Milos Kulina Elie’s faith towards God changes a lot as the story goes on. In the beginning of the work, his faith in God is complete. In chapter one when asked why he prays to God, he says, “Why did I pray?... Why did I live? Why did I breathe?” His belief in God is great, and he cannot imagine living without faith in his divine power. But his faith is challenged by what he has to go through during the Holocaust. During the first night in the camp and during the hanging of the young pipel, Elie does battle with his faith. The horrific scene of everyone seeing the pipel being hanged, and him being too little he didn’t have enough weight for his neck just to snap when dropped. Therefore he just hanged there for half an hour. Elie wondered, if God was so good and merciful then why would he allow this to happen? The …show more content…
If God was so merciful and good why would he let this happen? If God was always there and a part of their everyday life why would he allow this to happen? Why would he let the children witness their father and mother being killed right in front of their very eyes, or allow the mother’s to witness their newborn child getting thrown into a fire. All of these things made Ellie question his faith. Before all of this started when Ellie was asked why he prayed he answered, ““Why did I pray?... Why did I live? Why did I breathe?” . But then later on he ceased to pray. On page 45 he says,” I was ceased to pray. I concurred with a job. I was not denying his existence, but I doubted his absolute justice.” Elie is not denying the fact that God doesn’t exist, but little by little he’s getting separated farther from him. In conclusion Elie’s faith towards God does shift around throughout the story. In the beginning he would always pray and believe God was good. As the story goes on and he faces many hardships his beliefs get shaken up, but in the end he emerges with his faith
It no longer mattered. Since my father’s death, nothing mattered to me anymore.” After the events Elie witnessed in Auschwitz he was a changed man. He no longer felt that his life mattered. He was in disbelief that this “God of Mercy” could let these awful events occur.
Elie survives the Holocaust through a battle of conscience – first believing in God, then resisting his faith in God, and ultimately replacing his faith with obligation to his father. Elie begins his journey through the Holocaust as a firm believer of Judaism and of his God, using his faith as a motivation to carry on during his ordeal. The last of the Jews
Where’s God? How can I belive, how can anyone believe in this God of Mercy?”(83). Elie states basically god doesn’t exist, if he did they would of been saved but they are left to suffer. At this point it would take something pretty miraculous to spark back Elie's faith. Finally, Elie finds himself saying, “And in spite of myself, a prayer rose in my heart, to that God in whom I no longer believed.
At the beginning of Night, Elie was someone who believed fervently in his religion. His experiences at Auschwitz and other camps, such as Birkenau and Buna have affected his faith immensely. Elie started to lose his faith when he and his father arrived at Birkenau. They saw the enormous flames rising from a ditch, with people being thrown in.
When Adam and Eve deceived You, You chased them from paradise… But look at these men whom You have betrayed, what do they do? They pray before You! They praise Your name!,” (pg.68) because of all the horrors and mistreatment Elie has endured, like witnessing infants being thrown into the trenches, “... Children thrown into the flames,” (pg.32), and watching his father being slapped, “... he slapped my father with such force that he fell down and then crawled back to his place on all fours,” (pg.39), his faith is distinguished. This contrasts to the beginning of the book where Eliezer says he cannot imagine a world without God, “Why do I pray?
He hated god at this point. When everyone was praying around him he was not praying but instead thinking. The last time his faith was tested and the time he lost his faith in god was when the piple also known as the sad eyed angle was
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.
Imagine believing so strongly in something and then being let down, or thinking that you were wrong to believe. In Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie felt as though he had lost his religion and beliefs. “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). This quote shows how strongly he believed before experiencing the hardships of the Holocaust
Elie’s Loss of Faith Within this barbarous world, there are innumerable accounts of devastating events that have occurred in the past, and continue to occur; these occurrences periodically cause us to question the existence of God. Overall, this statement proves to be correct to ill-fated Eliezer Wiesel. This brave child was exceedingly religious, as well as he had a strong hunger to be closer with God. Previous to being transferred to Auschwitz, he believed that as long as his family stuck together, everything would work out to be well. Throughout all his time in the concentration camp, he started to lose his faith after discovering the horrid ways of the camp.
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.
In the beginning, Elie was more of a strong religious being with a wealthy home to surround him. He followed normal prayers and practise of the normal Orthodox Jewish religion, but gave out that soft emotional element on his spiritual actions, ‘“Why do
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.
He no longer had hope in God, in others, nor himself. Elie has said in later years ” During, there was nothing--not even a plea to or a bargain with God. God, he feels, had nothing to do with his survival. "If God was
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.
But then he experiences the hardships of the Holocaust and it abruptly changed him. In the book Night, the main theme is religious belief, shown when Elie talks about the his strong religion and belief as a boy, his disconnection from religion, and the inhumane actions the Nazis caused. Having a strong belief in something so important to who we are and then being confronted with horrors which cause us to cease to believe, is a significant life changing event. During this time, many people questioned where God truly was. Even Elie was questioning where God was.