Night By Elie Wiesel Loss Of Faith Essay

In this essay I am going to show evidence that he lost his faith, not only in his God, but in his leaders and his father. Elie lost faith in his leaders. The cruel actions the Nazis performed in the concentration camps says plenty about why. But when Elie's leg was still recovering in the infirmary, his neighbor said this, “ I have more faith in Hitler than anyone else. He alone has

Elie has just heard a tale of a son betraying his father and prays to God to help him never cross his father after not believing in God for a long time. The author tells the reader, “And in spite of myself, a prayer formed inside me, a prayer to this God in whom I no longer believed” (Wiesel 91). This reveals that despite Elie losing all his faith in God, he recognizes he’s at his weakest and prays to God to help him. He turns to God at the moment he believes he needs him most. Elie’s decision to pray is a significant turning point in Elie’s identity.

Elie had been a firm believer in God, but when he experienced the atrocities of the Holocaust, it filled him with anger and doubt. He questioned why God had yet to save them, Elie questions “What are You, my God? I thought angrily. How do You com-pare to this stricken mass gathered to affirm to You their faith,their anger, their defiance? What does Your grandeur mean, Mas-ter of the Universe, in the face of all this cowardice, this decay, and this misery?

Elie asks, “For the first time I felt anger rise inside me. Why should I sanctify his name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for''(33). Since Elie is going through this traumatic situation and has loved and worshiped God throughout his whole life he is mad at God for doing nothing when he and his father are being tortured.

He feels fear that there is no God that will save him, that no God will ever help him out of this horrible tragedy. Elie lost all of his faith in God and then felt bitter towards him, Elie

Living in 1940s Europe during Word War two, changed Elie’s religious identity. From being a young boy with immense faith to questioning if god was even alive, then finally, going back to his faith because he had nothing better to believe in. As Elie goes through his time in the camp, the once very religious and eager to learn about god boy starts to lose his faith in god and his religion as a whole. As Elie was a young boy he wanted to learn everything about his religion that there was to learn, but his father was so focused on the wellbeing of others, that he did not care or notice.

Throughout the book Elie talks about his faith and relationship with God. He slowly loses faith as the torment of the Jewish people goes on. At first he studied about Kabbalah and loved his god, though he started losing his faith as the pain and suffering continued for years. His faith disappears when the little boy is hung from the gallows. At the end he states that he has a little glimmer of hope left in his God.

Elie was not able to preserve his faith in God when he struggled to survive in the concentration camps. He started to question his faith by saying, “Blessed be God’s name? Why, but why should I bless him? Every fiber in me rebelled.” In the midst of so much suffering, Elie finds it hard to bless God.

Doubting everything he had done to praise God before Elie asked, “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?” (66). As Elie experiences and witnesses increasing dehumanization, his faith turns into anger, blaming God for all the actions he has allowed the Germans to commit, feeling betrayed and frustrated when all he has ever done is laud him, as he is now being punished in this manner.

“I no longer accepted God’s silence. As I swallowed my ration of soup, I turned that act into a symbol of rebellion, of protest against Him.” (Page 69) This means that Elie is irritated of God not doing anything

Belief and Faith is a “double-edged sword” to the jews, it cuts both ways. It keeps them alive, and at the same time makes them oblivious, and leads to their suffering. Over time, Elie’s belief in god, diminishes and eventually he questions God’s existence extensively and at point, Elie is infuriated that even though they are being tormented and enslaved, the Jews will still pray to god, and thank him, “If god did exist, why would he let u go through all the pain and suffering (33). This is a major point in the ongoing theme of faith and belief, because for once he is infuriated with the thought of religion in a time of suffering. Throughout the book, with the nazis ultimate goal is to break the jews and make dehumanize them and if anything, their goal is take and diminish their belief.

Eliezer has not only lost faith in god but he has begun to feel hatred towards him for letting innocent men and women be slaughtered and burned. Elie now feels strong hatred towards god for not protecting the Jews. Elie’s view of god changed for the worse. He was very religious and close to god in many ways. He slowly began to lose faith and hope in god.

“I have not lost faith in God. I have moments of anger and protest. Sometimes i’ve been closer to Him for that reason” - Elie Wiesel. Elie Wiesel explains how he hasn’t lost his faith and that it is even stronger since the events of the Holocaust and his anger towards his God. Elie’s constant struggle made him not only lose faith but even become numb to all the constant pain around him.

As for me, I had ceased to pray... I was not denying His existence, but I doubted His absolute justice” (45). It is apparent here that the effect of the Holocaust on the Jewish people’s faith was delayed on some level. Elie refuses to pray to the God that apparently abandoned him. This is personified when he says he doubts that God has absolute justice.

But look at these men whom you have betrayed, allowing them to be tortured, slaughtered, gassed and burned. What do they do? They pray before you” (68). Elie is loosing faith. He believes that God is not only betraying him but also all the Jewish people God is letting “die”.