Night The Word Sage By Elie Wiesel

In Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night the word “sage” is used to contrast between God and mankind. The memoir explains that in contrast to an omnipotent god a human may be forced to form a decision based on a limited knowledge base, as an example while in the camp Akiba Drummer completely loses faith in god’s benevolence; he even claims that “god is no longer with the prisoners.”(77) Because Akiba Drummer based this decision only on his own limited observations he arrived at an inccorect decision that caused him to lose “all incentive to fight;”(77) ultimately leading to his death. The memoir asserts that due to a lack of omnipotence humans often arrive at incorrect conclusions. Additionally in the memoir humanity unlike god is described as being

A “simple creature of flesh and bone”(76-77) is not seen as being capable of understanding god’s will. Unlike god a person’s views may be warped by emotion; someone may “suffer hell in [their] soul and [their] flesh.”(77) After the death of Akida Drummer the prisoners forget to pray for him as a direct result of their own suffering. Unlike a god they have been rendered unable to fulfill their promise to their friend because of their own emotional trauma. Sorrow and other emotional responses are described as a force capable of destroying one’s ability to reason. Furthermore humankind is not seen as having adequate trust in god’s will. Akiba Drummer sacrificed his life by not trusting in god’s will, as he essentially “[offers] his neck to the executioner. Despite Akiba Drummer’s regular study of religion he is unable to rationalize his suffering as a “divine test,”(77) thus he is unable to muster the strength to prevent his death. If he had trusted that god was indeed watching over him he would not have perished. In Elie Wiesel’s account night the term “sage” is used to contrast between humankind and God; additionally his ideas on the topic can be applied to a variety of issues