Sandra
Elie Wiesel was a twelve year old boy who just wanted to learn about ‘The secrets of the Jewish Mysticism, but ended up getting a world of hurt instead in the upcoming years of his life.
In the beginning, Elie was just like any other religious boy who believed in god or whoever he prayed every night in the synagogue. He was a happy and safe young prodigy who focused on school; his parents ran a shop with his other siblings. Kids were running in the streets; life seemed normal and tranquil for a while, until it wasn’t any longer. Once the Germans came into their town, everything changed for Elie and his family. Throughout the book Night, Elie goes from being devout to being skeptical during his entire journey. The first event that occurred causing Elie to become more skeptical, was when the Germans established the ghettos in Sighet. They were able to live in their own house with the exception of their other relatives, which was in the first ghetto; but then the Jews got forced to move and live in another ghetto. Consequently, he lost all of their possessions and a bit of their freedom. Elie started to slowly lose his faith slowly, life for him was still good regardless of the germans using the Jews as slaves for the things they needed to get done. “Little by little life returned to normal”. This quote explains there were times where Elie got false hope about living situations and life would get better, that this currently was just a nightmare and only a nightmare;
In life all will encounter countless obstacles, good and bad, and all must learn how to live through it. In Night, by Elie Wiesel, he was experiencing depressing times and he a Jewish philosopher, had turned away from God. Elie Wiesel's temptation, caused from his grievous situation should not have allowed him to forget who God was. If Elie Wiesel had remembered Psalm 34:17 and Proverbs 3:5-6 he would have acknowledged God in all his hardships.
The spiritual change in Elie was substantial. He went from a pious, devout Jew who spent countless of hours studying his faith. He never questioned God, but that is probably because everything was always good. During his stay at the concentration camps, Elie never stops believing in God, although he does question what he is doing. On page 64, Elie says, “Why, but why I should I bless Him? In every fiber I rebelled. Because He had thousands of children burned in His pits? Because He kept six crematories working night and day, on Sundays and feast days? Because in His great might He had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many factories of death?…” This shows the
In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, he tells his story of the Holocaust and how the Nazis tried to destroy the jewish race.. In the Holocaust, the Nazis thought the Jews were less than them. Elie tells the story of how the Nazis tried to eliminate the Jews. . The Naizs treated the Jewish people badly because they dehumanized them, they treated them as they were nothing, and the Nazis destroyed the Jews from the inside out.
In the text, ‘Night’, Elie survives because he keeps alive the hope of survival. An example of this is when he lies about his age and his occupation. “’I’m eighteen’. My voice was trembling” (page 33), this quote is evidence that Elie lied about his age so he does not get thrown into the crematorium, for being too young. Another example of Elie keeping the hope of survival alive is when he outcasts his father and decides to eat his rations. Elie does this because he knows that his father is sick and dying and he cannot help him besides watching him slowly die. Because of this his father has become a burden for Elie, lowing his chances of survival, and when Elie’s father dies Elie feels free from that burden. “And deep inside me, if I could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience, I might have found something like: Free at last!” (Page 112), this quote evidence
When Elie and his family are sent to a concentration camp, he is fortunate enough to not be separated from his father. At first, this is a relief, and is father is his will to survive. “The idea of dying, of ceasing to be, began to fascinate me. To no longer exist. To no longer feel the excruciating pain of my foot… My father’s presence was the only thing that stopped me. He was running next to me, out of breathe, out of strength, desperate. I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his sole support.”(86)
“Fire! I see a fire! I see a fire” (Wiesel 24)! Mrs. Schächter yelled to the other people on the train, warning them about what was going to happen. In the book Night Elie describes the life that he had during the Holocaust. This book is about how a twelve year old boy puts his old life behind and illustrates the many hardships that Hitler caused the Jewish people.
There have been tons of events recorded over the years, but nothing has ever reached the scale of the Holocaust. During the events of the Holocaust, the most deadly time in recorded history, many people, specifically people that practiced the Jewish religion, went into work camps and never came out. In the award winning novel entitled “Night” by Elie Wiesel, the main character and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Elie, changes from before his stay in the most infamous camp, Auschwitz, and after he got out alive.
Elie was deeply devoted to his faith at the beginning but as the story progresses he loses that devotion and barely believes that there is a God that exists. The first signs of him losing his faith was when he arrived at the first camp and saw the horrible things people were doing to the Jews. Other people around him had already lost faith in God and Elie was beginning to doubt God due to Him allowing people to do this to others. “His
Things end up changing very slightly and quickly for Elie. At the camp, they were standing, waiting to find out whether he and his father were going to the crematoria to be burned alive along with other people and their children. Everybody was saying Kaddish, a Jewish prayer, for themselves and others, and after Elie heard his father whisper it, Elie tells the reader, “For the first time, I felt anger rising within me. Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank him for?” (pg. 33) Elie was starting to lose faith in the God that he had worshipped and cherished so
As humans, we require basic necessities, such as food, water, and shelter to survive. But we also need a reason to live. The reason could be the thought of a person, achieving some goal, or a connection with a higher being. Humans need something that drives them to stay alive. This becomes more evident when people are placed in horrific situations. In Elie Wiesel's memoir Night, he reminisces about his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust. There the men witness horrific scenes of violence and death. As time goes on they begin to lose hope in the very things that keep them alive: their faith in God, each other, and above all, themselves.
Let me ask you this; How would you respond if you were thrown onto a cattle car, sent to a work at a concentration camp, for possible the rest of your life, and, in the process, have your family sent to their death? Don’t forget you face all this while being starved and forced to fight for your life. That seems like a completely ridiculous question, but for millions of Jews during World War II, it was the exact situation they experienced. Night, a memoir by Elie Wiesel, tells the story about the cruel treatment Jewish prisoners experienced and how that turned them into savages. As you will see, Elie himself will not be able to escape this fate, but I do believe he didn’t quite reach the same level as some of the others.
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
Originally a devout Jew, Elie can no longer believe in a God who would permit such nightmare places to exist and begins to question his faith and views of the Almighty. In the beginning of the
He has a very strong connection to God and trusts him. In the middle of the story, Elie away to a concentration camp where his family is seperated. He is starting to lose his faith in God after seeing the horrors of the camp. In the end by the time Elie is freed he has lost all faith in God and doesn't even believe he exists. Throughout the story, we can see his faith fading away.
4.Is there such a thing as morality in “survival” mode? Can a person right from wrong when they are suffering?