Mortifying. Earth shattering. Horrific. The memoir Night by Elie Wiesel tells of his experience in the horrific concentration camp Auschwitz. Elie Wiesel was a 15 year old Jewish boy when his entire family was moved to a concentration camp. At the camp, Elie goes through many mortifying and earth shattering trials that test him. One of his trials was his relationship with God. At first, Elie had great faith in God, but later on he starts to doubt God's power, and near the end of the memoir he no longer believes God had any power to help.
Imagine believing so strongly in something and then being let down, or thinking that you were wrong to believe. In Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie felt as though he had lost his religion and beliefs. “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). This quote shows how strongly he believed before experiencing the hardships of the Holocaust
Elie’s Loss of Faith Within this barbarous world, there are innumerable accounts of devastating events that have occurred in the past, and continue to occur; these occurrences periodically cause us to question the existence of God. Overall, this statement proves to be correct to ill-fated Eliezer Wiesel. This brave child was exceedingly religious, as well as he had a strong hunger to be closer with God. Previous to being transferred to Auschwitz, he believed that as long as his family stuck together, everything would work out to be well. Throughout all his time in the concentration camp, he started to lose his faith after discovering the horrid ways of the camp.
‘Isnt it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back. Everything is different’ Quote by C.S Lewis
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.
The Night is a story about war. A war that is way too different from the war that happened in different countries around the world. The challenge to the warrior and the sufferings of the noncombat. A terse, merciless testimonial, the book serves as a harsh reflection on war. The work serves as an example of a devastating effect of evil on innocence. The Holocaust served as an event that has disrupted both human history and the life story of God. Night is one of only a few books that gives us the understanding about the Holocaust. The Holocaust’s significance is for the human understanding of man’s relationship to God. However. Night is not an example of the death of God theology. Wiesel claimed that the covenant was broken so he talked to God
Belief and Faith is a “double-edged sword” to the jews, it cuts both ways. It keeps them alive, and at the same time makes them oblivious, and leads to their suffering. Over time, Elie’s belief in god, diminishes and eventually he questions God’s existence extensively and at point, Elie is infuriated that even though they are being tormented and enslaved, the Jews will still pray to god, and thank him, “If god did exist, why would he let u go through all the pain and suffering (33). This is a major point in the ongoing theme of faith and belief, because for once he is infuriated with the thought of religion in a time of suffering. Throughout the book, with the nazis ultimate goal is to break the jews and make dehumanize them and if anything, their goal is take and diminish their belief.
Elie Wiesel had once sought comfort in his faith; however, he had struggled to maintain hope since. Another example of his struggle is when Elie had tried to pray to God even though he no longer believed in Him. After witnessing a child betray his own father, “a prayer formed inside [him]. A prayer to the God whom [he] no longer believed.” (91) Here, the motif of “eyes” is important because it shows how even though Elie had lost all faith in God, he still found himself asking for support from Him.
Night is a memoir by Elie Weisel about his life and experiences during the Holocaust. The book starts by describing Elie and his family 's everyday life before laws that restricted the rights of Jews are created and they were moved to ghettos. Elie stayed in Auschwitz, then moved to Buchenwald. He lived in concentration camps from 1944, until April of 1945 when the Buchenwald was liberated. Throughout his experiences, and the memoir, Elie’s view of God changed and affected his identity.
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.
“Yes, you can lose somebody overnight, yes, your whole life can be turned upside down. Life is short. It can come and go like a feather in the wind.”- Shania Twain. At times, it appears unviable for one’s life to transform overnight in just a few hours. However, this is something various individuals experienced in soul and flesh as they were impinged by those atrocious memoirs of the Holocaust. In addition, the symbolism portrayed throughout the novel Night, written by Elie Wiesel, presents an effective fathoming of the feelings and thoughts of what it’s like to undergo such an unethical circumstance. For instance, nighttime plays a symbolic figure throughout the progression of the story as its used to symbolize death, darkness of the soul,
Elie Wiesel changes a lot over the course of the novel Night. In the beginning, he is readily accepting of the Jewish religion and ideals and wants to learn as much as he can. However as we progress through the story, his feelings about religion and faith shift to the point where he rejects them and God entirely. He feels God has abandoned him and his fellow prisoners. This is demonstrated many times within the novel Night.
He no longer had hope in God, in others, nor himself. Elie has said in later years ” During, there was nothing--not even a plea to or a bargain with God. God, he feels, had nothing to do with his survival. "If God was
And so he remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death, writing before our eyes. And we were forced to look at him at close range. He was still alive when I passed him. His tongue was still red, his eyes not yet extinguished.” This had reinforced Elie’s growing conviction that God was dead, that there was no purpose in praying to God or calling up God’s promises to His people because He had abandoned them.
In the book Night, we the readers witness the hardships and struggles in Elie’s life during the traumatic holocaust. The events that take place in this story are unbearable and are thought to be demented in modern times. In the beginning Elie is shown as a normal teenage Jewish boy, but the events are so drastic that we the readers forget how he was like in the beginning. Changes were made to Elie during the book, whether they were minor or major. The changes generated from himself, the journey, and other people.