By instinct, a person would attempt anything to persist on in the world, even if it means losing a grip on reality and taking a step closer to brutality. Lie Wishes does in fact escape his ghastly fate by standing by his father’s side, and successfully resisting temptation. Being in starvation mode for months on end is truly inhumane. For many, in all aspects of this book, hunger has made them barbarous and merciless. Lie recalls, “A piece [of bread] fell into our wagon. Decided that I would not move.
Anyway, I knew that would never have the strength to fight with a dozen savage men” (95). Hunger is very powerful. The subjective courage against life itself is what makes Lie more humane than ever. He stood back in pain, and watched those men obliterate each other, with no sign of discontinuance. Lie says, I noticed an old man dragging himself along on all fours. He held one hand to his heart. I understood he had a bit of bread under his shirt. A shadow threw itself upon him.
When they withdrew, next to me were two corpses, side by side, the father and the son. I was fifteen years old” (96). This was a detrimental experience for him, and he somehow managed to keep himself at ease and by all means, remain civil. P until their arrival at Auschwitz, Lie and their father never really had a close bond. During his existence the rough many of the camps at Auschwitz, Lie stuck with his father, and tries to help him in his final hours, instead of speeding up the process of death by consuming his fathers rations of bread.
Sooner than expected, Else’s role shifts into a role of a parent, and realizes that the many father and son relationships have burned to ashes because they have gone insane with hunger and twisted ideals. Lie remembers seeing Rabbi Elision’s son during the run in the snow from Bunya to Glitziest. As Lie says it, “Then I remembered something else: his son had seen him losing ground, limping staggering back to the rear of the column. He had seen him. He had wanted to get rid of his father” (87). The Rabbi’s son had become selfish, and has forgotten morals, and loyalty from his past life.
It’s just about survival from here on out. Lie doesn’t leave his father for even a split second; he escapes the brutality of betrayal. On the other hand, Lie has had conflicting thoughts about his father’s existence proceeding any further. Lie, a once tender hearted being, had let his father’s needs slip out of his mind, and dreamed of devouring his father’s action of bread and soup so he can satisfy the needs for his aching madness of starvation. Though having these unforgivable dreams, he quickly reminds himself about not doing what Rabbi Elision’s son had done.
He feels remorse for even thinking ill mannered, and tends to his father’s needs almost immediately. The beating of Else’s father may also prove a point on how he can be a brute. While his father was being beaten by Ides, Lie sat back amongst the mass offsets; observing in silence. He, at one point, got frustrated with his father for not adapting to the Kapok behavior, and keeping himself blended in with the other Jews. This evidence is bypassed by everything else he has done for his father, including in his last days on earth.
