer was relieved by his fathers death. A few chapters ago he said he hoped he wouldn't turn into the kid who left his father on the march. Yet, he was just like him. At the end of the book he became selfish, and he was thankful his father passed just so he could keep the rations.
I was shocked as well to his revelation of relief that his father was gone. But I can understand why he felt that way after all of the torment and suffering he went through. After so much abuse, he just resorted to his primal instincts of "I can only care for myself."
ReplyDeleteI was also shocked that Elie turned into the kid that he said he would never turn into because he would never leave his dad. However he does exactly what he said he would never do.
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