Examples Of Identity In Night By Elie Wiesel

Living in 1940s Europe during Word War two, changed Elie’s religious identity. From being a young boy with immense faith to questioning if god was even alive, then finally, going back to his faith because he had nothing better to believe in. As Elie goes through his time in the camp, the once very religious and eager to learn about god boy starts to lose his faith in god and his religion as a whole.

As Elie was a young boy he wanted to learn everything about his religion that there was to learn, but his father was so focused on the wellbeing of others, that he did not care or notice.“Why did I pray? strange question. Why did I live? Why did I breathe?” (Wiesel 4). Even though Elie is a young boy, he feels that his religion is the most crucial thing in his life. His faith was strong here, he had no doubts about it, he believed that praying was one of the most essential things in his life, like breathing. “Oh God, Master of the universe, in your infinite compassion have mercy on us.”(Wiesel 20). When Elie and his family are first taken by the police and forced to run, he prays to God that he will have mercy on the Jewish people. He prays that God himself will save them from their oppressors because Elie has no doubt about God at that moment.

The almighty eternal and terrible master of the universe, chose to be silent”(Wiesel 33). As they saw the horrible things that were happening around them, Elie started to question his faith in god. He is thinking why should he praise god if he was letting these things happen to his people, the people that he cares about so much? “For god's sake where is god… hanging here from the gallows,” (Wiesel 65). Elie saw the people that had been murdered or hung frequently, so much so, he started to believe that god was dead because no god would sit there and watch this happen. God was dead, there, hanging in front of him, from the