ipl-logo

Book Report Night By Elie Wiesel

817 Words4 Pages

In Night, Eliezer Wiesel is a young Jewish boy living in Transylvania at the start of WWII. He is very devout and observant to his faith. Despite constant signs, the Transylvanian Jews refuse to believe that the Nazis will hurt them. After a while of denial, the bad news arrives: all Jews will be deported. In Auschwitz, Eliezer is shown to be tested between his relationships with his Father and God. However, the horrors of the concentration camp makes Eliezer and his father begin to value their relationship. As the story progresses, Elie has one thought—not to lose his father. In the camp, Eliezer and his father have stuck together and stayed by each other for most of the story. This is in contrast to their relationship before their imprisonment. …show more content…

Before being sent to Auschwitz, Eliezer believed that God would protect the Jews from anything that the horrible rumors around Transylvania suggested. In fact, for much of the book Eliezer is shown to be a devout Jew. He felt safe and secure in his faith. When Eliezer enters the concentration camp, he enters as a child, and does not believe that the Germans could really commit these crimes and the world would stand by it. But as he begins to witness the unspeakable horrors, he begins to question what kind of God can let this happen. His childhood and innocence are murdered, his faith in God’s justice and mercy demolished: “Behind me, I heard the same man asking: ‘For God’s sake, where is God?’ And from within me, I heard a voice answer: ‘Where He is? This is where—hanging here from the gallows…” (65.) Eliezer then begins to struggle to remain alive physically and emotionally. He also starts to doubt God’s preeminence and is shown to become angry. “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?” (42). Eliezer also expresses his disappointment and anger at God by rebelling against the religious teachings that he had been taught and followed for all his life. This alone shows how much Eliezer has changed from the beginning of the

Open Document