After Eliezer's father gets beaten by Idek, a Kapo, Eliezer says, %26quot;I had watched a whold scene without moving. I kept Quiet. In fact I was thinking of how to get father away so that I would not be hit myself. What is more, any anger I felt at that moment was directed, not against the Kapo, but against my father. I was angry with him, for not knowing how to avoid Idek's outbreak. That is what concentration camp life had made of me.%26quot; What does this last line signify, how has his attitude changed?
Your help is appreciated as I need some insight please and thank you.For those that read the night by Elie Wiesel, I am trying to help my child understand.?This signifies that Eliezer had gotten so accustomed to the idea of those running the camp would use violence indiscriminately, that it was assumed that that was how they behaved. The only thing that he and others subject to this random, unfair violence could do is try to avoid it in some way. And rather than focusing on the cruelty of the unfair beatings, life in the camp had taught him to focus on what he and others could do to avoid the punishments to the extent possible. So when he says %26quot;that is what concentration camp life had made of me,%26quot; I think he's saying that he was so worn down by the violence that he was numb to the pure evil of it, and only able to focus on the ability or lack thereof of those around him to avoid it.
