Loss Of Faith In Night By Elie Wiesel

Final Essay According to Elie Wiesel, in order for faith to survive it requires freedom and peace. Therefore, while in a march toward the unknown of a concentration camp, Elie and his father start to fear for their lives.Not long into the march Elie begins to overhear his father begin to sanctify the lords name. Disturbed by the thought of his father sanctifying the lord, Elie begins to ask himself, “ Why should I sanctify his name? The almighty the eternal and terrible master of the universe,chose to be silent” (Wiesel 33). Elie is unable to understand how his God can be silent in a time like this, a time where his family and friends needed him the most.This only led Elie to start to question his belief in God. On the the other hand, after

Elie is scarred and will forever have to live with the constant reoccurring thoughts about all of the infants, children, and adults being burned alive; however, Elie is also angered knowing while these unimaginable events is happening around the Jews, there is still nothing happening from Gods end. Nevertheless, as the Jews stood around discussing their views on God in this time, Elie states,” I had ceased to pray” (45 emphasis added). Evidently Elie is losing faith to the point where it even leads to him to stop praying, he believes as though we cant pray to someone we are starting to lose belief in. Another example, is when the prisoners went to participate in a a solemn service, as they are listening to the service a saying starts replaying in Elies head, “ "Blessed be the Almighty…”(67). Hearing this lead to Elie

Throughout Elies life he has always been drawn to his religion and faith, he has always put God before anyone or anything. However, as some of the men in the camp discusses matters of God and his mysterious ways, they begin to throw around the idea of why he would do this to the Jews and why he remained silent in a time like this. Elie then thought to himself, “I was not denying His existence, but I doubted His absolute justice” ( Wiesel emphasis added).Although, he would doubt Gods justice he still believes and knows he is there, he is just questioning why his God would punish the Jews with such horrendous suffering.On the other hand, Elie also experiences a moment to which he finds himself befriending two young brothers who had come from a religious background. The boys begin bringing back memories for Elie of religion and family, Elie states, “ … they knew huge numbers of Hebrew songs. And so we would sometimes hum melodies reminding people of/bringing out the gentle waters of Jordan River and the beautiful holiness of Jerusalem” (50) . Elie joins in with the boys remembering the times when he would sing these Hebrew songs and he begins to remember the beauty of Jerusalem— the place of worship. It is as though Elie is still looking at Jerusalem like it is his safe place. Another example, is while marching to what Elie and his father believe is their death, Elie