A Literary Analysis Of Elie Wiesel's Night

Night is a dramatic book that tells the horror and evil of the concentration camps that many were imprisoned in during World War II. Throughout the book the author Elie Wiesel, as well as many prisoners, lost their faith in God. There are many examples in the beginning of Night where people are trying to keep and strengthen their faith but there are many more examples of people rebelling against God and forgetting their religion.

It can be hard for someone to imagine that a person he/she loves and praises would have the potential to betray him or her. Elie feels that way every single day when God betrays him in the novel Night, he then finds himself questioning his faith very often. Through this text, the Elie Wiesel begins to lose his faith as well as many other prisoners in the camp and he believes God is just watching him suffer and not helping him or anyone else. Elie was a strong believer of God, but Elie realized God wouldn’t do this to the Jews and Elie felt is was best to stop believing in someone who isn’t helping him. He wondered if good things happened anymore. Therefore, Elie starts to lose his faith when God no longer loves him and doesn’t help him when he needs the most help.

In the end of the novel, an event occurs when the prisoners’ ghastly run from the country Buna. This demonstrates how the prisoners' godly point of view holds survival to be the most surprising standard and all other significant qualities to be useless. In the Jewish petition, God is frequently seen as a "ruler of the Universe." At this point, the prisoners have given up on their belief of God and they themselves are the experts of the nature around them. Elie’s encounters have informed him of his miserable sense that isolates him from everyone else.

When Elie would arrive to new locations he always thought about the good side, his mother and sisters were taken away from him at the beginning, but he still had his father who gave him hope. His dad had not lost faith which influenced Elie to not lose complete faith in God. Elie said that he had moments of anger and protest that put him closer to God. Elie knows many Jews died for a reason, he is a strong believer that everything happens for a reason, he says “If I survived, it must be for some reason” (Berger). He knows he was put on the Earth for a purpose. Whenever God decides to take him he’ll take all his good and bad memories with

Bad times, times of hardship will make you question your faith. In this passage Elie is disobedient towards his God. "As for me, I have cease to pray. I concurred with job! I was not denying his existence, but doubted his absolute justice."(Wiesel 45). While other prisoners had gathered to sing and pray, Ellie did not feel the need to join them. He resented God, he

When they arrived, the people in Buna told them that it is a good camp, and “one can hold one’s own here (Wiesel 47)”. There, they are forced to witness the hanging of a young boy. Elie heard a man say, “‘For God’s sake, where is God?( Wiesel 65)’” and Elie found himself responding, “‘Where He is? This is where - hanging here from this gallows… (Wiesel 65)’”. After all the death and torment Elie had been exposed to, he could no longer hold on to the beliefs he lived by before he was taken captive. Elie was longer is the person who was able to “...read, over and over again, the same page of the Zohar. Not to learn it by heart but to discover within the very essence of divinity (Wiesel 5).”. The only question Elie had left was how God could let this happen to him, and he knew he would never get the answer. Because of the dehumanizing treatment Elie received, his faith in God and everything he believed him was

During World War II, Hitler's final solution was to annihilate all the Jews. He sent all the Jews to multiple concentration camps, breaking their families up and forcing them to do brutal things. In the book Night, Elie Wiesel tells us about how his experiences in the camps were. He and his father gets split away from his mother and other siblings, so he has to look out for his father like his father has to look out for Elie. Throughout the book, Elie gives examples of how he loses his faith in God.

Elie was almost angry that God was not saving the lives of the Jew’s. He continuously challenged God and repeatedly wondered if God’s presence was within the Jewish community. As noted on page 66, Elie questioned, “Why do you (God) keep on troubling these poor people’s wounded minds, their ailing bodies?" Elie’s statements were in opposition to the belief he once had. He was no longer living under God’s hands, and rather at his own

The tone I get from this author is that Elie is doubting his beliefs that he has had his whole life. He no longer worships God and doesn’t follow the Tanakh. He feels anger and betrayal towards God.

In the ghetto Jews were not allowed to attend religious gatherings, public establishments , and were given a curfew. People get settled and figure out it is not that awful. People create groups and live their normal lives. Here Elie’s relationship with God is still strong because he thinks they will stay there until the war is over. After being at the concentration camp for a while, Elie notices that it brings out the worst in the prisoners, nazis, and himself. When the pipel is hung someone in the crowd asks where God is. Elie says to himself, “where He is? This is where - hanging here from this gallows… (65).” This means that God is dead to Elie. When they ate soup that night it tasted of corpses, Elie had watched other hangings before, but that particular event really got to Elie because it’s when he realized that he doesn’t know God

Another example of the idea of the loss of faith in God by Elie is when he questions of his praise towards God and soon realizing there was no use towards praying nor thanking him anymore, “ For the first time, I felt anger rising within me, why should I sanctify his name? The Almighty, the eternal and the terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for?” Elie’s thoughts reveal his surroundings as he begins to realize God’s nonexistence of hope. If not even one’s answer is not supported or stated by God after all the cruelty that the Jews had gone through and suffered for no reason, then there is no reason to present faith for God as seen from Elie’s point of view.

“What are you, my God?”(Wiesel 66) Elie cannot and will not celebrate because God has let Elie down numerous occasions. God has only shown cowardice, leaving only misery and despair for these innocent people to sanctify a God who does not care for his people.”Yes, manis stronger, greater than God.”(Wiesel 67) Elie makes examples such as “when Adam and Eve deceived you, you created chased them from paradise.”It is to show what God is really like and to Elie’s eyes be is nothing but a coward. He betrayed his followers and believers letting them be gassed, burned and starved . Though “They pray before you! They praise your name!”(Wiesel 68)Elie now is showing his true feelings about

The silences of god through Elie's eyes is why he starts to question his faith in god. Elie has been through a large number of misfortunes

As situations become tougher in Auschwitz, Elie loses his faith in God. When the prisoners are forced to watch their fellow Jews get hanged, Elie hears a voice behind him, “For God’s sake, where is God?” Elie thinks to himself, “Where He is? This is where-hanging here from this gallows…” This demonstrates how Elie has no more confidence in God. Elie never would have thought that God would let his people suffer from watching friends, family or fellow Jews be hanged. Afterward, around ten thousand men gathered to recite the prayers of death. The prayer starts just like every other prayer, “Blessed be God’s name.” Even though they are reciting a prayer, Elie does not understand how everyone still believes in saying this, even believing that God

hanging here on this gallows...." (Wiesel 62). Elie feels as if it is God who his hanging from the