Elie Wiesel Character Analysis Essay In the memoir Night, Elie Wiesel recounts his experiences and the affects that they had on him during the Holocaust. Throughout the novel the reader gets to see Elie’s transformation from a religious, sweet little boy to the shell of a man that was left after his experience. During Elie’s traumatic experiences we can observe him going through several changes both physically and mentally. Before the Holocaust Elie was a devout Jew who dedicated himself to learning the complexities of his religion. He was only thirteen when he was determined to learn the ways of Kabbalism. He sought after a master to help guide him in Kabbalism. He soon found Moishe the Beadle, a homeless Jew, to be his master. The following the quote from Night conveys just how significant his religion was to him. “I continued to devote myself to my studies, Talmud during the day and Kabbalah at night.” (p.8) Elie was so devoted to his studies that it pretty much consumed most of his life at that point. Moishe, his master, was later exiled for being a foreign Jew. When Moishe miraculously returned he tried to warn them …show more content…
The traumas he had endured at the various concentration camps have completely drained him of every drop of his spirituality. At this point he could only be bothered by the development of starvation. The only worries he had was wondering when his next meal would be or if he’ll even have a next meal. “Hunger was tormenting us; we had not eaten for nearly six days except for a few stalks of grass and some potato peels found in the grounds of the kitchens.” (p.114) That quote just shows how desperate they were. They were so deprived of food that they would try to find anything to sustain them. At one point they even went to such lengths of trying to survive that they would eat the snow that accumulated off of each other's