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Night by wiesel elie essay faith
Night by elie wiesel message about faith
Night by elie wiesel message about faith
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• On Rosh Hashanah, Eliezer says, “My eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God, without man. Without love or mercy. I was nothing but ashes now.…” (page 68) Eliezer isdescribing himself at a religious service attended by ten thousand men, including his own father. What do you think he means when he says that he is alone? In what sense is he alone? Eliezer is trying to express his frustration and devastation. Everyone around him has faith in God yet he does not. He had lost all hope in God and his mercy. He spent nearly all his life worshipping God and he has strong feelings that God has abandoned him. His denial of faith makes him feel all alone by himself, without God or man. • Why does Eliezer direct his anger toward God rather than the Germans? What does his anger suggest about the depths of his faith? Eliezer was a strict Jew who practiced religion and observed all Jewish holidays. As a child he was very devoted and focused all his energy to study Judaism. He grew up loving God with the belief that God is more powerful than anything else in this universe. He believed that with all the power God has, he is capable to put an end to all this awful suffering. Living and witnessing all this misery and have God not do anything about it makes him questions God. • At the beginning of Night, Eliezer describes himself as someone who believes “profoundly.” How have his experiences at Auschwitz affected that faith? Eliezer’s horrible experiences at Auschwitz left him caught up in his sorrows and anger toward God. His loss of faith in God arises at Auschwitz. He doubts arise when he first sees the furnace pits in which the Nazis are burning babies. This horrifying experience ... ... middle of paper ... ...was almost no relationship. The father is a busy, well respected member of the Jewish community who has almost no interaction with his family. Eliezer recalls that his father was “cultured, rather unsentimental man. There was never any display of emotion, even at home. He was more concerned with others than with his own family” (2, Wiesel). When the two arrived at the camp we notice a switch in their relationship. The horrible experiences they encounter together at Auschwitz bring them closer to each other. Eliezer’s father becomes more affectionate and shows emotions toward his son who starts feeling this love. This is clear when Eliezer states “my father was crying, it was the first time I saw him cry, I had never thought it was possible” (19, Wiesel). It is clear that their relationship transforms from obedience and respect to love and caring about each other.
When asked by Moshe the Beadle the reason why he prayed, Eliezer could not come up with an answer. Even before being deported to concentration camp, Eliezer still prayed. Things begin to change when Eliezer arrives at concentration camp in Auschwitz. After witnessing the incineration of small children, Eliezer expresses deep resentment towards God for remaining silent and allowing this to happen.
“Blessed be Gods name? Why? But why would I bless him?” Elie says that on page 67 of this book. To me, when Elie says this, he shows his anger towards God and about everything that he is letting happen. He began to wonder, if he was God, why he was letting all the Germans do horrible things to them. However, this never made any sense to Elie. He was always contemplating the existence of God. On page 69 while supper is being served and the Jews are supposed to be fasting because of Yom Kippur, this Jewish holiday would require them to fast, Elie’s father required him to eat because it was to risky for Elie to starve or become sick if he didn’t. Elie then says, “And then, there was no longer any reason for me to fast.” “I no longer accepted God’s silence.” Elie ...
His father’s love towards him does not change a bit. His father once bought a present for him: a half rations of bread, bartered for something he had found at the depot, a piece of rubber that could be used to repair a shoe. They both shared whatever was given to them. Eliezer too used to send a piece of bread he got to his father. His father gives his last possession he had with him to Eliezer, A knife and a spoon telling him not to sell it quickly and to use it when in need. Eliezer did not fear death as much as he feared separation from his father. “I was thinking not about death but about not wanting to be separated from my father.”(82 )
He no longer had faith in god so the reason he was living was for his father. And the reason his father lived was for his son,Eliezer. Their faith in each other kept them going until the end. They kept each other alive for a reason not only because of love but because they had faith in each other and gave each other a reason to live.While marching to their barracks for the first time Elie wrote in his book,”My hand tightened its grip on my father. All I could think of was not to lose him. Not to remain alone.” Everyone who had faith lived for god or for family,for example, Shlomo, Eliezer’ father ran into a relative while in Auschwitz. While having a conversation this is what the relative said."The only thing that keeps me alive," he kept saying, "is to know that Reizel and the little ones are still alive. Were it not for them, I would give
When Eliezer and his father, Chlomo, arrived at their first concentration camp, Eliezer was in an emotional agony. He considers running to the electrical wire to escape the "slow agony in the flames." His father replies by weeping and reciting the prayer of the dead. "May His Name be blessed and magnified" This tests Eliezer’s faith for the first time. "Why should I bless His name...what had I to thank Him for," he said...
Eliezer loses faith in god. He struggles physically and mentally for life and no longer believes there is a god. "Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my god and my soul and turned my dreams to dust..."(pg 32). Elie worked hard to save himself and asks god many times to help him and take him out of his misery. "Why should I bless his name? The eternal, lord of the universe, the all-powerful and terrible was silent..."(pg 31). Eliezer is confused, because he does not know why the Germans would kill his face, and does not know why god could let such a thing happen. "I did not deny god's existence, but I doubted his absolute justice..."(pg 42). These conditions gave him confidence, and courage to live.
In the novel Night, Eliezer the protagonist possesses an affable and loving relationship with his father throughout his various journeys in German concentration camps. Despite the circumstances, both Eliezer's father and himself brave the perils together and protect each other in times of need; however, there strength in each other is put to the test in a daily basis as the savage camps tear and churn at them as if they were Alaskan sleigh dogs. Appropriately, the following will explain the subtle but ever present bond Eliezer and his father share and the respective effect they have in the
A trail of indeterminate light showed on the horizon. We were exhausted. We were without strength, without illusions.” According to this quote, the prisoners have replaced God because they feel alone and weak in the world now (Helpless). Most of the Jews have lost strength and are hanging by a hangnail to survive through this “pitch darkness.” In section 8 when it is getting close to the end of the story Eliezer looks in the mirror and has an impression made on him and said this. “From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed at me. The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me.” This quote from Eliezer was his final statement about the effect the Holocaust has had on him. The Holocaust has made many people lose their faith in God, their will to live, and it had lasting impacts on all the
Eliezer’s dad was so occupied with the Jewish community and wasn’t really involved with his family. Once they are separated from their family at selection, they realize that all they have are each other. Toward the end of the memoir when Eliezer’s dad becomes ill people question him because he’s sharing his rations and well as attending to his very ill father. Telling him to take his father’s rations and let him die. Eliezer doesn’t listen and continues to tend to his father because of how they came together. He knew that if he let his father die there would be nothing else to live for. When Eliezer father dies at the end, Eliezer says something that shows how much his father meant to him. He says, “I remained in Buchenwald until April 11. I shall not describe my life during that period. It no longer mattered. Since my father’s death, nothing mattered to me anymore.” (pg. 113, night) I would have done the same. I would have done everything I could to help my father survive. I think the reason that Eliezer held on to his father for so long, knowing that his days were numbered, was because his dad was the last piece of family that he had. Shiomo was the last person in his life that was connected to him from his childhood. I believe that part of Eliezer died when his father died. That’s the person he fought with. That’s the reason to he kept on going in the dangerous
Eliezer stays alive for his father and his father stays alive for him. At the beginning of chapter five, during the evening of Rosh Hashanah, Eliezer and his father meet up after saying prayers. Wiesel explains, “I felt a tear on my hand. Whose was it? Mine? His? I said nothing. Nor did he. Never before had we understood each other so clearly.” (Weisel 117). This quote supports the fact that Eliezer and his father have built a very sturdy, loving relationship because of their similar struggles. It also hints that Wiesel is beginning to develop the dynamic factor of the relationship between father and son almost as if it too is a character that influences the memoir. They both benefit from taking care of each other. Another example of reliance on each other is shown during chapter six as Eliezer and his father are being separated from each other after the selection. The day after Juliek's death, Eliezer and his father are almost separated as his father is classified as weak. Eliezer recalls, “[His] father was sent to the left. [He] ran after him." (Wiesel 155). This action, as Wiesel explains more specifically in the memoir, left some people shot and dead. Eliezer is willing to sacrifice his and his father's lives for a slim chance that they do
People never realized that, during the Holocaust, many Jews struggled to maintain their faith in God. So, how were they able to overcome countless outbreaks that occurred in their lives? Elie Wiesel, one of the few surviving Jews, demonstrates in his book Night, that many Jews struggled to keep their faith in God after they believed that he abandoned them in concentration camps to be dealt with by the Germans. Elie Wiesel uses the change in Eliezer's faith throughout the book Night to show that no matter how doubtful one feels about their beliefs, they should never give up hope for survival.
In the concentration camps, the people who were ill were treated poorly and even beaten. Eliezer’s dad becomes very ill half way through the story and is unable to work, this means he is able to stay and rest, but the Nazis treated the ill very harsh. When Eliezer
The Nazis dehumanize the Jews in horrifying and inhuman ways. Throughout Night, author Elie Wiesel demonstrates how the Jews and other prisoners are mistreated mentally, emotionally, and physically by depicting 15 year old Eliezer’s experiences during the Holocaust.
The worst thing that the Nazis took from the Jews was not their lives or their families, but their faith. Something that had been so important and fundamental to their being, was stripped away from them. Throughout the book Night by Elie Wiesel, we watch Eliezer struggle with his sense of self and his views toward his religion, and whether he even believed there was a God. Throughout the entirety of the book, the views of Eliezer change dramatically altering his view of the world.
Yet, after he had been exposed to the reality of the concentration camps, Elie began to question God. According to Elie, God “caused thousands of children to burn. He kept six crematoria working day and night. He created Auschwitz, Birkenau, [and] Buna”(67). Elie could not believe the atrocities going on around him.