Faith, Identity And Silence In Elie Wiesel's Night

During the Holocaust, millions of victims were killed, most of them Jewish. In the memoir Night, Wiesel utilizes motifs to illustrate the development of character and plot. He uses faith, identity and silence throughout the novel.

The motif, faith is an important role in Night. When Elie was young, faith was a significant part of his life. Then, based on many occurrences that took place at Auschwitz, such as the killings and treatment of innocent Jews, his faith in God was slowly fading away. At the concentration camp, Elie notices huge flames rising from a ditch. Children and babies are unloaded from trucks and thrown into the flames. At that moment, “[Elie] felt anger rising within [him]. Why should I sanctify his name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, choose to be silent. What was there to thank him for” (Weisel 33)? His trust in God had vanished, more so he did not think there was anything to thank him for.

Another motif significant in Night is Identity. In this period of time,

In a passage, Elie states, “Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live” (34). As a dedicated follower of God, Elie gets frustrated by God’s silence. Several Jews wonder where God is when men, women and children were exterminated within the matter of seconds. Elie wonders how God can allow such cruelty to occur. In a similar event, Mr. Wiesel gets beaten by Idek. While getting beaten, “[Elie] had watched it all happening without moving. [Elie] kept silent” (54). Before Elie had known of the concentration camp, he had lived a life with emotions. Now, he no longer had emotions.

In conclusion, the use of faith, identity and silence helped develop the character and plot in Night. Throughout the novel, it is evident Elie had changed his view on faith. Jews were seen as animals during the Holocaust. Finally, silence proved how Elie changed as a