A Dwindling Faith
"My eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God
" (Wiesel 68). Most people would think hard times would strengthen people's faith, that they would rely even more on their beliefs. But that is not always the case. In times of great crises, people's faith may disintegrate to an almost nonexistent state. When people must look to physical things like food for survival, spiritual things like faith tend to be dropped. It has no use anymore.
Night by Elie Wiesel is a dramatic book that tells the horror and evil of the concentration camps that many were imprisoned in during World War II. Throughout the book the author, and main character, Elie Wiesel, as well as many prisoners, lost their faith in God. People are trying to keep and strengthen their faith but they end up rebelling against God and forgetting their religion. Even Elie, who had been training to be a religious figure in the community.
Elie had a strong faith as a young child, and at an early age of twelve he went to his father and asked him to find him a tutor to teach him the Kabbala. His father refused with the reason that he was so young and that he should wait until he was older and knows more of what he wants. This reason did not satisfy Elie. He decided to take it into his own hands and he recruited Moishe the Beadle as his tutor, and he started his training behind his father's back and against his wishes.
What causes a young boy to want to be a religious figure in the community so much that he would defy his father's wishes to pursue his future in his beliefs? Strong faith. Elie had an undoubtedly strong faith and it would seem that nothing in the world could shake that faith. "He wanted to drive the idea of studying Kabbalah from my mind. In vain. I succeeded on my own in finding a master for myself in the person of Moishe the Beadle" (Wiesel. 4). Elie couldn't imagine anything changing his faith, but he hadn't known the biggest crises he would survive, but his faith wouldn't; the Holocaust.
One day, after he is sent to the camps, when Elie and his fellow inmates returned to the barracks from working, they saw three gallows and three men in chains, heading towards the gallows.
Before Elie’s hometown got invaded, he was extremely religious. He used to pray and feel the presence of God all around him causing him to shed tears of joy and even began
The book, Night, by Eliezer (Elie) Wiesel, entails the story of his childhood in Nazi concentration camps all around Europe. Around the middle of the 20th century in the early 1940s, Adolf Hitler and his Nazi army traveled around Europe in an effort to exterminate the Jewish population. As they went to through different countries in order to enforce this policy, Nazi officers sent every Jewish person they found to a concentration camp. Often called death camps, the main purpose was to dispose of people through intense work hours and terrible living conditions. Wiesel writes about his journey from a normal, happy life to a horrifying environment surrounded by death in the Nazi concentration camps. Night is an amazingly
Night is a dramatic book that tells the horror and evil of the concentration camps that many were imprisoned in during World War II. Throughout the book the author Elie Wiesel, as well as many prisoners, lost their faith in God. There are many examples in the beginning of Night where people are trying to keep and strengthen their faith but there are many more examples of people rebelling against God and forgetting their religion.
Night by Elie Wiesel was a memoir on one of the worst things to happen in human history, the Holocaust. A terrible time where the Nazi German empire started to take control of eastern Europe during WWII. This book tells of the terrible things that happened to the many Jewish people of that time. This time could easily change grown men, and just as easily a boy of 13. Elie’s relationship with God and his father have been changed forever thanks to the many atrocities committed at that time.
In the novel Night, by Elie Wiesel, Wiesel changes immensely by the experiences he encounters on his journey through the ghettos, labor camps, and concentration camps. These experiences alter his perspective and faith in humanity; consequently distorting his personality. At the beginning of the book, Wiesel is a religious and faithful teenager. He wants to expand his religious studies to mysticism and explore the Jewish religion as well. This begins to fade when he realizes that Jewish people, including babies and small children, are being burned in the crematorium and thrown into mass graves or holes in the ground. He also sees others being tortured and starved by the S.S officers. As a result, he begins to realize that if God was the divine
Devotion towards another human being must be developed, it does not occur instantaneously. In the autobiography Night, Elie was not so much concerned with the welfare of his family while living in Sighet, Transylvania. Elie goes against his father when it comes to his religious studies, “One day I asked my father to find me a master who could guide me in my studies of the Kabbalah. ‘You are too young for that’” (Wiesel 4). Just as most children, Elie does not accept his father’s answer. Elie finds his own teacher, Moishe the Beadle. When forced into the struggles of concentration camp, Elie becomes faithful to his father. Elie does not have any friends or family members left. For this reason, his father becomes the reason for life itself. This devotion towards his father alters the reasons for his life’s continuance as a whole. This can be seen as life in the camp continues and Elie develops a selfless attitude. His only concern lies in the health of his loving father. Elie states, “My father’s presence was the only thing that stopped me. He was running next to me, out of breath, out of strength, desperate. I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his sole support” (Wiesel 86). This insta...
In the novel Night, Elie Wiesel faces the horrors of the Holocaust, where he loses many friends and family, and almost his life. He starts as a kind young boy, however, his environment influences many of the decisions he makes. Throughout the novel, Elie Wiesel changes into a selfish boy, thinks of his father as a liability and loses his faith in God as an outcome his surroundings.
The ground is frozen, parents sob over their children, stomachs growl, stiff bodies huddle together to stay slightly warm. This was a recurrent scene during World War II. Night is a literary memoir of Elie Wiesel’s tenure in the Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel created a character reminiscent of himself with Eliezer. Eliezer experienced cruelty, stress, fear, and inhumanity at a very young age, fifteen. Through this, he struggled to maintain his Jewish faith, survive with his father, and endure the hardships placed on his body and mind.
Night by Elie Wiesel is an autobiographical novel recording Mr. Wiesel’s experiences during the World War II holocaust. As a 15 year old boy Elie was torn from his home and placed in a concentration camp. He and his father were separated from his mother and his sisters. It is believed that they were put to death in the fiery pits of Auschwitz. The entire story is one of calm historical significance while there is a slight separation between the emotional trauma of what are occurring, and the often-detached voice of the author.
Eliezer loses hope, trust, and his beliefs. He begins to rely on himself because he knew that only he can help himself and he could not depend on anyone else. "Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever..."(pg 32). Elie's father was struck, and that was when he realized he was afraid of death, and he felt guilty because he did not help his father.
Elie, who was a teenager at the time of the novel, stood by his father’s side and assisted his father through physical challenges they had to face. Wiesel writes “I decided to give my father lessons in marching in step, in keeping time” (page 55). This shows that Elie is helping his father avoid the “selection” by giving him marching lessons to help him survive the death march. Elie stayed by his father’s side even in the harshest conditions. Elie writes “my father’s presence was the only thing that stopped me. He was running next to me out of breath, out of strength, desperate. I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his sole support” (page 86-87). This shows that Elie remained loyal to his father by staying with him no matter what. In conclusion Elie is considered a hero because of the familial commitment choice to stand by his
After being forced into concentration camps, Elie was rudely awakened into reality. Traumatizing incidents such as Nazi persecution or even the mistreatment among fellow prisoners pushed Elie to realize the cruelty around him; Or even the wickedness Elie himself is capable of doing. This resulted in the loss of faith, innocence, and the close bonds with others. Throughout his recollections, it is clear that Elie has a constant struggle with his belief in God. Prior to Auschwitz, Elie was motivated, even eager, to learn about Jewish mysticism.
When people are placed in difficult, desolate situations, they often change in a substantial way. In Night by Elie Wiesel, the protagonist, Elie, is sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp where he undergoes many devastating experiences. Due to these traumatic events, Elie changes drastically, losing his passion in God, becoming disconnected with his father, and maturing when it matters most.
‘I warned you,’ he shouted” (10). Moishe comes to warn Elie and his family that the Nazi are coming closer. In the excerpt Elie exhibits his poor decision making skills. Elie and his family did not listen to Moishe. This cost them them, because if they would have listened then they could have avoided the concentrations camps. Elie was a young boy, knowing little, he asked questions a lot, hoping he could find an answer. In the book Elie says “‘Why do you pray Moishe?’”(Wiesel 4). Elie is not afraid to ask people questions in order to find answers. Elie benefits later in the book because he asked so many questions in the past, he already knows the answers in the future. Elie liked to learn, especially about his religion Kabbalah. Elie asked so many questions because he would never learned anything if he didn’t ask any questions. Elie, born from jewish parents, believed very strongly in his religion, Kabbalah.
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.