Essay on Elie Wiesel's Loss of Faith in Night
Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night tells an enduring story of his experiences during the Holocaust. Elie lived in a town called Sighet in Transylvania during World War II. He had in interest in learning more about his Jewish religion. However, the Jews in Sighet were attacked by the Hungarian police, the Jews were then deported to a concentration camp called Auschwitz. Following that Elie arrived at Auschwitz and was separated from his mom and sister. Elie and his dad stuck together and were surveyed to see if they were fit for work. He was then introduced to the violent conditions of the Holocaust. From then on, Elie begins to lose faith in multiple values in his life. After a new year came, more
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One crisis of faith was a loss of faith in himself. This is evident when Elie is put in a concentration camp. He was yelled at by a prisoner that was in charge which is called a Kapo. He commanded Elie and Elie blindly nodded to his commands. Elie was later disappointed in himself, because he didn’t think for himself. Elie writes, “I nodded, once, ten times endlessly. As if my head had decided to say yes for all eternity” (Wiesel 58). In this passage, Elie starts to think that he can’t choose his own actions. He shows no sign of independence unlike when he wasn’t in the camp. Elie starts to accept his punishment. Elie’s loss of faith in himself is also visible in his biography when Elie witnessed the change his father had gone through. He saw how miserable everyone was. Elie lost track of time and woke up and reflected on how the camp changed him. Elie says to himself, “My soul had been invaded- and devoured- by a black flame” (Wiesel 37). In this excerpt, Elie doesn’t think he is innocent anymore. He feels that the things that he had seen had changed him and made him lose faith. He realized that he is no longer religious to Judaism. Elie Wiesel’s loss of faith in himself is clear in the mortifying events of the
At the beginning of Night, Elie was someone who believed fervently in his religion. His experiences at Auschwitz and other camps, such as Birkenau and Buna have affected his faith immensely. Elie started to lose his faith when he and his father arrived at Birkenau. They saw the enormous flames rising from a ditch, with people being thrown in.
Theme Analysis Essay: Having and Losing Faith In God Freedom of religion is a fundamental human right that protects all people. Religions faith can be tested under certain circumstances, which can falter the relationship one can have with their God. In the memoir Night, by Elie Wiesel, the author creates the universal theme that religious faith is questioned and challenged during traumatic events. Throughout the story, we see many relationships with God scarcely survive, and some completely fail entirely. For the duration of the memoir, Wiesel uses plenty of narrative elements to help convey this theme.
The torturing and suffering caused is what widdles down the belief, and this present throughout the novel. Only the strong and the ones who have most faith would survive, yet at the same time, if they didn’t originally have faith, they could’ve avoided the concentration camps
The cruelty of the German officers at the concentration camps change Elie’s personality throughout the novel. At the beginning of the novel, Elie is deeply religious and spends most of his time studying Judaism. However, by the end of the novel, Elie believes that God has been unjust to him and all the other Jews, and has lost most of his faith. The cruelty of the German officers also changed the other Jews as well. The events of the Holocaust forces the prisoners to fend for themselves, and not help others.
Why do you go on troubling these poor people’s wounded minds, their ailing bodies?”(Wiesel 68) Wiesel clearly is losing faith in God because he has seen babies burned alive, families killed together. Wiesel blames God for what has happened. Additionally, Elie Wiesel is not thankful for God anymore because he is not in Auschwitz helping him and the rest of the Jews. Wiesel feels anger towards God.
“I ran off to look for my father. And at the same time I was afraid of having to wish him a Happy New Year when I no longer believed in it,” (Wiesel, 75). Earlier, Elie talks about how he felt powerful and stronger than God himself, now that he was free from the Almighty. He also talks about how he felt alone but strong. Later, he shows retaliation against God.
Elie, once so faithful, is one of the first to lose faith in God due to the horrific sights he sees. After witnessing the bodies of Jewish children being burned, Wiesel writes, “Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever” (34). He quite understandably has begun to doubt that his God is with him following the sight of the supposedly chosen people’s bodies being unceremoniously burned. Elie, though, was perhaps not a member of the masses with this belief; in fact, some men were able to hold on to their beliefs despite these horrendous sights. Also near the middle of the book, Wiesel reflects on the faith of other Jews in the face of these events, saying that “some of the men spoke of God: His mysterious ways, the sins of the Jewish people, and the redemption to come.
After such a long time without help, these people will start to question their faith and eventually, they will rebel against it. In the memoir, Night by Elie Wiesel, a survivor of The Holocaust, Elie shows that faith is often lost in times of testing or trial. One example of Elie losing his faith is when he was questioning his belief in God. "I suffer hell in my soul and my flesh. I also have eyes and I see what is being done here.
In conclusion, this is the reason why I think Elie Wiesel did change by the things that was happening to him at the camp. He wasn’t able to maintain his true self and keeping his belief because of all the stuff that he see. Elie change from him being very religious and studious to him just being empty from the inside. For example, First all wanted to do was learn his religion before he went to the camp. Then, when they went to the camp, he starts to see all the things that 's happening.
When he no longer accepted god, he had no other thing besides his father to live for. “Man is a creature of faith as much as reason” (Economist 77). It is faith that gives man reason and a will to live. Though the way one might accept his fate may appear involuntary, Victor Frankl claims that man has a choice to hold on to his faith. Elie Wiesel’s relative, Stein, for example, chose to give up on faith and his life when he realized his wife and children were dead.
Elie Wiesel’s Experiences In the book Night, Elie Wiesel recounts his experiences of the Holocaust. Throughout this experience, Elie Wiesel is exposed to life he previously thought unimaginable and they consequently change his life. He becomes To begin with, Elie Wiesel learns that beings aware and mindful are more than just important. On many occasions, he receives warnings and hints toward the impending tragedy.
Never shall [he] forget those things, even were [he] condemned to live as long as God Himself” (Wiesel 75). This quote leads me to believe that the suffering endured in the camps lead Elie to become lost with who he was. Elie and the other members of the Jewish community try to keep their faith as much as they can even though it is being tested. As shown in Night enduring suffering forces people to become much different versions of themselves.
Imagine believing so strongly in something and then being let down, or thinking that you were wrong even to believe. In Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie felt as though he had lost his religion and belief in God. We learned how strong his beliefs were when he says,“I believed profoundly. During the day I studied the Talmud, and at night I ran to the synagogue to weep of the destruction of the Temple,” (Wiesel, 14).
Elie Wiesel is not only a talented author but a survivor of the holocaust who documented his horrific experiences in his memoir “Night”. In the beginning of the book Elie Wiesel was one of the most religious people in his town of Saghet who had a dream of living a monastic life. However, as a result of the harrowing injustices he endured he continuously lost faith in his religion. Within the book the reader is reminded again and again that when extreme adversity is experienced, faith is often lost.
Night Paper Assignment Night, by Elie Wiesel, is a tragic memoir that details the heinous reality that many persecuted Jews and minorities faced during the dark times of the Holocaust. Not only does Elie face physical deprivation and harsh living conditions, but also the innocence and piety that once defined him starts to change throughout the events of his imprisonment in concentration camp. From a boy yearning to study the cabbala, to witnessing the hanging of a young child at Buna, and ultimately the lack of emotion felt at the time of his father 's death, Elie 's change from his holy, sensitive personality to an agnostic and broken soul could not be more evident. This psychological change, although a personal journey for Elie, is one that illustrates the reality of the wounds and mental scars that can be gained through enduring humanity 's darkest times.