Eleven million people were murdered in the Holocaust, six million of which were Jews who were killed solely for their beliefs. This terrible genocide is recounted through the eyes of Elie Wiesel in his memoir, Night. As the novel progresses, Wiesel's faith in his God falters, due to the physical and emotional suffering he endured as a Jew in the Holocaust.
During the first couple of chapters of Night, Wiesel’s faith and dedication to his religion are very strong. At age twelve, Elie Wiesel was fully devoted to his religion. He was unwilling to let any obstacles come between him and his religion. His father rejected the idea of him delving into the studies of the world of mysticism at such a young age, but Elie refused to give up. Wiesel writes, “He wanted to drive the idea of studying Kabbalah from my mind. In vain. I succeeded on my own in finding a master for myself in the person of Moishe the Beadle” (4). From this quote, the reader can see just how strong his faith is. He is willing to blatantly disobey his father, a figure of authority, to gain a deeper understanding of his religion, to discover ¨the very essence of divinity” (5). Wiesel’s faith was
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Throughout the beginning of the novel, his faith is steadfast. After his family has been split up and after he has been forced into the concentration camps, however, his faith in God begins to crack. Elie Wiesel describes how ¨For the first time, I felt anger rising within me. Why should I sanctify His name? The almighty the eternal and terrible master of the universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for?” (33). This quote explicitly states how, for the first time, Wiesel feels differently about his God. He even describes God as ‘terrible’. This fracture in his faith is a result of his fear that God will continue to ignore their pleas for help. The reader can see an obvious change in Wiesel’s faith as his situation
Even some of the guards had taken a liking to him. In the beginning, Elie Wiesel was desperate to learn more about God. He repeatedly asked his father to help him find a master to help guide him in his studies of Kabbalah. When his father explained that there were not any Kabbalists in Sighet, he set out to find one himself.
The book Night by Elie Wiesel shows how suffering and witnessing the painful deaths of many innocent lives can be the cause of loss of faith in the benevolent god. This book is taken in a horrible, inhumane place called the Holocaust. It all started when Moshe the Beadle stopped talking about God after he had witnesses the massacre of Jews by the German Gestapo; at that time no one believed him but time would prove them wrong. When Elie witnesses the horror of the concentration camps and what they do to people especially children he feels as if his God has been murdered right before his eyes. In the camp he sees an atrocity after atrocity, death after death.
Jacob Jalloway Ms. Klein E116 12 November 2014 God is Always There God is a very significant, and important being. He pulls many people through times of hardship, as well as times of joy. To many of the Jews in the concentration camps during the Holocaust, God was the only thing that they had to live for. In the Book Night, by Elie Wiesel, the main character Weisel changed his view on God as the book progressed. In the start of the book Weisel was a boy who came from a very religious background, and was very active, and interested in his faith.
After the life changing experience in the concentration camps at Auschwitz, Wiesel has lost his devotion in his Creator. Having a great deal of faith in God for many years and then losing it in a matter of months is difficult. For Wiesel he questions God multiple times about his ways before he lets his religion go. Even after though he continues to let his
Elie highlights this dramatic change in his relationship with God because faith’s importance in one’s life is a strong theme throughout the story. Wiesel is left “terribly alone” when his faith is shaken (68). Only the
Wiesel had a bad relationship with his father, very strong faith, and a curious and observant personality, but, due to the Holocaust, he gained a strong relationship with his father, lost his faith, and became hollow, idle, and uncaring. Wiesel’s personality changed due to his time in the concentration camps. He was “deeply observant” (Wiesel 1), and would study the Talmud, then “weep over the destruction of the Temple” (1). He was also very determined and wanted to extend his religious learning, but his father would not find a master for him. This caused him to seek one out on his own, eventually leading him to Moishe the Beedle, who would become his teacher and friend.
The memoir “Night” by Elie Wiesel describes the author’s past being of Jewish during the Holocaust and the changes Wiesel faces. Throughout the memoir, Wiesel’s religious zeal changes due to the Nazi’s imprisonment of the author at many concentration camps. In the beginning Wiesel is very eager to learn about religion like Kabbalah and Talmud. For example, Wiesel asks his father “One day I asked my father to find me a master who could guide me in my studies of Kabbalah” (Wiesel 4). In other words, Wiesel is very interested in religious affairs and mysticism at an early age of 13.
Each day, people all across the globe pray to the God they believe in and they rely on Him to ensure the safety and of themselves, their loved ones and others they know. But when their prayers fail, people start to wonder if they were even considered by God Himself. In the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie encounters these questions first hand while experiencing being a prisoner during the Holocaust. As he is sent through the processes of concentration camps, he experiences so many unwanted sights that one would automatically be astonished by.
Wiesel's loss of faith was brought on by the absence of God. This resulted in him questioning why it was God's will to allow Jews to suffer and die the way they had. Another portrayal of religious confliction within Wiesel was the statement of his faith being consumed by the flames along with the corpses of children (Wiesel 34). Therefore, he no longer believed God was the almighty savior everyone had set Him out to be or even present before them. To conclude, his experiences within Nazi confinement changed what he believed in and caused him to change how he thought and began questioning God because of the actions He allowed to take
Wiesel changes vastly throughout the book, whether it is his faith in God, his faith in living, or even the way his mind works. In the beginning of his memoir, Wiesel appeared to be faithful to God and the Jewish religion, but during his time in concentration camps, his faith in God wavered tremendously. Before his life was corrupted, he would praise God even when he was being transferred to Auschwitz, but after living in concentration camps, he began to feel rebellious against his own religion. In the book, Elie
“You don’t understand... You cannot understand. I was saved miraculously. I succeeded in coming back. Where did I get my strength?
For instance, Wiesel claimed, “For the first time, I felt anger rising within me. Why should I sanctify His name? The almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for?”(Wiesel 33) Wiesel wants God help him. He wants God to speak to him and help escape the Hell he is living.
The Holocaust affects Jews in a way that seems unimaginable, and most of these effects seem to have been universal experiences; however, in the matter of faith, Jews in the concentration camp described in Elie Wiesel’s Night are affected differently and at different rates. The main character, Elie, loses his faith quickly after the sights he witnesses (as well as many others); other Jews hold on much longer and still pray in the face of total destruction. In the beginning, all of the Jews are more or less equally faithful in their God and religion.
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.
Argument and Thesis Elie Wiesel’s thesis in Night throughout the book is about faith and God. At the beginning of the book Wiesel is devoted to his Jewish religion and his God. Throughout the book as Eliezer Wiesel sees horrible things constantly happening, he begins to doubt God and question him. “But why should I bless Him?” (64).