In the memoir Night, written by Elie Wiesel, the protagonist struggles with his initial important values while going through times of despair, urging him to abandon these morals for his own individual good. It is immensely imperative that he does not give in. Elie’s experience as a victim in the Holocaust threatens his loyalty to his father, relationship with God, and compassion with others to weaken. The main character is consistently pressed to discard these things, once the most meaningful matters to him, in order for him to stay alive. For most people facing the same situation as Elie, their one and only ambition is self-preservation, causing all of their other initial, now irrelevant, morals to go out the window in order for them to protect …show more content…
The Holocaust is when the Jews really need that support from God, and they are simply not getting it. There is an instance in which an innocent child described as a “sad-faced angel” is hung in front of thousands of onlookers. The Lagerkapo reject the idea of executing this boy, causing the SS to perform this action, but even they are troubled with this act. The prisoners watching this event are shocked and disgusted that their God would even allow this to happen, this merciless death of a naive, wide-eyed child. When the spectators cry out asking where God is now, Elie thinks to himself: “He is hanging here on the gallows” (Wiesel 48). This signifies Elie’s low point with his faith for God. He is questioning God’s morality and even if He exists at all. Ultimately, there is no indication suggesting that Elie completely gives up on his belief in Judaism. In addition, there are hints throughout the rest of the memoir of Elie’s ongoing faith in God. Therefore, it is inferred that he realized God came through for him and the other victims. The memoir ends with a scene consisting of Elie looking at his reflection after he is released from Buchenwald, and even though he is significantly changed from the difficult and harrowing experience, it was the right decision to maintain his connection with
In Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, Elie had to make several decisions which had a severe impact on his life.. If he failed to make the correct decision it could have resulted in a darker outcome. Elie's decision to lie about his age,not fast during Yom Kippur,and him not fight for food and instead he decides to eat the scraps that were left in any. Those decisions had a significant impact on his life and his identity. As Mr.Wisel once said “Action is the only remedy to indifference:the most insidious danger of all”.
Hope is a powerful thing; more powerful than death itself. Night, by Elie Wiesel, is about a jewish boy who is put into a concentration camp during the Holocaust. Elie doubted his faith to survive but had others to lean on during the hardship. Elie had the support of others as a sense of hope to survive the long, cold nights, with little food and water.
Elie himself begins to lose his humanity and his faith in God and in the
Elie did not know who he was anymore. All he saw was body with no life. He lost his identity to the flames that consumed everything, The flames took away homes, families, and souls. Elie lost his faith and his father to the Holocaust. He had hope that everything will end soon.
When reading the book “night” by Elie Wiesel, you can never be sure something is to be set in stone. Even the characters drastically change from societies previous distorted visions of a Jew to the primordial beast that dwells over the basic components of survival itself. For example, a selfless and cultured man known as Eliezer’s father is forced to adapt himself into a man so full of sorrow not even his own wife would be able to recognize him. What did this? Many may say it was the loss of God.
This quote is significant due to the fact that it shows Elie towards the end of his stay at the concentration camp. At this point of time Elie’s father had just died, which helped change Elie even more; for the worst even. Elie has become very unreligious, very cold-hearted by the end of his time at the concentration camp. While looking back to 1941 for Elie, once religious and compassionate, by the end of this story Elie gave up his faith completely and became rather unsentimental around the other prisoners. In the end, Elie as a person changed dramatically during the novel
Throughout Elie Wiesel’s story, Night, his experience and encounters with others during the Holocaust damaged the way he was and influenced his actions in many different ways, and most of all, to his father. At the beginning of the story, Elie has been thoughtful of his father, or seemed to be, though we can tell Elie did like his father, it is known that his father didn’t give much affection to his family. “My father was sharing some anecdotes and holding forth on his opinion of the situation. He was a good story teller” (12). Elie loved his father, though at the beginning, his father was focused on keeping a good image and keeping everyone safe and happy.
Elie Wiesel’s true story Night, is an intriguing story about the Holocaust. The guards and even veteran prisoners are cruel to others. The punishments, even for tiny faults, are unthinkably horrid. Man does not care how old or weak someone is; this makes the children and teens change and act inhumane towards other prisoners, even towards their own family. It clearly, and painfully, explains man’s inhumanity to man.
In a situation where your body is surviving on a thread, your stomach is inflated due to starvation and all the strength you had before is gone, you have to rely on mental and religious strength to carry you through your hardships. In Elie Wiesel’s “Night”, Elie talks about his personal experiences and hardships he faced during WWII and his life at Auschwitz as a young boy. Throughout the story Elie pushes through losing his mother and sister, lashings, seeing babies burned alive and the fear of death but also the hope for it in some situations. No amount of physical strength can help someone survive in the brutal place Auschwitz. Everywhere in the story Elie and other characters show that with mental and religious/spiritual strength, you can push through any hardship you have to face.
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.
Victim of Isis are experiencing death, suffering, and with no hope in sight. But the horrific events was not happening in the middle east during present times, but during world war II in Germany. In the book Night, Elie Wiesel explains his experiences during the holocaust. Elie Wiesel wrote this book so he can inform people who weren’t there or didn’t know what happened to prevent this from happening again. Elie Wiesel assert this by show loss of faith, brutality and suffering Elie Wiesel, for a period of time of his life, experienced many things witnessing many deaths and malnourishment for years.
The Bible states, “The Lord also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble; And those who know your name will put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.…” [Psalm 9:9-10] Many believe one should turn to God in times of turmoil, but what should one do when death is everywhere and God does not anwser? This is the case in Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night. In this memoir Wiesel informs the reader of Eliezer’s, the protagonist, life in concentration camps during the Holocaust.
As for me, I had ceased to pray... I was not denying His existence, but I doubted His absolute justice” (45). It is apparent here that the effect of the Holocaust on the Jewish people’s faith was delayed on some level. Elie refuses to pray to the God that apparently abandoned him. This is personified when he says he doubts that God has absolute justice.
Faith is such an important part of life. It is the drive, the motive to live, to breathe, to feel. When faith is lost, so is the reason to exist; life is lost in oblivion. Faith is a truly powerful weapon and as the story of Eliezer 's life during the Holocaust is played out through this book, a first-hand perspective is gained of what someone can do to cause questioning of faith and how people respond, whether by strengthening faith or losing it entirely. Eliezer is hit with every hard trial imaginable within a year of his life and eventually withers and hardens into this completely new person than the boy he was when he first stepped into that cattle car expelling him from Sighet, his home, and life.
Imagine knowing your fate ahead of time. That single moment would be stuck in your head, replayed every second to prevent it. This would obstruct your feeling of morals, making you only focus on your own survival. Nothing would get in your way of trying to survive. During the Holocaust, many people were faced with this moment when they stepped in a concentration camp.