Elie Wiesel's Reflections in the Memoir 'Night'

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It is hard to trust in something invisible, especially for a child when he has everything taken away. In the memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel recalls his experiences with his family during World War II. After he first arrives at Auschwitz, Elie Wiesel’s mother and sisters are taken away from him. His father is suddenly all that remains of his family. Elie Wiesel witnesses many other terrible events during his first night at camp; the only thing that keeps him sane is his father. Elie Wiesel’s father even keeps him from possibly killing himself before the Germans could. When Wiesel lives in the concentration camp with his fellow Jews, he begins to question the fairness of God, who he had trusted his entire life. Elie Wiesel loses faith in God, particularly the faith that He would use His divine power to help Wiesel, and begins to rely on his father instead, which gives him more reason to live. When Elie Wiesel was a kid, he had extreme faith in his religion. The first person to question Wiesel’s faith is Moshe the Beadle. Moshe the Beadle asks Elie Wiesel why he prays; after pondering the thought, Wiesel replies, “‘I don’t know why,’ I answered, greatly disturbed” (2). Wiesel does not know
On the day, before the Jewish new year, Elie Wiesel had to watch the other Jews pray before eating their soup. The fact that he doesn’t join in shows how much faith Wiesel has already lost in the idea that God might save them. Wiesel thinks that praying is pointless and instead they should focus on their survival, “What does Your greatness mean, Lord of the universe, in the face of all this weakness [...] Why do you still trouble their sick minds, their crippled bodies?” (p.63). As if God is trying to see how long a race of suffering people can honor him, Wiesel points these questions at God instead of the people deciding to pray, and this shows that Wiesel still believes God

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