Project title: This paper attempts to primarily analyze and compare the themes of Night

and The kite runner.

Student’s name: Vrunda Sandesh Upsham
Department: Tybsc Physics
Project Guide: Kunalkumar Shelar

Introduction:
Wars are capable of creating a world with a sparse humane environment. The loss of life and
economic damage are the enumerations used to keep an account of the aftermath of the crisis.
However, at that intangible part of the pyramid that estimates the destruction, lies the most
essential structure. The structure of family values. Wars are capable of turning basic human
relationships into some grotesque products. In The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini recites the
memories of a man who has been bundled up in his nostalgic childhood. After a few decades,
he returns to free himself from his past. Elie Wiesel in Night recounts his life in the concentration
camp as a Jewish teen. Both the stories highlight an important development in relationships
against the backdrop of a common war theme. Therefore, by primarily analyzing and comparing
the household design in the stories, we shall inspect how the protagonists react to the same
triggers differently.
Eliezer’s character sketch:
Eliezer was the third and the only son among the four children in his household. The family ran
a store in Sighet. The Jews in Sighet were a stable community with a generic social hierarchy.
The environment established before ghettoization as described from Eliezer’s eyes aid the
reader in realizing the household’s mindset. Eliezer in the beginning describes his father as an
unsentimental person who tends to not easily express his feelings. He further expresses his
distaste towards the conscious involvement of his father in the welfare of his society more than
in his household. He describes his father as running around pacifying, consoling his friends, and
constantly checking in with the Jewish council during the commencement of ghettoization. He,
therefore, orients his relationship with his father in a more distant quadrant. The scarce and
indirect dialogue between them projects an air of awkwardness between them. The
strong-willed nature of the protagonist is made evident in the story when he does not let his
excitement for studying the Kabbalah diffuse away, despite his father’s constantly hinted refusal.
He reaches a master, without any prejudices, on his own and takes his learnings. When Eliezer
asks him to liquidate everything and vacate to settle in a new country, his father refuses,
resigning himself to his old age. His father is drawn as a nonchalant man who tends to give in to
the flow of the situation. “My eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without
God, without man.” - his faith in God is a repeating motif that further describes his antagonistic
character development. The author has thus established characters with extreme
temperaments. Elie Wiesel has constructed a character with a strong essence of determination.
This personality trait has been exploited to obtain the desired character arc. Eliezer’s father,
however, is a weak-willed person. Their differences magnify when they are together facing the
same uncertain situation. Eliezer, after witnessing the crimes of the Nazis against his
community, against mankind, renounces his faith in God and becomes hypervigilant to this
stress. His desperation to live through the night and survive the day tires him of his father who is
readying himself to accept his fate. “If only I didn’t find him! If only I were relieved of his
responsibility, I could use all my strength to fight for my own survival, to take care of my own
self…Instantly I felt ashamed, ashamed of myself forever.” Thus, we see him constantly battling
his instinct to reject his father to his fate and run away.
Amir’s Character sketch:
The narrative is given by an older Amir, who years later too, dwells in his nostalgic past. Amir
lives with his father in a patriarchal society. The influence of a strong patriarch in his household
and the absence of his mother has greatly shaped his life as a child. His father often praises the
boys of his age, starving him for any parental attention. He is constantly seen attempting to
obtain his father’s validation. Amir tries hard to fix himself and fit into the personality that his
father desires. Amir’s character is deeply motivated by this goal. His continuous efforts are seen
to hinder his conscience and integrity as a child. Amir held immense guilt within himself for
leaving Hassan alone as he got preyed on by the bullies. However, he was immediately relieved
of the suffocating shame soon when his father held him close to rejoice him in his victory in a
competition. All his choices and employed actions are a result of his affection depraved relations
with his father. He is portrayed as a kid who is tremendously dependent on his helpers. He is
often seen making choices he would otherwise not have in order to win over his father’s praises.
Khaled Hosseini describes the character of Amir as a boy with conflicting principles solely
influenced by the tampered dynamics between him and his father. His envious nature is made
prominent in instances such as where he expressed deep hatred towards the orphans who his
father had helped. He wants to depend on his father and hence often clings to any chance to do
so when not trying to impress him. He has, therefore, developed an overly-reliant attitude. The
author, later, presents Amir using a more comfortable and less anxious body language when
conversing with his father during their retreat from the battling territories. He depicts Amir
instinctively clamping his hand on his father’s thigh trying to prevent him from stepping into the
conflict.
Therefore, on comparing the two protagonists, we confirm that in Elie Wiesel’s Night, the father
and his son, Eliezer are characters having completely opposite temperaments. Where Eliezer is
a headstrong individual who is capable of accomplishing his goals, independently, his father is
portrayed as a man who does not show unrequired enthusiasm and often seems unmotivated to
undertake anything new. In The Kite Runner, Amir has always been in the presence of a very
strong, intimidating patriarch, his father. Amir’s sole motivation to perform any activity is to win
his father’s adulation. He wishes to compensate for his mother’s loss to his father by becoming
his desired image. His conscience is often paralyzed by this affection-depraved relation with his
father. The two individuals have reacted to their respective fathers differently, despite attempting
to survive the same situation.
CONCLUSION:
“Children whose parents are reliable sources of comfort and strength have a lifetime advantage-
a kind of buffer against the worst that fate can hand them”-Bessel Van Der Kolk states that the
presence of a comforting primary caregiver can substantially make or break the development of
a child. Where families did not spend sufficient time together, the nascent generation realized
the presence of friction and an inability to communicate. The war invading the seemingly normal
functioning relationship magnified this friction between Eliezer and his father. Eliezer was
struggling to completely focus on suppressing the inner chaos caused by the trauma in the
 concentration camps with absolutely no energy left to consider anything else besides his
survival. On the other hand, Amir’s desire to get his father more invested in him was fulfilled
amidst the escape from the crisis. Watching his father worry about him and protect him for the
first time made him feel closer to him in those moments. The characters that have been
designed, according to their traits, like Eliezer’s determination to find answers, complete his
ambitions, and Amir’s reliance are the factors that have contributed to the differences in their
reactions to the situation.
References:
● Night, by Elie Wiesel
● The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
● The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD
● Graphic Guide to Literary Criticism by Owen Holland and Piero
● Myriam Denov & Meaghan C. Shevell (2019) Social work practice with war-affected
children and families: the importance of family, culture, arts, and participatory
approaches, Journal of Family Social Work, 22:1, 1-16, DOI:
10.1080/10522158.2019.1546809
● Linking Family Leisure and Family Function: A literature review by Jill Elliott, A research
paper submitted of the partial fulfillment for the requirements of Master in Science
Degree in Family Studies and Human Development.
● The Wiener Holocaust Library