Night by Elie Wiesel

Night is a novel written from the perspective of a Jewish teenager, about his experiences as a prisoner during the Holocaust. Our teenager named Eliezer grew up in the small community of Sighet, located in Hungarian Transylvania. It’s here that Eliezer studies religion, both the

Cabbala and the Torah. At the beginning of the war Eliezer was dedicated and absolute in his belief of God, but throughout the events of World War II his faith slowly starts to wither away.

Eliezer's main conflict that governs the story would be sustaining his belief in God. This becomes especially hard throughout the book, as he has to face more and more challenging issues. Moshe the Beadle is the one character that Eliezer learned about his faith from, Moshes teachings frame the conflict that Eliezer faces during the story. One point that Moshe teaches

Eliezer is that religion is based on two concepts; that god is everywhere, even within an individual and that faith is based on questions not answers. A majority of the story focuses on our main characters questions, and how he is constantly questioning how their can be such evil the world when he has been told all his life that God is everywhere and since God is good that means that everything is good. Because of this our protagonists feels as though he has been mislead and lied to about the true nature of human beings and the world around him. Like with all the prisoners having a change in heart and willing to do anything they can to survive the day including hurting and betraying their very own family’s, makes Eliezer question why God is so cruel, or if he exists at all. It’s in these moments that Eliezer has lost all faith he had in humanity and religion, which he had previously learned from Moshe.

Be...

... middle of paper ...

...here as cruel and terrifying as the

Gestapo. Eliezer also has difficulty with some of the viciousness that the other prisoners display towards the others, but yet he understands it at the same time, because he is going through the same hunger, pain and desperation. And lastly the bond that Eliezer shares with his father is important to the story because now he has someone whom he can consistently depend on. Without his father we would have seen the hope and humanity lost within Eliezer. The struggle for survival, under harsh conditions changes Eliezer as he undergoes some major changes, one of them being his total faith for his lord and saviour, which then switches to him being hollow of most human emotions. In the end Eliezer has changed from being an innocent schoolboy to a tough and scarred young man, who only has one thought running through his head; survival.