Representation Of Loss Of Faith In Night By Elie Wiesel

Maranata Woche

Intro to Ethnic Studies

Mr. Lee

October 22, 2015 Night Essay

In the book Night, written by Elie Wiesel, is an autobiography written to a representation of loss of faith from the very beginning to the end as a Jew in a concentration camp. Elie starts the story from when he was a child who was an Orthodox Jew. He would be so infatuated with his religion that when he prayed, he would start to cry. He goes on to explain, “I wept because…because of something inside me that felt the need to cry. That was all I knew,” (Wiesel

4). Even though he was so young, his faith in the Lord was stronger than most of the others Jews in the area, whether they were younger or older than him. Sadly, throughout the story you can

This is not the moment to separate,” he thinks to himself (Wiesel 82). As you can see in this quote, Elie realizes that he has to keep his goal and to strive to be alive for his father’s own health. Even though he hates the pain and torture that is on him and has given up all hope, his father was important to him even though he struggled to keep them both alive. Elie 's faith in himself is pretty much nonexistent by the end of the book and it is all dependent on his father needing him.

Throughout the book, you can see Elie slowly becoming more attached to his father. You can see the concentration camp causing a huge change in all of the father and son relationships.

Elie and his father’s relationship goes in a different direction than most of the father and son relationships, they get closer to one another. At first, you can see Elie 's father was too busy with work and doing deeds for the community, he pretty much ignores his son. Elie 's father does not want him to waste his time on studying a religion. Elie 's father replies by saying, “You are too young for that. Maimonides tells us that one must be thirty before venturing into the world of mysticism, a world fraught with peril. First you must study the basic subjects, those

He says to himself, “I continued to devote myself to my studies, Talmud during the day and Kabbalah at night,” (Wiesel 8). Here in this quote, you can see the determination Elie has to learn about Judaism. Most children would not think twice about studying about a religion all day and night, but to Elie it was the greatest subject to learn. This proves how devoted Elie is as a Jew, he was always practicing Jewish traditions. As Elie arrives in Birkenau, all of the traditions and faith in God start to change. He starts to believe that what is happening to him is not what the “real” God would do. He starts to question why God is letting these terrible events happen to him and even starts to question if God is even real. “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?” explains Elie (Wiesel 33). Here Elie starts to question if God and his beliefs have become one of the fates that God had planned for them. He starts to get upset with God when he does not see his situation get any better and has no way out. Here is when Elie starts to question his faith