Elie's relationship with his father evolved and developed throughout his story living during the Holocaust. At the beginning of the book, Elie barely had a good relationship with his father. He described his father as being a "cultured man, rather unsentimental. He rarely displayed his feelings, not even within his family, and was more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin" (4 Weisel). Elie definitely resented his father for that. Their relationship started to evolve when the German's kicked the family out of their home and put them on a train to a concentration camp. At this point, the relationship grew closer because the horror they witnessed at the camps made them value their relationship more than ever. They relied on each other for survival and support. As their journey through the concentration camp continued over time, their relationship started to transform from being close to taking a turn for the worse. Elies father came ill and it made it difficult for Elie to care for him. Even though their relationship grew closer, the burden of him taking care of his father put a strain on his ability to care for himself for survival. When his father died he was relieved that he could just focus on himself and at the time of his father's death, he did not have much emotion left to grieve. Elie and myself share some similarities and differences between each other. One of the things that Elie and I share is that we both pray to God when things get tough. One of the differences that Elie has over me is that I have never had to witness people dying in front of me, especially my father. Another difference is that I never had to be kicked out of my house and forced to go somewhere else.