When Elie asks to be placed in the same unit as his father, one of the assistants promises to put him in the same unit, saying, “I can arrange that. But for a small consideration: your shoes” (35). Even when Elie is offered a guarantee that he will remain with his father for the price of shoes, he refuses on the basis that his shoes are the only things that he has left. He is negatively impacted by the decision, as later, his shoes are taken anyway and without any guarantee that he will be with his father. Elie stubbornly refuses to give up his gold tooth on the same basis: “Franek, the foreman, one day noticed the gold crowned tooth in my mouth. ‘Give me your crown kid,’ he said”(40). Elie again refuses to give up his gold crown, thinking that it may be of value to him in the future. However, this time Elie is not the one hurt, his father is. Franek finds excuses to beat Elie’s father, and this goes one for a while before Elie finally relents, resulting in a loss on both sides for