Eleven million people were murdered in the Holocaust, six million of which were Jews who were killed solely for their beliefs. This terrible genocide is recounted through the eyes of Elie Wiesel in his memoir, Night. As the novel progresses, Wiesel's faith in his God falters, due to the physical and emotional suffering he endured as a Jew in the Holocaust. During the first couple of chapters of Night, Wiesel’s faith and dedication to his religion are very strong.
Can you imagine being stripped of all your faith? In the memoir, Night, by Elie Wiesel, Elie and all the Jews faced many spiritual crises that tested their faith in God, humanity and himself. Elie had lost all faith because of the way they were treated by the Nazis. The Nazis punished the Jews for practicing their religion. Any sort of faith the Jews had were lost after the way the Nazis treated them and the terrifying events they faced.
In Elie Wiesel's memoir Night, he shows his love for God is natural when Moishe the Beadle saw Eliezer in the synagogue and asked him “ Why do you pray?” and he responded “Why did I pray? Strange question. Why did I live? Why did I breathe?”
Just like other Jews, Eliezer's faith begins to falter by watching others be harshly treated, like himself, and viewing the horrific death of innumerable innocent lives. In the beginning, the 12 year old Eliezer starts out immensely religious, he's determined to learn more about the Torah and his own religion overall. However, when Eliezer and his family get taken to death camps, he begins to question his faith. As the days pass by, Elie Wiesel's faith
Elie, once so faithful, is one of the first to lose faith in God due to the horrific sights he sees. After witnessing the bodies of Jewish children being burned, Wiesel writes, “Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever” (34). He quite understandably has begun to doubt that his God is with him following the sight of the supposedly chosen people’s bodies being unceremoniously burned. Elie, though, was perhaps not a member of the masses with this belief; in fact, some men were able to hold on to their beliefs despite these horrendous sights. Also near the middle of the book, Wiesel reflects on the faith of other Jews in the face of these events, saying that “some of the men spoke of God: His mysterious ways, the sins of the Jewish people, and the redemption to come.
According to mahatma gandhi the word “Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into” (“Mahatma”). This can be seen in Elie Wiesel's memoir night through himself. As the memoir opens we learn that he was 15 during ww2 and that him and his father were put into a concentration camp. Elie Wiesel's, night, i belive experiences his loss of faith through this holocaust.
Eliezer was not able to keep his faith with lord it was hard for him to understand after Nazi had done bad afflicts to Judaism in the camp. “Compared to this afflicted crowd, proclaiming to your greatness mean, Lord of the universe, in the face of all this weakness, this decomposition, and this decay? Why do you still trouble their sick minds, their crippled bodies?” (Wiesel 63). Eliezer felt angry to compare the greatness and the weaknesses from God he cannot understand why God still blessed those Jewish sick mind and give them more chances.
Here he is slowly worked to death as he watches the slaughter of other prisoners and is separated from most of his family. Wiesel’s views are shifted as he and his acquaintances are persecuted for their beliefs. As a young boy, Elie is conflicted with his faith and wonders why it is destroying him and his loved ones. In Night, Wiesel explains this occurrence “I did not deny God’s existence, but I doubted his absolute justice” (Weisel 54). Elie is questioning the God he so profoundly believes in.
"Faith is not a belief. Faith is what is left when your beliefs have all been blown to hell." During World War II losing faith was common, especially in the concentration camps where living another day was a blessing and a curse. In the novel Night, Elie Wiesel writes about his experiences, as a teenager, in the concentration camps. Memories of the death of his family, hunger, and the destruction of his own innocence can lead a man to lose faith.
Oftentimes, the effects of traumatic experiences can transcend the importance or the gravity of original beliefs. With every passing day, Elie is seeing more and more innocent infants, children, men, and women dying all around him, simultaneously. However, as the survivors around him congregate and continue to pray to God on their own volition he is thoroughly confused. With the amount of deaths around him, he questions everything, and thinks aloud.
(65). Elie and multiple other prisoners will witness numerous inhumane events. As the little child hangs there suffocating to death, Elie starts to lose his belief in god. All Jewish prisoners of the Holocaust have lost faith in
This passage illustrates the profound impact the Holocaust had on Elie's faith and his perception of the
After being brought to Auschwitz, Elie fought for his survival and later began to question God. Elie ultimately loses faith in God and wonders why God would do this to him. Elie's traumatic experience in concentration camps caused him to lose faith. Night written by Elie Wiesel, reveals that belief can dissipate due to tragic circumstances.
Elie Wiesel is not only a talented author but a survivor of the holocaust who documented his horrific experiences in his memoir “Night”. In the beginning of the book Elie Wiesel was one of the most religious people in his town of Saghet who had a dream of living a monastic life. However, as a result of the harrowing injustices he endured he continuously lost faith in his religion. Within the book the reader is reminded again and again that when extreme adversity is experienced, faith is often lost.
The things that we own reflect our personality and what we deem important in our life. Furniture is seen simply as an object, while to many it can mean the world to them, possessions have their own sentimental values and relevance to someone. In the short story “Billenium” by J.G. Ballard, overpopulation and claustrophobia run rampant and the main character, John Ward attempts to find solace in a hidden room larger than the cramped cubicles most are forced to inhabit. The items that are used by the characters represent the illusion of freedom in Ward’s life.
