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Faith In Elie Wiesel's Night

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Faith influences everyone; whether it be faith in a god, a person, or one's own self, faith is ever present. It is one of the most powerful things in all of history; it migrated thousands of people, killed millions, and influences laws in every society. During World War II, the Nazi party of Germany killed up to 6 million people of the Jewish religion. Some of these Jews maintained their faith while they were being killed, some started to break from it, and many lost it completely. If their god was the reason they were being persecuted, how could they have faith in him? This is a major topic in Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night. Elie tells of his life as a young Jewish boy who survives the concentration camps he was enslaved in, and he describes the way his …show more content…

This is where—hanging here from this gallows …’” (65). This quote shows how Elie believed that the Nazis had killed his god, and how that god was no longer there to help him. In Inherit the Wind, the defending attorney, Henry Drummond, believed that the presence of religion in the town was moving the town backwards and not progressing with the times. This was most evident when Bertram Cates attempted to teach the theory of evolution in his classroom and was arrested for it. Cates and Drummond attempt the impossible: going against the word of God, and, consequently, everyone in the town of Hillsboro. Drummond sees the evil of religion, the exceptionalism and narrow-mindedness that coincides with the religiously devout. While arguing with Brady about heaven, Drummond says “as long as the prerequisite for that shining paradise is ignorance, bigotry, and hate, I say to hell with them,” (30). Drummond identifies that the religious are hypocritical, declaring that they believe in all things holy and the good of people while they themselves are vain and prejudiced. This shows how in both stories the impact that faith leaves on the characters is not always

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Wiesel's loss of faith was brought on by the absence of God. This resulted in him questioning why it was God's will to allow Jews to suffer and die the way they had. Another portrayal of religious confliction within Wiesel was the statement of his faith being consumed by the flames along with the corpses of children (Wiesel 34). Therefore, he no longer believed God was the almighty savior everyone had set Him out to be or even present before them. To conclude, his experiences within Nazi confinement changed what he believed in and caused him to change how he thought and began questioning God because of the actions He allowed to take

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312 Words | 2 Pages

Elie Wiesel’s Experiences In the book Night, Elie Wiesel recounts his experiences of the Holocaust. Throughout this experience, Elie Wiesel is exposed to life he previously thought unimaginable and they consequently change his life. He becomes To begin with, Elie Wiesel learns that beings aware and mindful are more than just important. On many occasions, he receives warnings and hints toward the impending tragedy.

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1146 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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The torturing and suffering caused is what widdles down the belief, and this present throughout the novel. Only the strong and the ones who have most faith would survive, yet at the same time, if they didn’t originally have faith, they could’ve avoided the concentration camps

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The severely cruel conditions of concentration camps had a profound impact on everyone who had the misfortune of experiencing them. For Elie Wiesel, the author of Night and a survivor of Auschwitz, one aspect of himself that was greatly impacted was his view of humanity. During his time before, during, and after the holocaust, Elie changed from being a boy with a relatively average outlook on mankind, to a shadow of a man with no faith in the goodness of society, before regaining confidence in humanity once again later in his life. For the first 13 years of his life, Elie seemed to have a normal outlook on humanity.

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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.

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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.

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Having a faith in something can help people through extremely difficult times, and difficult times and sometimes it even makes people stronger. People who go through a lot of suffering often have an extreme change of attitude, including Elie, Shlomo, Rabbi Eliahou, and Moshe the Beadle. Elie Wiesel sharing his story about German concentration

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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.

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Kamalpreet Kaur 10/25/2015 2nd period English 11 Final Draft Essay Night by Elie Wiesel is a Holocaust memoir about his experience with his father in the Nazi German concentration camps in Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944–1945. Elie Wiesel was born in Sighet, Transylvania on September 30th, 1928. On December 10, 1986, in the Oslo City Hall, Norway, Elie Wiesel delivered The Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech. Elie Wiesel is a messenger to a variety of mankind survivors from The Holocaust talked about their experiences in the camps and their struggle with faith through the

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476 Words | 2 Pages

The Holocaust and its memories is a touchy subject and can sometimes be accused of not having its full validity and truthfulness. Some accuse Elie Wiesel’s Night to be made up or exaggerated, while others believe everything that is said in the book really happened. In my opinion, Elie Wiesel’s Night was not a total lie or fabrication, but I do believe some of it was exaggerated out of fear, hallucination, paranoia, etc. After discussing all of his experiences and struggles throughout the Holocaust, there are some aspects of the story that can be questionable to the reader.

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863 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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When he no longer accepted god, he had no other thing besides his father to live for. “Man is a creature of faith as much as reason” (Economist 77). It is faith that gives man reason and a will to live. Though the way one might accept his fate may appear involuntary, Victor Frankl claims that man has a choice to hold on to his faith. Elie Wiesel’s relative, Stein, for example, chose to give up on faith and his life when he realized his wife and children were dead.

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779 Words | 4 Pages

Earlier, a man had asked that question while a young boy was hanged alongside the adults, murdered at the hands of the Nazis. “Behind me, I heard the same man asking: ‘Where is God now?’” (Wiesel, 72). At this moment, Elie and many others began to question their faith.

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611 Words | 3 Pages

In the memoir Night, the narrator Elie Wiesel recounts a moment when he questioned God, ¨Blessed be God’s name? Why, but why would I bless him? Every fiber in me rebelled, he caused thousands of children to burn his Mass graves?¨(Wiesel 68). Overall, Wiesel does not follow the words of God and is not believing in him anymore because he thinks God is the one thatś letting all the inhumanity occur. One theme in Night is that inhumanity can cause disbelief or incredulity.

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