ipl-logo

Differences And Similarities Between Frankl And Elie Wiesel

781 Words4 Pages

Over 6 million people of the Jewish faith were killed during the Holocaust. An estimated 600,000 survived the concentration camps. Many people don’t understand how concentration camps affected one psychologically or spiritually. There are many authors that wrote about their experiences during the Holocaust and its effect on them. Two authors that show how the Holocaust effected them spiritually are Viktor Frankl and Elie Wiesel. Both authors show a very different way of the Holocaust’s effect on their spiritual life and their religious beliefs.
In A Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, the reader can see the spiritual relationship that Frankl has with God and how much of a support that relationship is to Frankl. To get through the Holocaust …show more content…

But unlike Frankl, Weisel started taking his anger out on God for allowing such a horrible thing to happen to God’s people. “Yes, man is very strong, greater than God. When You were deceived by Adam and Eve, You drove them out of Paradise. When Noah’s generation displeased You, You brought down the Flood. When Sodom no longer found favor in Your eyes, You made the sky rain down fire and sulphur.” This mindset truly shows Weisel’s distrust in God as time went on in the concentration camp.
Weisel continues on to say: “But these men here; whom You have betrayed, whom You have allowed to be tortured, butchered, gassed, burned, what do they do? They pray for You! They praise Your name!” This passage shows the frustration that Weisel has towards God for forsaking him to such a horrible place, when God could easily fix such a problem if He was truly the omnipotent God.
Wiesel’s stray from religion is an important contrast from Frankl’s strong grasp on religion. These two different mindsets during the Holocaust is an important fact to focus on, as it can be related to today. During times of trials and strife, some people grasp onto God and religion. Having religion keeping them strong and moving forward, while others will blame God and remove themselves from their religion as they feel that God could easily fix such a

Show More
Related
744 Words | 3 Pages

Wiesel's loss of faith was brought on by the absence of God. This resulted in him questioning why it was God's will to allow Jews to suffer and die the way they had. Another portrayal of religious confliction within Wiesel was the statement of his faith being consumed by the flames along with the corpses of children (Wiesel 34). Therefore, he no longer believed God was the almighty savior everyone had set Him out to be or even present before them. To conclude, his experiences within Nazi confinement changed what he believed in and caused him to change how he thought and began questioning God because of the actions He allowed to take

Read More
672 Words | 3 Pages

Eliezer grew up with a passion to learn his religion, and the reason this continued up until the Holocaust is because his experiences and beliefs did not contradict themselves. Once he endures much torture his faith is stripped from him, and his hope for survival decreases. Finally, the memoir advances to where Eliezer no longer believes there is a merciful God out there. This development Wiesel writes about allows the audience to understand that when someone lacks to find rest in God, hope will be hard to find as

Read More
487 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More
1146 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
1049 Words | 5 Pages

Change. Change is an ordinary process in life that allows humans to evolve as individuals, societies, and as a species. Yet, not all changes are the same. Not all changes are equal. The effect of getting a new job is different than the effect of losing a job.

Read More
979 Words | 4 Pages

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” Having faith in a higher archy is a prelevant theme in the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel. Set during the Holocaust, a time of extermination of the Jews, Wiesel’s faith in his god wavers as he describes the situations he endures. One will notice as Wiesel’s faith decreases his identity goes downhill. Although, changing views in religion can affect more than just one’s identity, Wiesel explains his faith in god has a huge impact on his personality to prove one’s religious aspects can affect the way they choose to live their life.

Read More
475 Words | 2 Pages

Night by Elie Wiesel describes his experiences as a Jew in the concentration camps during World War II. During this time, Wiesel witnessed many horrific acts. Two of these were executions. Though the processes of the executions were similar, the condemned and the Jews’ reactions to the execution were different. One execution was the single hanging of a strong giant youth from Warsaw.

Read More
931 Words | 4 Pages

It is a common assumption among numerous people in the world that the Holocaust never existed. In fact, almost fifty percent of the world population never even heard of the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel helped people around the world learn about the Holocaust through his book “Night.” He wanted people to see the bravery, courage, and guilt of the Jews through his book. “Night” shows the horrific and malicious acts in the German concentration camps during the Holocaust.

Read More
767 Words | 4 Pages

Religion is something that many people have consistently believed in and turned to in times of need and support. Some of these people rely on their faith more than their own family and friends. Their religion is their entire life and they can’t imagine their lives without it. Imagine a scenario that’s so terrible that God won’t take you out of it. These people will wonder where God is and pray for Him to come.

Read More
779 Words | 4 Pages

Imagine believing so strongly in something and then being let down, or thinking that you were wrong even to believe. In Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie felt as though he had lost his religion and belief in God. We learned how strong his beliefs were when he says,“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).

Read More
714 Words | 3 Pages

Memory Blessing or Curse Religious wars fought over beliefs were always fought between two sides and one is thought to have a winner and a loser victor and victim. In Elie Wiesel’s Noble speech “Hope, Despair, and Memory” he describes his experiences during a religious war that were more of an overpowering of people than a war no clash of metal, no hard fought fight, just the rounding up and killing of people with different beliefs that barely put up a fight. Elie Wiesel the author of the Noble lecture “Hope, Despair, and Memory” implores us to respond to the human suffering and injustice that happened in the concentration camps by remembering the past, so that the past cannot taint the future through his point of view, cultural experiences, as well as his use of rhetorical appeals. Wiesel uses his cultural experiences and point of view sot that he could prove he spent time and survived the concentration camps in order to communicate that the past must be remembered that way it cannot destroy the future, he spent time in a concentration camps and he

Read More
744 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
611 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
1090 Words | 5 Pages

That nigh the soup tasted of corpses”. Elie Wiesel used to be a vivacious person- always seeking God’s presence- but from the commence of this genocide he has been negatively impacted. God used to be his everything; his strength and his mellifluous song that comforted his very soul. However, all that he is dependent on now is bread and water-

Read More
552 Words | 3 Pages

Elie Wiesel Rhetorical Speech Analysis Elie Wiesel, a holocaust survivor and winner of a Nobel peace prize, stood up on April 12, 1999 at the White House to give his speech, “The Perils of Indifference”. In Wiesel’s speech he was addressing to the nation, the audience only consisted of President Clinton, Mrs. Clinton, congress, and other officials. The speech he gave was an eye-opener to the world in his perspective. Wiesel uses a variety of rhetorical strategies and devices to bring lots of emotion and to educate the indifference people have towards the holocaust. “You fight it.

Read More

More about Differences And Similarities Between Frankl And Elie Wiesel

Related Topics

Open Document