Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” Having faith in a higher archy is a prelevant theme in the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel. Set during the Holocaust, a time of extermination of the Jews, Wiesel’s faith in his god wavers as he describes the situations he endures. One will notice as Wiesel’s faith decreases his identity goes downhill. Although, changing views in religion can affect more than just one’s identity, Wiesel explains his faith in god has a huge impact on his personality to prove one’s religious aspects can affect the way they choose to live their life. In the beginning of the novel, Wiesel was really strong in his faith towards god; this creates a positive …show more content…
This is proven when he has a thought that he will lose his dad and when his dad dies. This created a negative impact towards Wiesel’s identity. First, Wiesel says, “And in spite of myself, a prayer formed inside me, a prayer to this god in whom I no longer believed” (Wiesel, 91). The second sign of evidence Wiesel lost his faith in god is when he said, “No prayers were said over his tomb” (Wiesel, 112). Evidence of identity change is, “I shall not describe my life during that period. It no longer mattered. Since my father’s death, nothing mattered to me anymore.” These quotes explain how he lost faith in god. The first quote describes a situation where he was afraid of losing his father. He admits to praying to a god he no longer believed in. the second quote explains after Wiesel’s father’s death no prayers were said over his tomb. This means Wiesel didn’t pray because he loved his father so much and did everything he could for him, even when he had the thought of losing his father, he prayed. This is a huge sign he lost all faith in god. At the end of Wiesel’s memoir he had given up on god because nothing in his life at that time was good, which changed his
The Night is a story about war. A war that is way too different from the war that happened in different countries around the world. The challenge to the warrior and the sufferings of the noncombat. A terse, merciless testimonial, the book serves as a harsh reflection on war. The work serves as an example of a devastating effect of evil on innocence.
Throughout the entire start to the story, he and his neighbors are hopeful and positive that nothing bad would happen to them. Though only being naive, they tried their best to hold onto this hope and faith, praying to God that they would get through it. Wiesel, a very passionate person when it comes to religion, loses all of his enthusiasm towards Judaism in one night, becoming a person who doubts God throughout the rest of the memoir. This idea is also addressed later in the novel, while they are observing Rosh Hashanah. During a camp wide service, most men are praying to God, praising him and all he does.
Wiesel's loss of faith was brought on by the absence of God. This resulted in him questioning why it was God's will to allow Jews to suffer and die the way they had. Another portrayal of religious confliction within Wiesel was the statement of his faith being consumed by the flames along with the corpses of children (Wiesel 34). Therefore, he no longer believed God was the almighty savior everyone had set Him out to be or even present before them. To conclude, his experiences within Nazi confinement changed what he believed in and caused him to change how he thought and began questioning God because of the actions He allowed to take
“Yes, you can lose somebody overnight, yes, your whole life can be turned upside down. Life is short. It can come and go like a feather in the wind. ”- Shania Twain.
In the novel, “Night” Elie Wiesel communicates with the readers his thoughts and experiences during the Holocaust. Wiesel describes his fight for survival and journey questioning god’s justice, wanting an answer to why he would allow all these deaths to occur. His first time subjected into the concentration camp he felt fear, and was warned about the chimneys where the bodies were burned and turned into ashes. Despite being warned by an inmate about Auschwitz he stayed optimistic telling himself a human can’t possibly be that cruel to another human.
Theme Analysis Essay: Having and Losing Faith In God Freedom of religion is a fundamental human right that protects all people. Religions faith can be tested under certain circumstances, which can falter the relationship one can have with their God. In the memoir Night, by Elie Wiesel, the author creates the universal theme that religious faith is questioned and challenged during traumatic events. Throughout the story, we see many relationships with God scarcely survive, and some completely fail entirely. For the duration of the memoir, Wiesel uses plenty of narrative elements to help convey this theme.
Wiesel changes vastly throughout the book, whether it is his faith in God, his faith in living, or even the way his mind works. In the beginning of his memoir, Wiesel appeared to be faithful to God and the Jewish religion, but during his time in concentration camps, his faith in God wavered tremendously. Before his life was corrupted, he would praise God even when he was being transferred to Auschwitz, but after living in concentration camps, he began to feel rebellious against his own religion. In the book, Elie
In Night, Wiesel has times where the Jews are very optimistic of situations they 're in, even though they shouldn’t be, and the reason for most of their optimism comes from their belief in a god, which is a curse and a blessing. During the start of the book, the
Why do you go on troubling these poor people’s wounded minds, their ailing bodies?”(Wiesel 68) Wiesel clearly is losing faith in God because he has seen babies burned alive, families killed together. Wiesel blames God for what has happened. Additionally, Elie Wiesel is not thankful for God anymore because he is not in Auschwitz helping him and the rest of the Jews. Wiesel feels anger towards God.
Imagine believing so strongly in something and then being let down, or thinking that you were wrong to believe. In Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie felt as though he had lost his religion and beliefs. “I believed profoundly. During the day I studied the Talmud, and at night I ran to the synagogue to weep of the destruction of the Temple,” (Wiesel, 14). This quote shows how strongly he believed before experiencing the hardships of the Holocaust
In the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie is devoted to his faith, he starts to question God’s existence after witnessing the cruelty at Auschwitz. At the commencement of the novel, Elie seems to be an exceedingly religious and content
The Holocaust affects Jews in a way that seems unimaginable, and most of these effects seem to have been universal experiences; however, in the matter of faith, Jews in the concentration camp described in Elie Wiesel’s Night are affected differently and at different rates. The main character, Elie, loses his faith quickly after the sights he witnesses (as well as many others); other Jews hold on much longer and still pray in the face of total destruction. In the beginning, all of the Jews are more or less equally faithful in their God and religion.
Religion is something that many people have consistently believed in and turned to in times of need and support. Some of these people rely on their faith more than their own family and friends. Their religion is their entire life and they can’t imagine their lives without it. Imagine a scenario that’s so terrible that God won’t take you out of it. These people will wonder where God is and pray for Him to come.
Imagine believing so strongly in something and then being let down, or thinking that you were wrong even to believe. In Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie felt as though he had lost his religion and belief in God. We learned how strong his beliefs were when he says,“I believed profoundly. During the day I studied the Talmud, and at night I ran to the synagogue to weep of the destruction of the Temple,” (Wiesel, 14).
Author Bio Elie Wiesel, born September 30, 1928, is married to Marion Wiesel, who he has one son with. Elie Wiesel is a professor at Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts, he’s also taught at the City University of New York, and was a visiting scholar at Yale. Elie Wiesel is the Advisory Board chairman of the newspaper Algemeiner Journal. Elie Wiesel wrote Night based on his personal experience as a holocaust survivor. Elie Wiesel has received a Nobel Peace Prize, a Congressional Gold Medal, a Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded by George H. W. Bush, and many more awards.