Spiritual Change In Night By Elie Wiesel

Screams of anguish, the smell of burning flesh, corpses lining the crimson soil—these are only a few of the horrors one would face as a Jewish prisoner in a concentration camp at the time of the Holocaust. Eliezer Wiesel, author of the memoir Night, has witnessed all of this, at the young age of 15. Over the course of the catastrophe, Eliezer shows drastic signs of spiritual change before, during, and after being held prisoner at the camps of death.

Prior to the incident, Elie’s faith in his God was very strong. He describes bringing his needs to his father as, “One day I asked my father to find me a master who could guide me in my studies of Kabbalah,” (page 4). This is important because it shows how devout Elie was to his religion, that he felt like it was his responsibility to study everything God wanted him to know. However,

This was where everything began to change for Elie, especially his spirituality. For example, he writes about the scenes of one particular hanging, “‘For God’s sake, where is God?‘ And from within me, I hear a voice answer: “Where he is? This is where—hanging here from this gallows,’” (page 65). At this point in time, his faith is almost in shambles and he is at breaking point. Elie announces God’s death within him, as the gallows symbolized the fate of the ones hanged on them. Furthermore, during Yom Kippur, it is necessary to fast in order to proclaim one’s conviction. Elie did the very act he would never have pictured himself committing years ago, “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,” (page 69). Here, his faith is shattered and reduces to that of dust. A few pages ago, his God was dead, and now his soul is as well. During the times of the camps, Eliezer realizes that not everything in life was as marvelous as he had once believed to