When Night Falls in Elie Wiesel's Book, Night

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.

He used to be a religious person, but then he loses his faith and starts to slowly lose his religious beliefs. He does not understand why God would let such a bad thing happen to the Jews. He at one point says “I did not deny God’s existence, but I doubted His absolute justice” (Wiesel 42). He just thinks that God is not as powerful as he thought. He used to be very serious about his religion.

This indicates that his belief in God was strong and can guide with answers. However, Wiesel was soon to lose his optimism in God when he was sent to the concentration camp.

Faith is like a little seed; if you think about the positive aspects of a situation, then it will grow, like a seed grows when you water it. However, if the seed does not receive water anymore, it will die, which serves as a parallel to the horrors and antagonism of the concentration camps that killed Elie’s faith. After the analysis of the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, the reader can visualize the horrors and slaughter of millions of innocent people that occurred in concentration camps. Throughout the book, Wiesel explains how his faith in God was tested, as he was forced to leave his home, separated from his family, and observed the death all around him; he even witnessed children being thrown into huge ditches of fire alive. Elie felt abandoned, betrayed, and deceived by the God that he knew who was a loving and giving God. It was then he started to doubt His existence. Elie tried to hold on to his faith, but the childhood innocence had disappeared from within him, and he lost his faith in God completely.

People often begin to lose faith in God because of the results they faced from their life experiences. Some face things that seem cruel and unbearable while others are “confronted with the information presented from another viewpoint that rejects God” (Gospel Billboards). Elie was told by his father to never lose his faith in God, it would help him get through tough times and keep him strong. The faith is the only strong force that helped Elie Wiesel get through the Holocaust. Through experiences that involve cruel and unbearable moments, people start questioning whether God has the answers to life’s problems. This results in faith beginning to weaken, people stop communicating with God, which makes it easier for one’s faith to diminish. We encounter Elie questioning and refusing God, but also see his contradictory behavior he exhibits to praise. However, throughout the book, Eliezer witnesses and experiences things that leads him to lose his faith in his religion. The longer he stays in the concentration camps, the more he experiences and sees cruelty and suffering. Eliezer believes that people who pray to a God who allows their families to suffer and die are more stronger and forgiving to God. Elie was angry at God, he thought God didn’t deserve his praises or honors because he expected God to come save him but he never did. He observes people die and others around him slowly lose hope, starve, Elie ceases to believe that God could exist at all now. “Where He is? This

The holocaust is the most deadly genocide in the world that impacted millions of life by controlling and running life because of one mean man. In Elie Wiesel memoir, The Night is describing his own experience before, during and after the holocaust. He describes in meticulous details his experience in the concentration camps such as Auschwitz and Buna with is father. Wiesel depicts how the Nazi slowly destructs every interpersonal relationship in the Jews community. Within the autobiography, Wiesel shows how the interpersonal relationships are important within the population in general, in the concentration camp and in more precisely with is own relationship with his family.

Many themes exist in Night, Elie Wiesel’s nightmarish story of his Holocaust experience. From normal life in a small town to physical abuse in concentration camps, Night chronicles the journey of Wiesel’s teenage years. Neither Wiesel nor any of the Jews in Sighet could have imagined the horrors that would befall them as their lived changed under the Nazi regime. The Jews all lived peaceful, civilized lives before German occupation. Eliezer Wiesel was concerned with mysticism and his father was “more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin” (4). This would change in the coming weeks, as Jews are segregated, sent to camps, and both physically and emotionally abused. These changes and abuse would dehumanize

In his home place, Eli has an inquisitive mind about his religion and wants to absorb as much knowledge as possible. In Night it says, “...I became convinced that Moishe the Beadle would help me enter eternity, into that time when question and answer would become ONE”(5). In this statement Wiesel has an unbelievably strong bond with God. He has a mindset to worship God while learning all he can about his Father. Notwithstanding, faith takes a tragic change for the worse for him. Eliezer states, “ I did not fast. First of all, to please my father…. And then, there was no longer any reason for me to fast. I no longer accepted God’s silence. I turned that act into a symbol of rebellion, of protest against Him”(Night 69). In Elie’s times of hardships his faith drastically declines to the point he tries to rebel against God. This kind of behavior begins when he enters the camps. Providentially, whenever Wiesel leaves the camps his faith starts to restore. Elie states in “The Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech”, “But I have faith. Faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and even in His creation.” This statement means he accepts God’s actions since the Holocaust leads to a solution towards indifference. Eliezer not only sees his faith as a test in change of setting, but also in the conflicts he

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 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

In this passage Wiesel has become more overtly angry with God. He no longer hides behind the reverence he has grown up knowing. Rather he is openly charging God with not only the destruction of the Jewish people, but also with continually plaguing their thoughts. Having the false hope that God may one day save them seems like a cruel joke. Wiesel seems to be saying that if God has already decided not to save them, than the least He can do is quit allowing the people to pray to and follow Him.

belief of God, but throughout the events of World War II his faith slowly starts to wither away.

Later, on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, Elie was not able to celebrate the New Year with the other Jews in the camp. When the Rabbi said “Blessed be the Name of the Eternal,” Wiesel thought “Why, but why should I bless Him?” In these quotes, Wiesel’s frustration and anger is directed toward God because he has no one else to blame. He is appalled by everything happening around him, and cannot believe the God he spent all his time praying to was letting this happen. Wiesel’s faith in God waned while he was in the camps. Because he used to be a religious, Jewish person, losing his faith changes his

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

Due to the inhumane methods towards the Jews during the Holocaust, many lost their faith and commitment to Judaism. Jews were appalled that God, who was supposed to be their savior, abandoned them in a time where they needed him the most. Although many Jews kept their faith and did not question God’s mysterious ways, many did not have the same outlook. People assume that hard times strengthen people’s faith, but that was not always the case. During great tragedy's, people’s faith may disintegrate and become completely absent from their minds. Many prisoners including Elie Wiesel could not accept God’s silence and rebelled against their religious upbringing during the Holocaust.