Faith Destroyed in Eliezer Wiesel’s Night Essay

In Elie Wiesel’s biography we see the dynamic changes in both Elie and his fathers’ value of life and their religion. The transformation of Elie is heart wrenching; to see him go from a trusting boy to an apprehensive man. After he was captured and sent to Auschwitz, he began to abandon his

Elie first recalls Dr. Mengele’s “eight short, simple words” (Wiesel 27) when he enters the camps: “Men to the left! Women to the right!” (Wiesel 27) In this part of the book, Elie and his father are separated by his mother and sisters. This metaphorically kills Elie because he is very attached to his family as are they to him. A piece of Elie has been taken away from him forever. Later in his memoir, he mentions the cruel hanging of the Pipel. Previous hangings that day did not phase Elie, but when the young, angelic Pipel was hanged, Elie said his once flavorful soup “tasted of corpses.” A man near Elie was saying “Where is God now?’ And I heard a voice within me answer him: “Where is He? Here He is- He is hanging here on this gallows…”(Wiesel 62) This is a powerful quote that shows how Elie has also began to question his faith. This brings about the mindset of the death of God in Elie. Elie begins to show distrust and rebellion in his God. This is a sharp contrast to Elie’s former beliefs. When Elie’s father dies, Elie emotionally shuts his mind off. He says “After my father’s death, nothing could touch me anymore.” He had finally given up. His father was his rock tied to the balloon, his reason to keep going. Without his father, Elie gave up and became zombified like the rest of the broken souls. Elie fully turned into the emotionless man that he was set to become as a result of surviving

They had just arrived at the concentracion camp and were getting assigned to either go to the crematorium or to stay and work. “Not far from us, flames, huge flames, were rising from a ditch… A truck drew close and unloaded its hold: small children. Babies!” (32). Wiesel experienced something that no human should ever see, children being murdered which caused hime to stuggle in maintaining belief in God. “Why should I sanctify his name? The almighty… and terrible Master of the Universe chose to be silent” (33). Elie stuggled to maintain faith in God once again questioning the belif of God and not knowing how he could let this happen. So, Wiesel once again struggled to maintain faith in God after seeing inncocent babies being

The holocaust unleashed unparalleled cruelty and suffering to a great number of people; Elie Wiesel survived these hardships, but his innocence was shattered. For this reason, he wrote Night to share his personal memories of his time spent in the concentration camps and details the transformation of his faith and understanding of God. Each person Elie writes about attempts to reconcile their agony with their faith, albeit many fail or have their faith transformed. In this paper, I will describe how Wiesel’s understanding of God transforms as he experiences tragedy and how the various prisoners come to terms with their faith.

Elie’s belief in God begins to falter at the concentration camps of Birkenau, Auschwitz when he sees the little angel boy hanging. The little boy, who had the face of a sad angel, was sentenced to be hanged. Since the child was so light, he didn't die immediately when he fell, and he remained alive, hanging

There once was a time when power was the only thing people wanted, but was it worth the lives of over eleven million innocent people? Horrible people were torturing and murdering human beings with no emotions or remorse. At the age of fifteen, Elie Wiesel saw and experienced many horrible situations that most people will not in an entire lifetime. Elie grew up with a loving family and a strong growing faith in God. During all of the horrific experiences throughout the story, Elie changed so much that he could not even recognize himself.

He is eager and determined to learn more about his faith. He then arrives at Auschwitz and everything he knows dissipates. Since the beginning, Elie wanted to learn more about Kabbalah and pursue his faith. Since his father would not help him, Elie takes it upon himself and starts searching for someone to help him learn about his God. Elie comes across Moishe the Beadle who agrees and helps Elie up to the point before Moishe was taken away to a work camp. Elie continues to search for his faith once Moishe is gone, but starts to stray away once he himself is taken away as well. When Elie is brought to Auschwitz he realizes that his God was not as amazing and all-powerful as he thought. Elie sees the things the Germans do to the minorities and “ceased to pray” (Wiesel 45). Elie sees that his God is not protecting his people. Elie was frustrated and angry at his God. He began to doubt “His absolute justice” (Wiesel 45) because he let his people suffer and die at the hands of the

Thesis: Elie’s belief in his survival increases while that of God’s justice and his family diminish as he experiences the events of the Holocaust.

He never realized how strong one must be to endure such atrocities, and how faithful one must be to rely on God. Elie lost his ultimate faith in the end, he had lost all his family and saw the unthinkable and even unimaginable with his own eyes. His faith was challenged to the bitter end, and without a church for structure he lost guidance. The novel is very religious, yet it discourages belief in God. Many do not get their beliefs put to the test in such extreme conditions as Elie did, so this leads one to question another's faith. If God is puts one to the test they will either have the strength to survive, or they will fold under pressure and follow the weak to the grave. As the novel progresses, we can see Elie become more and more scarred that he eventually becomes numb to the pain. The fact that Elie even thought of himself as a ‘corpse’ at the end of the memoir, shows that his faith for God is dried up. He believes that he is no longer alive; meaning his personality is theoretically dead, along with his beliefs, which would include his faith for God. In conclusion, Elie Wiesel went from a lively, young boy, to a ‘walking corpse’ from the holocaust. He learned to not feel pain, eventually learned to lose trust in people, and finally

The excruceating suffering that people endured had burst into the consciousness of his supposedly invincible Jewish faith. In the face of the crematory pit, Wiesel says, “For the first time I felt revolt rise up in me. Why should I bless His name? The Eternal, Lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank Him for?'' (Wiesel, 33) The author utilizes the motif of faith in order to portray the doubt he now has in God. Calling God by the names of the “Eternal, Lord of the Universe, the All- Powerful and Terrible” (33) reflected how much Elie praised God before all the suffering he endured. His constant questioning for finding a reason to belive in God reveals that he is indenial of trustind God after witnessing innocent lives being taken. Lack of faith quickly promoted human survival because he no longer believed in the rumors of peace and

In the beginning of Night readers see young Wiesel who devotes his time to studying the Talmud and Kaballah. He was innocent and had so much faith in his God. At Auschwitz, Wiesel began to feel as though striving to live was useless. Wiesel, who once had great faith in God, changed his way of believing in Him. He questioned his God’s existence and often asked Him why he would allow the things that were going on to happen. He even asked himself: "Why should I bless His name? The Eternal, Lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank Him for?" He stated early on in the memoir: “Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my god and my soul and turned my dreams to dust.” Many people are quick to dismiss Eliezer's faith as “lost,” but Wiesel himself stated: “I did not deny God's existence, but I doubted his absolute justice," on page forty two. Elie did not lose his faith completely in the existence of God, but in God’s justice and

This shows Elie’s change in his thoughts on God and having faith. At the beginning of the story, Elie strives to be a spiritual kid and is fascinated by learning about God. He goes behind his father's back to learn about God with Moishe the Beadle, and has intense prayers everyday which he cries during. However, he becomes bitter towards God, angry about all the pain he has inflicted on the Jewish race. This change in perspective was brought on by the torture, abuse, and inhumane treatment by the Nazis. It causes Elie to question how God, who is supposed to be helpful and good, could ever allow such horror. This connects to loss, and how the traumatic

Faith is like a little seed; if you think about the positive aspects of a situation, then it will grow, like a seed grows when you water it. However, if the seed does not receive water anymore, it will die, which serves as a parallel to the horrors and antagonism of the concentration camps that killed Elie’s faith. After the analysis of the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, the reader can visualize the horrors and slaughter of millions of innocent people that occurred in concentration camps. Throughout the book, Wiesel explains how his faith in God was tested, as he was forced to leave his home, separated from his family, and observed the death all around him; he even witnessed children being thrown into huge ditches of fire alive. Elie felt abandoned, betrayed, and deceived by the God that he knew who was a loving and giving God. It was then he started to doubt His existence. Elie tried to hold on to his faith, but the childhood innocence had disappeared from within him, and he lost his faith in God completely.

Elie’s identity is changed immensely by his loss of faith. In the beginning of this novel, Wiesel’s faith is so powerful that he shows great emotion when he prays , “He watched me one day as I prayed at dusk. ‘Why do you cry when you pray’ he asked… ‘I cried because...because something inside me felt the need to cry. That was all I knew.” (4) From a young age Eliezer was interested in learning about his faith

During his time in the concentration camps, Elie’s outlook on life shifted to a very pessimistic attitude, showing emotions and actions including rebellion, forgetfulness of humane treatment, and selfishness. Elie shows rebellion early in the Holocaust at the Solemn Service, a jewish ceremony, by thinking, “Blessed be God’s name? Why, but why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled” (Wiesel 67). Elie had already shifted his view on his religion and faith in God. After witnessing some of the traumas of the concentration camps, Elie questioned what he did to deserve such treatment. Therefore, he began to rebel against what he had grown up learning and believing. Not only had Elie’s beliefs changed, his lifestyle changed as well. When Elie’s foot swelled, he was sent to the doctor, where they put him “...in a bed with white sheets. I [he] had forgotten that people slept in sheets” (Wiesel 78). Many of the luxuries that Elie may have taken for granted have been stripped of their lives, leaving Elie and the other victims on a thin line between survival and death. By explaining that he forgot about many of these common luxuries, Elie emphasizes the inhumane treatment the victims of the Holocaust were put through on a daily basis.