Father And Son Relationship In The Novel Maus

More people in Auschwitz died than in any other Nazi concentration camp. Could you live bearing the fact that your life was at stake for just being yourself? Faith is required to keep hope, when we also see people’s vulnerabilities, we grow closer. Night by Elie Weisel is a strong example of this belief. In this book, a father and son are required to sustain by only having faith in each other. They are trapped like many Jewish people in this time of history in Auschwitz. Their life now consists of waiting for the next meal to arrive. All their lifelong dreams and desires vanish before their eyes and now they are forcefully kept in the control of the ruthless officers at this death camp. To survive in these harsh conditions Eliezer and his father can solely have faith in each other to keep them from losing hope in life. In the Comic Maus by Art Spiegelman, the father-son relationship differs vastly from Night. Artie the son of Holocaust survivor Vladek has a very distant relationship with each other. Artie is writing a comic about his father’s stories during the Holocaust, now they are forced to spend a lot more time together. The father-son relationship in each book evolves throughout the whole story for the better. Relationships improve when you communicate your emotions. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel and Maus by Art Spiegelman, the authors demonstrate how traumatic experiences can bring relationships closer or farther. By examining the relations between the father and son, the reader can clearly see the impact the Holocaust left on their bond.

At the start of the book Night, Elie and his father’s relationship is different from what it was when they were taken to camp. Before getting taken away Shlomo’s attention is more on his everyday responsibilities and the predicaments with the community, the Jewish in Sighet held him in the greatest esteem. They often used to consult him about public and even private matters. “He was more concerned with others than with his own family.”(Wiesel, 2) He has a distant relationship with everyone in his family because he cares more about what other people think. Shlomo never really displays any of his feelings publicly. Eliezer found him to be a “rather unsentimental man. There was never any display of emotion, even at home.”(2) They did not seem to have a close bond since Eliezer only sees him as emotionless. They probably never even spend quality father-son time together since he was in such a respected position in the community and was always busy.

Work Cited

1. Spiegelman, Art. Maus. Pantheon Books, 2010.

2. Wiesel, Elie, and Marion Wiesel. Night. W. Ross MacDonald School Resource Services Library, 2019.