Night By Elie Wiesel: Character Analysis

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.
At the beginning of Night, Eliezer was extremely faithful and his faith in God was unwavering. When he was asked why he prayed he responded with “Why did I pray? Strange question. Why did I live? Why did I breathe?” This implies that his faith was a fundamental

part of his being, as necessary to his survival as breathing. In Sighet, his faith in God and the goodness in the world was sure and absolute. There, there was no test to his faith this left his faith strong and unobstructed by the evils of the world.
While in the camp Eliezer’s faith was in question.

If there was a God how could he let us suffer is what he questioned throughout the book. “Why would I bless him? Every fiber in me rebelled. Because He caused thousands of children to bun in His mass graves?... Blessed be Thou Almighty, Master of the Universe, who chose us among all nations to be tortured day and night, to watch as ours fathers, our mothers, our brothers end up in the furnaces?” This quote here expresses Eliezer's frustration over the lack of support and help that God offered the people that had dedicated their lives to him. He was wondering how people could praise and love someone who gave them nothing in return and allowed them to be

tortured.
At some point within Eliezer’s time at the camps, he lost all faith. He shut out faith and felt stronger than before. Before he had been aware of every action he made, afraid that he would displease God, he would pray for salvation. “I no longer pleaded for anything. I was no longer able to lament. On the contrary I felt very strong. I was the accuser, God the accused. My eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God, without man.” During the last day of the year, his faith had been burned and left as ash. He only saw himself standing by alone, showing that God was not going to help him survive but only he could ensure his own survival.
At the end of the book prior to liberation, Eliezer’s father dies.

“No prayers were said over his tomb. No candle lit on his memory. His last word had been my name. He had called out to me and I had not answered.” His tone within this is regretful for not being able to give his father the proper burial of their faith. He regrets not being there for his father in his final moments before he died. “Instead of sacrificing my miserable life and rushing to his side, taking his hand, reassuring him, showing him that he was not abandoned, that I was near him, that I felt sorrow, instead of all that, I remained flat on my back, asking God to make my father stop calling my name, to make him stop crying.” Eliezer who had once shut out his faith and God, now found himself praying to God to help him. He prayed to God when in one of the most morally compromising situations he found himself

in.

Throughout Eliezer’s time within the camp, his faith was greatly impacted. Eliezer went from being a devout jewish boy to questioning whether there was a God at all and completely shutting all faith out. He had believed in the goodness of God and in God’s mercy. These views had all shifted when he arrived in the camp and witnessed the horrors of a human extermination. Though throughout the whole experience he had within the camp, Eliezer emerged from the camp with his faith fragmented but still in existence.