Persepolis And Elie Wiesel's

In both Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, and Elie Wiesel’s Night the authors tell a story of how through adversity, they lose faith in their god. In Persepolis, Marji lives in Iran during a time of revolution. As a child she dreamed of being a prophet and was always very religious. However, as time goes on and her situation becomes worse, she begins to lose faith in her god. In Night, Elie is a Romanian Jewish boy during World War II. He is forced to leave his home and travel to concentration camps all throughout Europe. Elie finds himself in the middle of the Holocaust and he is threatened by death everyday. The horrible experiences he goes through leave him questioning his god. Wiesel and Satrapi suggest that during a time of crisis, one’s

bond with his/her faith and religion is weakened as the situation becomes more dire due to the fact that they feel that their god has abandoned them. This absence of faith makes overcoming the situation even harder and leaves one in a tough situation.
Throughout Night, Elie Wiesel shows how his experience in the Holocaust lead to a disconnection between him and his religion.

For example, as the Jewish year is about to end, Elie begins to question his god. Elie feels that his god has abandoned him and at one point says, “I was the accuser, God the accused. My eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God” (Wiesel 66). Elie blames God for what has happened to him and wants to know how his almighty father has let his people be tortured. He no longer feels the strong connection he had with God and now he is blatantly protesting against him. He argues that it is God’s job to not let things like the Holocaust happen and the fact that it is happening shows that God does not care about him. Later during Yom Kippur, Elie chose not to fast. He felt that eating is more important than faith. At one point he thought, “There was no longer any reason for me to fast. I no longer accepted God's silence” (Wiesel 69). In this instance Elie is going against his religion by breaking the custom of fasting during Yom Kippur. On the day that is supposed to be the holiest of the year, Elie defies God and refuses to listen to one of his religion’s traditions. At the end of the book, Elie is barely surviving. His father has died and he no longer has anyone of thing in his life that matters. At one point he says “I remained in Buchenwald until April 11. I shall not describe my life during that period. It no longer

mattered anymore,” (Wiesel 138). At this point in the memoir Elie had lost everything. He lost his family but also he lost touch with his religion. He no longer had the word of God to follow and because of that he feels that that portion of his life does not matter. Without God’s guidance, he felt he was lucky he made it out alive.
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi shows how Marji loses faith in her god as brutality occurs in her country.

Growing up in Iran for Marjane Satrapi was not easy. She had to deal with many heartbreaks including the death of her grandfather. After Marji hears of this, there is a panel where God tries to talk to Marji, but she refuses to respond (Satrapi 25). This is significant because up until that point she worshiped him with all her heart and even believed she was a prophet. This was the first time we saw her rebel against her religion. Later on, Marji gets word that her Uncle Anoosh was executed. This was her breaking point. She and her uncle were so close and when he died she felt like she had no where to go. This feeling is described in a panel where she is floating through space with no where to go (Satrapi 71). In the panel before, she is pictured as screaming at god to get away from her (Satrapi 70). She is upset that he has left Anoosh in his time of need, so what make her different. This made her think what would God do for her in her time of need. The realization that God would not fix all her problems shocked her. Now that she has totally rejected God, she starts to make choices that put herself in danger. For example, at one point, she leaves her house wearing western clothing. This is against the law and this almost puts her in jail (Satrapi 133). She did not have God to help her choose right from wrong, and this lack of guidance almost lead her to

prison.
The disconnect between one’s faith during a time of crisis is important because it shows that the burden a crisis can place on one’s shoulders it enough to strip them of what they believe in. This has happened many times throughout history and leads to nothing but horrible events. Whether is was during the Holocaust or any other religious attack, these two accounts prove that during a time of crisis one loses faith with their God. From these memoirs, we learn that during a time of crisis, one can easily lose track of their religion and lose faith all together. For a child to have to grow up being taught different ways to think and act, it can be a struggle to really find what one believes. In the case of Elie, he was born into Judaism and is punished for it. He did nothing wrong but has to go through torture just because he is different from the Nazi’s. In Marji’s case, her family is for the revolution while at school she is taught that the revolution would tear apart her country. These ideas are still applicable however, due to the lack of religion in modern society, the public’s faith is not as strong as it used to be. These parallels show how human act like one another. These memoirs prove that in two completely different circumstances, humans act alike. In both examples, the protagonist loses faith as their situation becomes more dire, and in both occasions this disconnect leads to a tough situation for the character.