Loss Of Faith In Elie Wiesel's Night

The Jew's religion was taken away by the Nazis. Before the Holocaust, Elie and his family would go to the synagogues to pray but when the Nazis invaded their country, they closed the synagogues and took all of their religious belongings. In the concentration camps, Elie’s father was getting weaker and Elie was barely surviving with nothing the German soldiers gave them. Elie starts getting angry with God because he is not doing anything to stop these German soldiers from killing them. God is letting Jews and non-Jews die and Elie’s faith in God is getting weaker and is losing strength.

Later on in the story he noticed that God wasn’t helping them and started to lose what he used to believe in. An example of syntax is when Elie says “I had never asked myself that question. I cried because . . . because something inside me felt the need to cry. That was all I knew.”

While also making him cold, and almost unsympathetic. Elie was a smart and very religious boy. He believed God was the one thing he could count on. But soon he became a god-fearing man, who could not understand why something of such horror would happen to such an innocent family. In the beginning of the novel, the author

Often when people think of death they envision darkness which is portrayed in the night. Wiesel uses night as metaphor for death in that he uses the darknesses that surround the night sky. All around he would only see his fellow Jews being murdered and forced to live in horrible conditions which are dark. Elie had to witness a fellow Polish named Juliek play with his heart even with no hope left,” I don't know how long he played.

The almighty eternal and terrible master of the universe, chose to be silent”(Wiesel 33). As they saw the horrible things that were happening around them, Elie started to question his faith in god. He is thinking why should he praise god if he was letting these things happen to his people, the people that he cares about so much? “For god's sake where is god… hanging here from the gallows,” (Wiesel 65). Elie saw the people that had been murdered or hung frequently, so much so, he started to believe that god was dead because no god would sit there and watch this happen.

At this point in the story, Elie’s interest in practicing and studying religion starts to wane. These actions are out of character for him because in his home, Sighet, prayer and worship are a daily ritual. In fact, he commits himself to spending long days learning with his Kabbalah master and even longer nights praying at the synagogue. Consequently, at the camp, Elie feels that there is no need for religion because he believes God is no longer there for him. Elie’s actions directly correlates with the theme portrayed in the story because he let go a major part of himself due to the merciless environment of the

Perhaps with an even more rooted belief in his existence and divinity than in the beginning, sort of like he’s been shaped and steered by the egregious events in his life to a point where he finally gains “the strength to ask him (God) the real questions”(5). Elie’s journey with his faith can be described as not completely losing the belief in God’s existence, but at many times questioning and doubting his goodness. A passage describes Elie as “one of God's chosen;” and “ from the time he began to think, he lived only for God”(Foreword 3). This quote from the foreword possibly answers the question posed in the thesis. The bigger question all readers and even the characters need to ask themselves is, ‘how does one keep his faith and handle the death/resurrection of God in the soul of a child who suddenly faces absolute evil?’

He learned how to lie and commit acts of selfishness. Elie lies to people he was related to, just to give them hope that their family was alive. Elie had believed God would protect the people but he then rebels against him, he didn't neglect the existence of God he just felt that it would be good to rebel against him; Elie just doubted God. Elie’s anger is now targeted toward God, even though Elie survived the ordeal he had changed losing his profound

In this book Elie speaks of his hardships and how he survived the concentration camps. Elie quickly changed into a sorrowful person, but despite that he was determined to stay alive no matter the cost. For instance, during the death

At the beginning of Night, Elie was someone who believed fervently in his religion. His experiences at Auschwitz and other camps, such as Birkenau and Buna have affected his faith immensely. Elie started to lose his faith when he and his father arrived at Birkenau. They saw the enormous flames rising from a ditch, with people being thrown in.

The Jews realize that the possibility of being burned or killed was very likely. Wiesel writes, “We stood stunned, petrified. Could this be just a nightmare? An unimaginable nightmare? I heard whispers around me: “We must do something.

He lost his innocence and began to feel hatred toward god for letting innocent people die. Elie changed and he became rebellious. He began to wish for things he regretted later and he lost all hope. He became an entirely different person. Elie went through life changing events and he was traumatized.

Elie Wiesel suspects that God is letting him go through such a situation. Wiesel begins losing faith in God. For example, Wiesel stated,”What are you, my God? I thought angrily. How do you compare to this stricken mass gathered to affirm to you their faith, their anger, their defiance?....

and it changed him. In the book, Night, the main theme, is religion and belief which is shown when Elie talks about the his strong religion and belief as a boy, his disconnection from religion, and the inhumane actions the Nazi 's caused. Having such a strong belief in something and then dramatically changing how you think, is a very significant event. During this time, many people questioned where God truly was. Even Elie was questioning where God was.

How would it feel for you to experience what he did and how do you think it would affect you? No one in today’s time could ever relate to Elie and what he went through but we can try and think about what it would be like to go through what he did and how it would affect our maturity levels and mental well being. In the book Night Elie says the famous quote which is “Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live.” This connects back to the horrors he experienced and how it affected him because he was never the same afterwards. In that very moment was when he went from a boy who worshiped his God to a man who had to fight for survival.