Entry 5: Connections

Night by Elie Wiesel can be closely compared to the book The Glass Castle. In both books, there are both figurative and literal connections being demonstrated. Night and Glass Castle both have totally different plots and story lines, but the charaters’ relationships are very alike. Elie Wiesel and Jeanette Walls both were children of a fairly large family with a few siblings and both had a very rough life. They both wrote these memoirs about their lives and the obstacles that they lived through.

            The relationship between the authors and their fathers were very significant. Elie and his father had a father-son bond and were the closest to each other then to anyone else in the story. Jeanette was also very close to her father and he even told her that she was his favorite kid. Despite how close they were, there was still something in between them pulling them apart. Elie and his father helped each other, supported one another, and guided each other through the camps. Jeanette led her father through trying to fix his addiction to alcohol and the stress that he caused the family as a whole. As though the closer each pair became the father apart they were. Jeanette felt embarrassed and almost humiliated by her father but she would never tell that to his face. Elie helped out his father providing him with the necessary resources to survive, but inside he wanted to become free and overcome all the torture being put upon him.

            The literal connection of these books is the almost nomadic lifestyle both families live. In Night, Elie and his father travel from camp to camp together, going through a wide variety of places and situations. They never would know when they were going to leave their current location and didn’t bring anything with them. In Glass Castle, Jeanette constantly “skedaddle” (19). This was a term to mean picking up and moving and traveling to a new place. Each kid was only usually allowed to bring 1 thing with them. These books were very different but still had a connection that was not very straightforward, but visible between the lines.

                                                                                        Word Count: 359 words
   

Front cover of Night

                  

Elie Wiesel Today

Front cover of Glass Castle

          

Jeanette Walls Today