Night By Elie Wiesel Research Paper

It was up to me to protect myself, not God or my parents; it was all up to me. I had always believed in the man himself, studied and worshiped him, and I honestly believed God would help me through the most challenging times, however, he wasn't there for the hangings, beatings, marches, or indeed anything else. The main character of Elie Wiesel's memoir Night, Elie Wiesel describes his experience of the Holocaust as a religious young boy, demonstrating to readers the loss of faith as he encounters inhumanity. During the Holocaust, Elie goes through an internal crisis that puts his faith in God to the test and forces him to confront his doubts, which included delusion, anger, and rage. He was initially interested in Jewish beliefs and ideals,

Elie's faith is quickly questioned after the first night in the Auschwitz concentration camp, “Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never” (34). When he arrives at Auschwitz, a Nazi concentration camp, he is instantly affected by the sights he and his father have observed, such as babies, family, and friends being burned into ashes, and his faith being consumed by the crematoria flames. Elie's first night at the concentration camp caused him to question God, making it difficult for him to understand why God would put him in such a place. Doubting everything he had done to praise God before Elie asked, “What are You, my God? I thought angrily. How do You compare to this stricken mass gathered to affirm to You their faith, their anger, their defiance?” (66). As Elie experiences and witnesses increasing dehumanization, his faith turns into anger, blaming God for all the actions he has allowed the Germans to commit, feeling betrayed and frustrated when all he has ever done is laud him, as he is now being punished in this manner. Elie like some other Jews was still struggling with the thought that even as they are starved,

When Yom Kippur arrived, Elie faced a choice between adhering to the fasting tradition or rebelling against his religion. Finally, he made a decision, “And then, there was no longer any reason for me to fast. I no longer accepted God's silence. As I swallowed my ration of soup, I turned that act into a symbol of rebellion, of protest against Him. And I nibbled on my crust of bread. Deep inside me, I felt a great void opening” (69). The presence of Elie's internal struggle with whether or not to eat demonstrates how his faith in God has changed. Eating on Yom Kippur represents the blame he attributes to God and how Eliezer is now choosing to turn his back on him and revelation for his abandonment. Although Elie had already accepted the fact that God was no longer with him he still raged about the fact that God fully betrayed them, "...look at these men whom You have betrayed, allowing them to be tortured, slaughtered, gassed, and burned, what do they do? They pray before You! They praise Your name!” (68). He conveys his displeasure with God for abandoning his people by using the word "you." Elie was no longer innocent or naive because he had been stripped of his clothes as well as his humanity, and Elie, the religious young boy who had devoted his