Faith is a significant part of one’s daily life. Everyone endures moments in their life in which situations challenge one’s religious beliefs. In Elie Wiesel’s short novel he bears an immense amount of hardships throughout the Holocaust that test his religious faith. As a young adult, Elie was just beginning to venture into his religious beliefs discovering his personal values and faith; but as he began that journey the German soldiers infiltrated his village. His whole village was soon transported to Auschwitz and divided up between camps. Within the camps, Elie stayed alongside his father through vigorous activities and brutal beatings. Throughout those ordeals, the entirety of Elie’s conscience was straying away from the idea that the Lord was always with him, and from …show more content…
Within all of Elie Wiesel’s short novel, “Night”, numerous amounts of symbols represent the hopelessness of the Jews that readers witness as they understand the true pain and suffering experienced during the Holocaust. Faith plays a role in everyone’s life, whether that be one who is highly into their beliefs or not; Elie Wiesel is no exception. Faith is a symbol of strength and perseverance, but throughout Elie’s interminable labors within the camps, he put his faith into question. In Elie’s mind, he was becoming emotionally devastated and in turn giving up hope in his Lord. Within the words of Wiesel’s short novel, “Night”, Wiesel said, “. . . there was no longer any reason for me to fast. I no longer accepted God’s silence. As I swallowed my ration of soup, I turned that act into a
Elie Wiesel is the main character and narrator of the memoir Night, which recounts his experiences as a Jewish boy during the Holocaust. Through his harrowing testimony, we witness Elie's transformation from a devout and innocent young boy to a disillusioned and traumatized survivor. Elie's character can be analyzed in terms of his faith, his relationship with his father, and his internal struggles with guilt and shame. One of the defining features of Elie's character is his deep faith in God, which is challenged by the atrocities he witnesses during the Holocaust. In the early part of the memoir, Elie describes himself as a devout student of the Kabbalah, a Jewish mystical text, and aspires to become a master of Jewish theology.
Night by Elie Wiesel is a memoir about a boy’s terrifying experiences during the holocaust during the years of the 1940’s. God created the world only for it to be destroyed by such hatred. In times of trauma and distress,one may begin to question and doubt their faith in the power of a God. On the contrary, in the event that there is a situation that demonstrates pure evil,such as Wiesel’s perspective in The Holocaust, there is always a reason for all that happens. As mentioned in an article titled “How Could God Have Allowed the Holocaust?”
Elizar’s faith in this story is essentially controlled by his dad. Elizar feels that he is now unfaithful to God, and his dad is the closest most available resource so he relies on him to help maintain his faith. In Night we see a chain reaction effect between Elizar and his father, if Shlomo is weakened and unmotivated, Elizar will be depressed and unfaithful. When Shlomo asks Elizar “Let me rest here…a little…I beg of you” (Wiesel, 105) Elizar knows that ”rest”= death so this tells him that his father is ready to die which means that Elizar’s symbol of faith is ready to die.
Elie Wiesel illustrates the difficulty in having faith when there is no sun shining through darkness of living. When something as horrific as The Holocaust is occurring, it is only a matter of time until the sufferers question their protectors. For Elie Wiesel this idea comes into fruition as he approaches a fire to be cremated and just before he is murdered, the Germans forced Elie and the Jews who followed him into barracks (Wiesel 33-34). After he has experienced being faced with death, he writes, “Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself.
The heart wrenching and powerful memoir “Night” by Elie Wiesel depicts Elie’s struggle through the holocaust. It shows the challenges and struggles Elie and people like him faced during this mournful time, the dehumanization; being forced out of their homes, their towns and sent to nazi concentration camps, being stripped of their belongings and valuables, being forced to endure and witness the horrific events during one of history’s most ghastly tales. In “Night” Elie does not only endure a physical journey but also a spiritual journey as well, this makes him question his determination, faith and strength. This spiritual journey is a journey of self discovery and is shown through Elie’s struggle with himself and his beliefs, his father
It’s difficult to imagine the way humans brutally humiliate other humans based on their faith, looks, or mentality but somehow it happens. On the novel “Night” by Elie Wiesel, he gives the reader a tour of World War Two through his own eyes , from the start of the ghettos all the way through the liberation of the prisoners of the concentration camps. This book has several themes that develop throughout its pages. There are three themes that outstand from all the rest, these themes are brutality, humiliation, and faith. They’re the three that give sense to the reading.
In the novel, “Night” Elie Wiesel communicates with the readers his thoughts and experiences during the Holocaust. Wiesel describes his fight for survival and journey questioning god’s justice, wanting an answer to why he would allow all these deaths to occur. His first time subjected into the concentration camp he felt fear, and was warned about the chimneys where the bodies were burned and turned into ashes. Despite being warned by an inmate about Auschwitz he stayed optimistic telling himself a human can’t possibly be that cruel to another human.
And then, there was no longer any reason for me to fast. I no longer accepted God 's silence. As I swallowed my ration of soup, I turned that act into a symbol of rebellion, of protest against Him. And I nibbled on my crust of bread. Deep inside me, I felt a great void opening.¨
The Holocaust was one of the most tragic events in history. It just so happened to be the cause of six million deaths. While there are countless beings who experienced such trauma, it is impossible to hear everyone's side of the story. However, one man, in particular, allowed himself to speak of the tragedies. Elie Wiesel addressed the transformation he underwent during the Holocaust in his memoir, Night.
“You don’t understand... You cannot understand. I was saved miraculously. I succeeded in coming back. Where did I get my strength?
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.
In the memoir Night, the narrator Elie Wiesel recounts a moment when he questioned God, ¨Blessed be God’s name? Why, but why would I bless him? Every fiber in me rebelled, he caused thousands of children to burn his Mass graves?¨(Wiesel 68). Overall, Wiesel does not follow the words of God and is not believing in him anymore because he thinks God is the one thatś letting all the inhumanity occur. One theme in Night is that inhumanity can cause disbelief or incredulity.
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
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.
In which millions of Jews were innocently killed and persecuted because of their religion. As a student who is familiar with the years of the holocaust that will forever live in infamy, Wiesel’s memoir has undoubtedly changed my perspective. Throughout the text, I have been emotionally touched by the topics of dehumanization, the young life of Elie Wiesel, and gained a better understanding of the Holocaust. With how dehumanization was portrayed through words, pondering my mind the most.