Dehumanization In The Book Night

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In the story Night by Elie Wiesel, dehumanization occurs through the loss of religious belief. While in the concentration camps, Elie's friends and family suffer each and every day. He prays to God every night but he soon questions why God has not helped even one time through the suffering. To begin, when Elie lived in his home, prayers went out every night to God no matter what. In the beginning of the book, he says “I looked at my house in which I had spent years seeking my God” (Wiesel, 19). He has spent years as a young child praying to God which can show his faithfulness. Even when they are soon captured, he continues to pray for his family to stay safe saying “As I continue to pray for my family and the people around me” (Wiesel, 31). Praying in these times can hard to do but it is routine for Elie. It does not take …show more content…

Elie is not quite an atheist, he just no longer believes in God like he used to. “Rosh Hashanah soon came… I felt like an observer, a stranger during prayers” (Wiesel, 68). Although Ellie participates in Rosh Hashanah, it means absolutely nothing to him. Yom Kippur quickly comes up and Ellie makes a choice that could have possibly saved his life. “Yom Kippur… I did not fast… I no longer accepted God’s silence. As I swallowed my ration of soup, I turned that act into a symbol of rebellion against Him” (Wiesel, 69). He will not accept God because God had not done a single thing to stop the horrors that Elie witnesses daily. As the story nears the end, Elie suddenly feels the need to pray, for the sake of his father. “In spite of myself, a prayer formed inside me… to this God I no longer believed. Oh God, give me strength to never do what Rabbi Eliahu’s son has done” (Wiesel, 91). Though Elie has been dehumanized, this prayer is to preserve his humanity and give him strength to not abandon his own father during harsh

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