Elie Wiesel Death Quotes

To begin with, physical death. Elie uses physical death very often in the story, because it easily evokes emotion from the user. A strong quote that came later in the book is “He collapsed. But his fist was still clutching a small crust. He wanted to raise it to his mouth. But the other threw himself on him. The old man mumbled something, groaned, and died” ( Wiesel 101). While the Jews were being transferred to a new camp, an older man had bread, and when he tried to eat it he was attacked and killed by other starving Jews. This quote really shows how desensitized some people were to death because of the horrible conditions they were put through. A strong quote is “The train stopped in an empty field. The abrupt halt had wakened a few sleepers.

Lastly, Spiritual death. Spiritual death is a large part of this story, mostly because it shows the complete loss of faith. An example of this is “Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.” (Wiesel 34). This is the night of his first time at camp. This is significant because it shows how quickly he became spiritually dead. Another quote to follow this is “Blessed be God 's name? Why, but why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled.” (Wiesel 67). This quote comes from the eve of Rosh Hashanah, where many men were praising and worshiping God, but Elie rebelled. He rebelled thinking “He caused thousands of children to burn in His mass graves? Because He kept six crematoria working day and night, including Sabbath and the Holy Days? Because in His great might, He had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many other factories of death?” (Wiesel 67). This quote shows how spiritually dead Elie is, and all of his hope is gone. Lastly one of the most significant quotes in the book “But the third rope was still moving: the child, too light, was still breathing… And so he remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death, writhing before our eyes. And we were forced to look at him at close range. He was still alive when I passed him. His tongue was still red, his eyes not yet extinguished. 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 this gallows… "”(Wiesel 65). This quote is where Elie makes it official that he is spiritually dead. In this scene a couple people were caught preparing for a rebellion and the kid was one of them. As punishment all of the people involved were hanged.At this point Elie is convinced that God is dead, and he died with the boy on the gallows. Using spiritual death as a motif allowed Elie to convey a sense of hopelessness, that the only way they