Elie Wiesel's Night Essays

First, the reader views Wiesel’s personality changes as a result of life in Auschwitz. Perhaps the most obvious change is his steadily increasing disinterest of religion. Before his internment, Wiesel demonstrates a growing interest in the religion of his parents. During the day, he studied Talmud, a legal commentary on the Torah, or the Jewish Ten Commandments. At night, he would worship at the synagogue, “to weep over the

In Night Wiesel struggles with his religion through the genocide process of the Jews, instituted by the Nazis. Though Wiesel loses his faith in God, he does not however stop believing in God. He loses faith that God is an all loving God. This is demonstrated when Wiesel says, “I was not denying His existence, but doubted His absolute justice” (45). An incident in Night where Wiesel also demonstrates that God is not the all-loving God he ounce thought is when a young boy is strangled on the gallows, and a group of Jews are lined up to watch as the boy struggles between life and death for more than half an hour. When a man had asked, “Where is God” (65)? Someone answered, “Where He is? This is where, hanging here from this gallows” (65). In that moment, the God whom Wiesel adored and his

Wiesel’s faith changes from being a strong believer in faith before the war to losing faith while during the war, he goes on to talk about him losing faith by saying “Some of the men spoke of God: His mysterious ways, the sins of the Jewish people, and the redemption to come. As for me, I had ceased to pray. I concurred with Job! I was not denying His existence, but I doubted His absolute justice.” (Pg.63). This quote goes on to demonstrate the loss of faith by Wiesel when being tortured by the Germans with the rest of the millions of Jews. Wiesel also loses faith when he says “Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes .”(Pg. 34) When Wiesel say this it implicates that his faith is being lost, and also he feels that his faith is basically being robbed from him by the German Nazis party. This fully show that he had lost faith but this shows what harshness and cruelty can do to a

Wiesel’s inclusion of this quote shows readers that he was appalled by the inhuman prisoners and concentration camp leaders. One of the reasons for Wiesel becoming so traumatized by the evils of humanity is his prior belief that people would help each other in times of need. Halperin writes, “Before coming to Auschwitz, Eliezer had believed that twentieth-century man was civilized. He had supposed that people would try to help one another in difficult times; certainly his father and teachers had taught him that every Jew is responsible for all other Jews” (Halperin 33). Convinced that people were kind and that Jews would help one another, Wiesel was greatly disappointed after coming to a tragic realization in the concentration camps. Wiesel was robbed, pushed, beaten, and betrayed by his fellow Jews at the camps. Contrary to his prior belief that Jews should be working together, the other Jews invested in themselves. They cared, solely, about their own well being. In including the evils of the other prisoners, Wiesel is able to show readers that due to the lack of innocence within the concentration camps, it was inevitable for him to lose his

When Elie Wiesel was a kid, he had extreme faith in his religion. Moshe the Beadle is the first person to question Wiesel’s faith. Moshe the Beadle asks Elie Wiesel why he prays; after pondering the thought, Wiesel replies, “I don’t know why” (p. 2). Elie Wiesel does not know the reason why he prays to God when he doesn’t receive anything back. His faith now seems weaker, despite the hours he devotes to God. God gives him Moshe the Beadle when he wants to study the cabala, and his father won’t help him, but once Wiesel arrives at the concentration camp, God shows no such help as he did at that time. Although God may have left Wiesel, his father stepped up to take care of him and show him that all

Wiesels faith in god went on a rollercoaster during the Holocaust. At the beginning of the book Wiesel mentioned how him and his friends stayed in the synagogue during all hours of the day, meaning that his faith in god is very strong. On page 27 wiesel was very thankful for his relationship with god. Wiesel mention that his “god was murdered” during the middle of the book Night (Wiesel 34). On page 77 Wiesel said something along the lines of why should he be merciful to god as he is “a simple creature of flesh and bone”. Around page 35 Wiesel was thanking god though which was confusing to me, as on page 34 he talked about his god being murdered.

In the May of 1944, Wiesel is first sent to Auschwitz. This is where he, along with the other Jews, learn how people are no longer treated like human beings. They are not treated like human beings anymore because, they are forced to give up the things that mean a lot to them such as their hair, shoes, and even their lives if they are not considered strong enough to be working. Not only do they realize that, but they just can not come up with an answer to why people could be so harsh and heartless. Wiesel starts to think to himself, “ How could it be possible for them to burn people, children, and for the world to keep silent?” (Wiesel 41). How is possible that any human would want to hurt a child? How can others

He states here, “As for me, I had ceased to pray. I concurred with Job! I was not denying His existence, but I doubted His absolute justice,” (Wiesel 45). The act of praying that he had been asked about before, and had been flabbergasted by the question, was now an act, or symbol, of revenge toward God. Along with the loss of faith, came the feeling of being greater than God when refusing to take part in worshipping Him. “On the contrary, I felt very strong. I was the accuser, God the accused … but I felt myself to be stronger than this Almighty to whom my life had been bound for so long … I no longer accepted God’s silence. As I swallowed my ration of soup, I turned that act into a symbol of rebellion” (Wiesel 68-69). And eventually, Wiesel reveals that he no longer believed in God, “And in spite of myself, a prayer formed inside me, a prayer to this God in whom I no longer believed” (Wiesel 91). Even when prayer was the action he refused to partake in while his faith was slowly declining, it was the only thing he could do to reassure himself and feel helped--even if he prayed to the God that he no longer believed in. Horrible events drive people to test their

Wiesel struggled a lot with his faith in Night. Before the Holocaust he had full faith in God. But his faith and trust in God started to slip throughout his time in the concentration camp. The breaking point in where Wiesel completely lost his faith in God was when the young pipel was hung. After witnessing

After his first night in the camp, Wiesel states, “Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live”. Wiesel does not want to live in a world where people no longer fight for others, in a world which can remain silent even when it means the death of others. His faith had been “consumed… forever”, and his God murdered. God’s silence deprived him of his faith and of his will to live. It destroyed his soul and his dreams and he was exposed to the evils of mankind that many would never see in a lifetime. At a young age Wiesel was forced to reconsider all that he believed, as his God had betrayed him. About half way through the novel, Wiesel recalls one particular role call that was different from the rest. Hangings were a normality, however that night a pipel would be hung: a child. This pipel had been tortured for days simply for being silent, and not giving names of people who had committed crimes in the camp. Even the Lagerkapo, the head of the camp, refused to be the executor. As the pipel was being hung a man cried out “For God’s sake, where is God?”, to which Wiesel says, “And from within me I heard a voice answer:... ‘Hanging here from this gallows”. The voice that came from within Wiesel was uncontrollable. He did not want to doubt the almighty, however God’s silence placed mistrust and uncertainty in his mind which forced out Wiesel’s voice. God’s

Elie Wiesel is a young, teenage, Jewish boy involuntarily placed in Nazi concentration camps. The concentration camps tested Elie’s sincerity of his faith. All of the inhumane events, destruction, and absent childhood, forced a method of non-belief on Elie and his fellow beings. In Elie Wiesel's Night, faith is seen as a controversial topic, and challenged throughout the beginning, middle, and end of the story.

Night is a memoir written by Elie Wiesel, a young Jewish boy, who tells of his experiences during the Holocaust. Elie is a deeply religious boy whose favorite activities are studying the Talmud and spending time at the Temple with his spiritual mentor, Moshe the Beadle. At an early age, Elie has a naive, yet strong faith in God. But this faith is tested when the Nazi's moves him from his small town.

In the memoir, Night, author Elie Wiesel portrays the dehumanization of individuals and its lasting result in a loss of faith in God. Throughout the Holocaust, Jews were doggedly treated with disrespect and inhumanity. As more cruelty was bestowed upon them, the lower their flame of hope and faith became as they began turning on each other and focused on self preservation over family and friends. The flame within them never completely died, but rather stayed kindling throughout the journey until finally it stood flickering and idle at the eventual halt of this seemingly never-ending nightmare. Elie depicts the perpetuation of violence that crops up with the Jews by teaching of the loss in belief of a higher power from devout to doubt they

For example Wiesel thinks, “May his name be celebrated and sanctified… for the first time i felt anger… The Almighty… chose to be silent… what was there to thank Him for?” (Wiesel 33) Wiesel says God chose to be silent, but did he? Or was he ignoring that in any of this suffering there could be good and a good God? He wasn't just angry at his father in this moment. He was angry at God. To further explain Wiesel overhears another man say, “For God’s sake, Where is God?” (Wiesel 65) This demonstrates it wasn't just Wiesel in the camp waiting for a miracle from God. Everyone felt lost without God, in the dark, alone. Their faith being murdered by how they felt in times of pain and

This is shown in the memoir as Wiesel starts to question his faith and what he believes in, which is illustrated when he says “My eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God, without man” (Wiesel 66). This quote takes place during Rash Hashanah, in which he participates in but not only has he questioned his faith, but he has lost his belief in God’s goodness and he truly believed that God would not help them. He even later goes on to say that man is stronger than god which is a huge shift in his beliefs. This example shows exactly how much Wiesel’s outlook changed. Before getting sent to the concentration camps, his beliefs were all he had. His belief and faith in God was very strong and the memoir even starts out with him wanting to practice Kabbalah- the study of Jewish mysticism. This is key because now, we see him with completely different views on God, because as he went from camp to camp and saw death after death he felt slowly God die in his heart. He no longer believed in God, this even though he still said prayers of desperation to the God he no longer believed. Wiesel clearly illustrates the idea of dehumanization changing what someone used to believe because of how they view the world after going through these horrific