The Accident By Elie Wiesel

Section Summary and Analysis

Section I (p. 9-25). The novel begins with the events that precede the accident from which he book gets its title. Eliezer is in Times Square with his girlfriend Kathleen. After discussing what to do for the evening, the two go to a diner where, much to Kathleen's chagrin. Eliezer barely eats anything. The two then decided to go see the film version of Dostoyevskys The Brothers Karamazov. While crossing the street to the theatre. Eliezer is hit by a cab and dragged several feet through the intersection. While being rushed to the hospital he gives Kathleen very clear instructions about who to inform and other menial task he needs her to perform for him. He then falls into a coma and does not wake up for another five days. The first hospital he is taken to says they have no open beds and cannot treat him. He is then driven to New York Hospital. Where he’s placed under the care of Dr. Paul Russell. After three days in the hospital he has surgery performed on him. Although because of complications they only focus on his hip and decided to deal with his other various aliments another time. On the fifth day in the hospital he regains consciousness. He realizes upon waking that he would have preferred to die. Dr. Russell visits him and informs him that his enemy is now a fever, which. If it rises, will kill him.

Section 2(p. 26-33}. Eliezer recalls the night he first met Kathleen on a cold winter's evening in Paris. They're introduced by a mutual friend. Shimon Yanal, a forty year-old representative of the Hebrew Resistance Movement, Shimon and Eliezer are in the lobby of a theatre during the intermission of a ballet where they're meeting up with Shimon's friend Halina at the bar. Halina sees Kathleen and sends Shimon go ask her to join their group. Kathleen and Eliezer are introduced and are immediately attracted to one another. Shimon and Halina go back into the theatre to watch the second half of the play, leaving Eliezer and Kathleen alone. They leave the theatre and walk around Paris for a few hours without talking. They eventually come to The Seine, a prominent commercial waterway in Paris, Eliezer stares into the river and thinks about death and his Grandmother. He recalls with fondness her spirituality and kindness. Eventually Kathleen touches him on the arm. They then leave and go to her apartment.

Section 3 (p. 34-39), Back in the hospital, Eliezer is woken up by a nurse giving him shots to control the fever. He's extremely thirsty but can’t have any water because it will only make him sicker. He compares his feeling of being in a full body cast with his Grandmother dying in the gas chambers. He then recalls a story of when she comforted him after his father struck him. Dr. Russell comes in and tells him that Kathleen is in the hallway, Lost in his thoughts. Eliezer initially thinks that his Grandmother is waiting in the hallway for him and he says that he doesn't want to see her, Kathleen eventually comes in and exchanges some humorous small talk with Eliezer. After a short time visiting Kathleen leaves. A nurse then gives Eliezer a shot of penicillin and another one to help him sleep. She leaves the room as Eliezer tries to fall asleep.

The Accident By Elie Wiesel

Section 4 (p. 40-52). Back in Kathleen’s apartment in Paris, on the night they first met, she asks Eliezer to tell her about himself. He remarks that if he does she'll likely end up hating him. She says she's willing to take that chance. He's hesitant to tell her, because explaining who he his means telling her about all the people he loved who were killed in the concentration camps. Before he tells Kathleen about who he is, he recalls the last time he told a stranger his story. He was on a boat heading to South America. It was night and he was by himself starring out into the sea. A stranger came out to join him, but Eliezer could not make out the man's face. The two talk about the power of the sea, and how it can make a man feel powerless. After some goading, Eliezer tells the man his story. He spends hours telling it, informing the man of his religious upbringing, about the horrors of the concentration camps, and the emptiness he now feels because everyone close to him has died. The man considers what Eliezer has said for some time. Eventually he breaks the silence and tells Eliezer that he’s going to hate him. He repeats this phrase over and over again while banging his hands on the railing of the ship. Without facing Eliezer he leaves and walks inside. Eliezer never saw the man again. Back at Kathleen’s apartment, she tells him that Shimon told her that Eliezer was a saint because he's suffered so much. He laughs at this, saying that saints die while he is alive. He also says that suffering, like he has, brings out the worst in people, Rather than being appalled by this. Kathleen wants him to continue. He finally relents and tells her his life story. By the time he has finished telling his story he's wet with perspiration and morning has come. Kathleen says that she still thinks he's a saint. Eliezer remarks that he can’t be a saint since he desires her. He then decides to show her he's not a saint by making love to her but not committing anything, since saints commit themselves in every task they do in life, they then make love. Afterwards Kathleen asks what will happen if she falls in love with him. He says that she’ll more than likely end up hating him. She says he's probably right.

Section 5(pages 53-80). Back in the hospital, Eliezer’s fever has vanished. The nurse comes into shave his beard, although he wants to keep it. He eventually relents and lets her shave him. When she's done she tries to get a mirror to show him, but he gets angry and says that if she brings him a mirror he'll break it. Confused and distressed, the nurse does what he asks and does not bring him a mirror. Dr. Russell then comes to visit him to see how he’s doing. They have a brief conversation and before leaving the doctor tells him that Kathleen is coming to visit him that evening. She's been coming 10 visit him every day since he's been in the hospital, Dr. Russell says, Dr. Russell says that Kathleen is clearly in love with Eliezer, and wants to know If Eliezer reciprocates this love, after hesitating for a moment Eliezer says that he loves her too. Friends and colleagues come to visit him that afternoon. Trying to cheer him up, they tell him that he'll be able to sue the cab company for a lot of money and will soon be rich. Because of this some even say he's lucky the accident occurred. While Eliezer laughs with them and agrees, in his head he notes how stupid what they're saying is, since he's in serious pain and can barely move. It's nearly 7 p.m., when Kathleen finally arrives. She's overly cheerful and flighty, almost as if she’s hiding something. She tells him she’s contacted a lawyer to help them sue the cab company. She keeps getting up and walking about the room, almost as if she's afraid to sit down. This angers Eliezer and he finally asks her to sit down and tell him what's wrong. She's distraught and says that they haven't spoken in a week and that so much has happened. She starts to tear up and Eliezer realizes that he's broken her, in a metaphorical sense. Eliezer recalls the initial parts of their relationship, when he wouldn’t accept her kisses. Kathleen was in the process of teaching him to enjoy life again. Their affair, as they called it, lasted for a year. On the night that it ended, they made love one

The Accident By Elie Wiesel

last time, then Eliezer left early in the morning and they didn't speak again for five years. Back in the present, a lawyer comes to visit Eliezer to talk to him about the accident. As they go over the details, Eliezer wants to make sure the cab driver won't have to pay for any of this. The lawyer tells him that only the cab company will pay for it, not the driver, Eliezer is relieved to hear this. Dr. Russell then comes to visit Eliezer and the two have a lengthy discussion. Dr. Russell is in a very good mood this morning because he's just helped a little boy live. He's especially pleased because the little boy helped him. The little boy helped him fight against death. He then asks Eliezer why he didn't help him fight death. Why, he wants to know, did Eliezer choose death over life? Eliezer is taken aback by this and needs a second to compose himself. Instead of telling his story about how he feels like a messenger for the dead among the living, Eliezer stalls for a bit then tells him that of course, he wants to live, and the doctor was mistaken, he did not choose death over life. Satisfied with this answer Dr. Russell says that he's glad he was mistaken and leaves the room. Five years after they separated Kathleen contacts Eliezer. Both have moved to America now, Kathleen to Boston, Eliezer to New York. She asks him to come meet her in an apartment at a hotel in New York, to which he agrees. When he sees her again he immediately notices that something about her is different. Although she’s still very beautiful, she seems worn down by life. She asks Eliezer to help her. She tells him that she moved to Boston and married a man older than she whom she didn't love. She didn't want to love him, she only wanted to suffer, and so she did, eventually they got a divorce. Again she asks Eliezer to help her and he says that he will.

Section 6(81-83). Four weeks in to his stay at the hospital, Kathleen asks Eliezer about something he said when he was in a coma. During those five days the only thing he said was Sarah. He said this name over and over again, never unclenching his teeth when he said it. Eliezer tells her that Sarah was his mother's name. When he was a boy his teacher told him that when he died an angel would come to his grave after three days and ask who he was. He was to answer, "I am Eliezer, the son of Sarah." If he was to forget his mother's name, the angel would not take him to heaven and he would be doomed to spend all eternity in purgatory. As a child he lived in constant fear of forgetting his mother's name, because he would have to know it at the time of his death. He told Kathleen that he had not forgotten his mother's name. Hearing this she bursts into tears and Eliezer realizes that he never saw his mother cry.

Section 7(84-98). Sarah, Eliezer remembers, was also the name of a woman he'd met in Paris years before he'd met Kathleen. He was eating alone in a cafe when she approached him. She asked him if he wanted to go make love, and after some urging he agreed to go with her to a hotel room. Eliezer had never been with a woman before and was very nervous. He was also ashamed that his first time was going to be with a prostitute. When they got to the hotel room she sat down on the edge of the bed and then just sat there not saying anything. Eliezer begged her to talk, but she just sat there staring blankly ahead, not speaking. Eventually she came to and began to undress again. She was in her underwear when Eliezer told her he no longer wanted to make love; instead, he wanted her to tell him about herself. Like him, she too had been in the concentration camps. She was twelve years old when she first went to the camp. She told him that the officers and other high rankings officials used her sexually. Precisely because she was so young. They would give her to one another as a "gift". Because of her age and innocent looks she became a favorite among them. It happened constantly, and thus prostitution eventually became her "career". The whole time she was telling him this, Eliezer felt physically ill and had his hands around his throat. When she had finished he told her that he thought she was a saint

The Accident By Elie Wiesel

because she had suffered so much. She laughed uproariously at this. She told him that he was insane and the she was far from a saint. She then told him that at times she liked what the German officers did to her. She hated it and them while it was happening, but sometimes her body loved it. In addition. Since she is nothing more than her body, she can’t possibly be a saint, or so she told Eliezer. Finally, he decided to flee. He ran from the room, out of tile hotel and into the streets, all the while with his hands still around his throat. For several weeks after their first encounter. Eliezer searched for Sarah, but he never saw her again, loved her. In many ways, his relationship to his mother is foreshadowing his adult relationships with women that lack intimacy. The other Sarah in Eliezer’s life played an equally important role in shaping the man that he’s become. Her views on the suffering she endured are almost identical to Eliezer’s current views on his own suffering. It’s possible that he changed his views on suffering after their interaction. Eliezer is usually very forceful in his various relationships. He's usually the one who causes people to rethink their ideals after telling them about his life, but the opposite has happened here. Eliezer's discussion with Sarah about her suffering is very similar to the discussion he had with Kathleen when they first met, only this time it was Eliezer saying that someone was a saint because of how much they suffered. Sarah ridicules this idea, much the same way Eliezer did to Kathleen when she suggested Eliezer was a saint because of the suffering he endured.

Section 8(99-109). Eliezer recalls how things were when he and Kathleen first reunited in New York. They had a relationship that was essentially devoid of romance. They saw each other every night, often going out and doing social things like going to the theatre. They had a series of routines which acted as a foundation for all their interaction. Eliezer notes how much Kathleen has changed from her suffering. She was bored by her husband and Boston. She was bored by his friends and their wives and feared she’d become like them. Because of the suffering she'd endured Eliezer treated her like she was ill. He lied to her to try and make her feel better. He believed it was okay to lie to a sick person. Despite his trying to cure her, she became more and more detached from life and began to waste away. One day she told Eliezer that she loved him; she was very embarrassed by this revelation. Eliezer, still treating her like a sick person, told her he did as well. She didn’t believe him and thought he was saying it because he pitied her. One night while lying in bed Kathleen proposed an agreement that they ‘ll both help each other forget about the past and learn to live again, to love again, Eliezer absentmindedly agrees with her, This was the night before the accident.

Section 9(110-120). For the ten weeks that he was in the hospital, three people visited Eliezer everyday: Kathleen, Dr. Russell, and his painter friend Gyula. Out of all of them, Gyula was the only one who figured out Eliezer's secret. Gyula is a Hungarian painter who has a very similar worldview as Eliezer. When he first comes to visit him in the hospital he tells Eliezer that he's going to paint his portrait. Cyulajoking tells him he can't die until it's finished. Each day Gyula would come to paint him and they'd talk. Eliezer tries to tell him about the accident, but Gyula doesn’t want to hear about it. He tells Eliezer that he doesn't need to hear his stories to know. When he's finally finished with the painting he shows it to Eliezer. Looking at it Eliezer realizes that Gyula knows the accident was more of a suicide attempt than an actual accident. It's then that Gyula tells him he needs to stop thinking of

The Accident By Elie Wiesel

the dead, for they no longer suffer. He needs to abandon them and care only for the land of the living, the land of his lover Kathleen and friends, like Gyula. Eliezer is hesitant to agree, since he doesn't want to abandon his past. Gyula insists that he must, and says he should chase his past away with a whip if necessary. Then on the day before Eliezer is released from the hospital, Gyula burns the portrait as a symbolic gesture. In the end, only the ashes are left behind in the room.