In Elie Wiesel’s novel, Dawn, the main character Elisha has to make a grueling decision to kill a John Dawson, a British officer. When Elisha was 12 years old he meets beggar at his hometown synagogue. Elisha tries to convince the beggar to come back to his house for food and a bed for him to sleep in. The beggar refuses the kind gesture and instead offers Elisha wisdom. The beggar introduces the symbol of the faces of night as well as the symbols of night and day.
That proved that Elie is truly passionate about his religion and when he prays to his God. On top of that, on page 4, Elie wrote “‘why did you pray’ he asked after a moment. Why did
Elie says You instead of God to emphasize his hatred to God. Elie is angry because he thinks that it is God's fault for how much he and others had suffered through. He goes on to talk about how the men around him continue to stay faithful to God, even though they have suffered so much. In his hatred he thinks, “But these men here, whom You have betrayed, whom You have allowed to be tortured, butchered, gassed, burned, what do they do? They pray before You!
He feels almost anger that the others still put faith in God. He feels that God is lesser than man, that Man is stronger because they still worship God after all they have been through. He felt that he “was the accuser, God the accused.” This is the final stretch, and Elie no longer believes in God or religion.
In the book Night, Elie Wiesel describes his struggles as a Jew in a concentration camp using a depressing and serious tone, meant to reflect the horrific conditions the Jews were forced to face and the theme that adversity can cause a loss in faith. From the time Elie first arrived at the camp and heard everyone saying prayers, to when the young pipel was hung, and even when the Jews had to make the long, arduous, trek to the other camp, the reader could see his faith dwindling as he continued to question where his God was and why he wasn’t helping the Jews. Not only was a lack of faith evident in Elie himself, but the other Jews around him, even the priests, were having trouble believing in their God. Elie’s disheartened and somber tone
Elie witnessed murder every day, he got used to being around dead bodies. “Where is God? Where is he” asked a man, Eliezer related to that he was shattered. Eliezer’s father was attacked by Idek he knew if he did anything to help his father he would have
Hope is a powerful thing; more powerful than death itself. Night, by Elie Wiesel, is about a jewish boy who is put into a concentration camp during the Holocaust. Elie doubted his faith to survive but had others to lean on during the hardship. Elie had the support of others as a sense of hope to survive the long, cold nights, with little food and water.
At the start of the book Eli is praying, but he is crying. His friend asks him why he’s crying. “Why do you cry when you pray? He doesn’t have an answer. Eli says, “ I don’t know, I had never asked myself that question.
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 would “ pray to god within me that he would give me strength to ask him the right questions.” (Wiesel 4) I believed this meant that he was trying to ask why Jews are jews being hated and despised for no reason. Moshe the beadle talks to Elie after praying and says “why do you pray” (Wiesel 4) Elie was confused as he was thinking about why did i pray, why did breath, why did humanity start.
In, Night there are several instances where God-fearing men were turned into selfish monsters. The cruelty shown to the Jews forced them to become cold and heartless towards one another. Elie was no exception because he had to fight for his life, lie and ultimately leave his father for dead to escape the grueling wrath of the S.S officers upon himself. Every single day alive was a blessing for Elie and all the other Jews at the concentration camp. Death was a daily occurrence, and a primary reason why the Jews became insensitive.
Evil is around every corner, always skulking about. It is the process of dehumanization that makes possible the evils of war, and desensitizes the victimizer to smaller evils committed on a daily basis. Dehumanization occurs in Night and in “Pirandellian Prison” and also on the Internet. Evil is everywhere no matter where you go either something will be bad or someone will be bad. Some people have fortitude to withstand the punishments that the guards did to the prisoners.
Everyone present was weeping and some were praying. The sound of Kaddish, the prayer for the dead coming from his father, caught Elie off guard and angered him. He exclaimed, “For the first time, I felt anger rising within me. Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent.
“We can spend our lives letting the world tell us who we are. Sane or insane. Heroes or victims. Letting history tell us how good or bad we are. Letting our past decide our future.
After Rosh Hashanah, Elie knew that what he said was wrong, and pleaded for forgiveness before God. Elie had stopped pleading and lamenting. He felt stronger without any of these, he was the accuser. He even mentioned that he was in a world without God and man. He felt like nothing but ashes.
