Loss Of Faith In Night By Elie Wiesel

“I have not lost faith in God [despite] moments of anger and protest; sometimes I have been closer to him for that reason.” Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel explains the struggle of his changing beliefs in God during the Holocaust in his memoir Night. In Night, Elie Wiesel, a religious boy, is taken to several concentration camps along with other Jews, and separated from everyone in his family except for his father. He and his father live dangerous lives in the concentration camps, from being beaten, watching other prisoners die, and being close to death, until eventually Elie’s father dies and the camp is liberated. As Elie Wiesel’s time in the Holocaust lengthens, his devoutness in God begins to diminish.

In Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie wrote about his journey through the Holocaust and how it impacted his faith. Before the Holocaust, Elie became very passionate about Judaism, but his learning was stopped abruptly because the Nazis had arrived. The Nazis took away his teacher, along with his neighbors. Soon, the Nazis came back for the remaining citizens and loaded them into a train. This was the beginning of the Holocaust, in which Elie would experience many horrific events. Throughout Night, Elie’s faith decreases because of the harsh conditions of concentration camps and the declining health of his father.

What would it do to a person to go to a concentration camp, see the horrible things, and come out alive? This book, Night, is about Eliezer Wiesel, who is both the main character and the author. Elie’s book is a memorial about his experience in Hitler’s concentration camps, what he went through, and how he survived. This paper is going to be about Eliezer’s horrific experience and the ways that it changed him.

Night, by Elie Wiesel, showed the devastation of Eliezer’s childhood and illustrated the loss of innocence through the evil of others. Elie Wiesel expressed to us that one’s own faith and beliefs can be challenged through torture and ongoing suffering. The novel, Night, allowed the reader to witness the change in Eliezer from one of an innocent child who strongly adhered to his faith in God into a person who questioned not only his faith and God but of himself as well. The cruelty is shown to him while in the concentration camp forced him to wonder if there was a God and if so why would he put him and the others through such torture. Through his suffering, Eliezer’s beliefs dramatically and negatively changed his faith in God and compelled him to experience a transformative relationship with his father.

The early 1940s, an observant, young boy, and his caring father: the start of a story that would become known throughout the world of Eliezer Wiesel. His eye-opening story is one of millions born of the Holocaust. Elie’s identity, for which he is known by, is written out word for word his memoir, Night. Throughout his journey, Elie’s voice drifts from that of an innocent teen intrigued with the teachings of his religion to that of a soul blackened by a theoretical evil consuming the Nazis and Hitler’s Germany. Elie Wiesel's memoir, Night, examines the theme of identity through the continuous motifs of losing one’s self in the face of death and fear, labeling innocent people for a single dimension of what defines a human being, and the oppression seen in the Holocaust based on the identities of those specifically targeted and persecuted.

Over the course of his time there, he is worked hard and witnesses horrific deaths. Because of all the traumatic events that occurred, he lost faith in the God he once believed in unconditionally. John Roth, author of In the Beginning, explained that the holocaust could only have happened if there was no God (35). However this is not true. In actuality, Eliezer explains that there is a God, he just does not believe in His power anymore. Elie does not say that he has become an atheist or that God had died as many people believe” (Brown 72). Elie simply does not believe in Him because of all the events that occurred while he was in the concentration camps.

Elie’s faith is very tight at the beginning of the memoir, he had faith in God when he and the other Jews of Sighet were taken to the ghettos. “And we, the Jews of Sighet, were waiting for better days, which would not be long in coming now'' (5). This show that Elie’s faith was strong enough to believe that life would get better and the hardship would soon be over. It was not easy for Elie to have doubt in God when the Nazis were brutally oppressing the Jews in the ghettos. Once Elie and all the others were transported to Auschwitz, Elie was separated from his father and was tortured and forced to work. In the camp Elie was in, some of the youth with him were planning to take down the Nazis and said "We must do something. We can't let them kill us like that, like cattle in the slaughterhouse. We must revolt."(31). Then an

Have you ever been in a tough situation, where you lost all your hope and faith? People in the Holocaust did. The Holocaust, located in Auschwitz, was the most horrific event in the 20th century, which killed about six to ten million jews. In the memoir Night written by Elie Wiesel, a book about his experience in Auschwitz, his faith plays in an important role in his survival at the hands of the Nazis. Some of the major effects that challenged Eliezer’s faith was his dad. He wanted to stay for his dad but he also didn't want to live because he lost hope that they wouldn't be free, yet he endures through his belief through God.

In the beginning of the book, Night by Elie Wiesel, Eliezer’s faith was very devout. “Why did I pray? Strange Question. Why did i live? Why did I breathe?””(4). Eliezer prayed when in need and looked to God for answers, just like when the jews were evacuated to the ghettos. “Oh god, master of the universe, in your infinite compassion, have mercy on us...”(20). While in Auschwitz 1, Eliezer was starting to feel changed. He still believed in the existence of God but ceased to actually pray to him. “Some of the men spoke to God..but I doubted his absolute justice”(45). Eliezer then went on growing more questionable about God and his abilities.

Argument on Loss of Faith In the book, Night, by Elie Wiesel is about senseless acts of inhumanity. When senseless acts occur, it can leave the victims questioning their faith. When put through traumatic experiences, people who trust and have the most faith in God tend to blame their God after a traumatic event. The point of the theme is that people who have the most faith in God can lose their faith to God and not only God, humanity too.

In the novel “Night” by Elie Wiesel, the theme of God and Religion was able to play a vital role in describing the horrifying experience that the Jews faced from a new perspective. The events of the holocaust are usually described for its brutality and deadliness, but the impact of religion is rarely ever mentioned of. During the events of the holocaust, Wiesel’s faith experiences a change from the praising of God to completely losing his faith. The presence of God and religion was also able to create a sense of hope and optimism for some of the Jews, yet there were those that had completely lost their faith. Wiesel’s faith experienced a change during the holocaust that led him to eventually lose his faith completely, and even go to the extent of rebellion.

"I was very, very religious. And of course I wrote about it in 'Night.' I questioned God's silence. So I questioned. I don't have an answer for that.

Furthermore, as the story progresses, Elie stays the same person, but seems to gain a new view. He admits that he has lost faith in God, but still reverts back to pray out of habit and the comfort that it brings as it is all he has from his life before the concentration camps. However, he acknowledges the fact that praying to God is a comfort. Elie tells himself that he will not become like Rabbi Eliahou’s son. “And, in spite of myself, a prayer rose in my heart, to that God whom I no longer believed” (pg 87). This quotation takes place near the end of the book. Eliezer has completely lost faith in God, but he still has faith and confidence in himself. Although other characters in Night were broken without their faith in God, Eliezer’s ability

Elie’s loss of morality and faith Why does Elie go against his own morality? In Night by Elie Wiesel? Elie is a teenager wanting to better himself by learning Kabhalla. Later the town he lived in got invaded by german soldiers. Elie and his family were taken and later got separated from his mother and sister.

In the book “night” Elies faith and his relationship with God change while he is in the concentration camp, because he finds out that he wasn’t going to leave anytime soon, so he starts losing his faith in humanity, and he questions wether he should continue believing in his god. Elies crisis of faith is shared with other prisoners as well.