The novel Night, written by Elie Wiesel gives a firsthand account of the events of the Holocaust from one of its victims. The novel goes through some of Wiesel's experiences, and by association the trauma he faces. In Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night, Wiesel asserts that cruelty and inhumane treatment may result in a shift in one's individualism, spirituality and ethics. Ultimately the author's purpose is to suggest that trauma within an individual or group can cause them to lose their innocence much quicker than without. The cruelty displayed in Night demonstrates individuality being stripped away from the victims of the Holocaust. From the start of their imprisonment, the Jews endure treatment that causes them to become victims rather than people. …show more content…
During the events at Auschwitz, the Jews of the camp would often pray, but the justifiability of their prayers were questioned by Elie. He describes his confliction with an extreme amount of emotion, “Blessed be God's name? Why, but why would I bless him? Every fiber in me rebelled… He caused thousands of children to burn in his mass graves” (Wiesel 67). Wiesel not only provides reasoning as to why he wouldn’t praise God, but the quote also contrasts Elie from the beginning of the novel. Wiesel includes this segment in the novel to highlight his change as a character. The Elie that lived to praise his God has turned sour against what he once stood for. The quote describes Elie’s complex relationship with God, and how the longer he is in the camp the more strained his relationship gets. As far as Elie is concerned, God has turned his back on his people in a time of abuse against them. The cruelty indured in the camp directly causes the shift in spirituality within Elie. This is so important in the novel because from the beginning it is laid out that Elie lived for God. Without that drive for religion Elie’s character begins to lose a part of himself, his innocence and childhood. Wiesel also compares his faith with those around him. He listens to their prayers and makes attempts to understand, but he remains silent during the prayers. He remains true to …show more content…
The shifts were not always just as individuals. The shifts also affected relationships. “... his son had seen him losing ground… he had wanted to be rid of his father… [he] had thought by this separation to free himself of a burden that could diminish his own chance for survival” (Wiesel 91).This quote has a special significance because a son leaving his father mirrors Elie’s relationship with his father as he grows more dependent on Elie. The victims of the camp are so close to death that their fight or flight has been activated. They believe that it is either them or those around them, and they choose themselves. The cruelty they have faced has completely ruined their current ability to maintain relationships, and feel compassion for those around them. The ethical changes were often subtle until provoked. Once provoked the changes revealed themselves, and were more often than not violent. “One day… a worker took a piece of bread out… and threw it in the wagon. Dozens of starving men fought desperately over a few crumbs” (Wiesel 100). In describing the fight for bread as involving many, and for so little Wiesel’s detail of the situation stays with the reader. The scenario portrays how because of how the men were treated and starved they are willing to do anything for something of substance. Even killing the men they have suffered with. The men behaving
This is where– hanging from the gallows…” (65). This was a big turning point for Elie’s view towards god. He started to doubt God and what he stood for. Maybe he still thought God was there, but in Auschwitz, God was nowhere to be
Throughout the book Elie Wiesel’s thoughts on God change. In the time when the book was taking place, Jews were seen as nothing and were treated terribly. For example in this Graphic Memoir Elie uses her knowledge to compare Jews to beaten dogs. With all this happening, Elie turned to one person he trusted to help him and his family get out of this disastrous situation. Elie was sent to constant concentration camps because she was Jewish.
After living through the Holocaust, Elie lost his devotion and faith in God. To Elie, God was everything to him prior to the traumatizing experience. Every day he would pray and devoted his life to worshiping
The book is a memoir of Elie Wiesel's experiences in Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. Wiesel's account of his own survival and the loss of his family and friends demonstrates the ways in which external factors can break down a person's moral compass. In the concentration camps, survival becomes the most important thing, leading many prisoners to abandon their own moral beliefs and engage in acts of cruelty and betrayal. The Night shows how in times of extreme adversity, people can become capable of actions they would never have considered
While Elie Wiesel is in the concentration camps, he begins to lose faith and a relationship with God because he feels God isn't there helping him when he is hurting at the most. In the beginning, it is very clear when Elie struggels to maintain his faith with God because Elie begins to stop
Elie Wiesel’s relationship with God changes during his time in Auschwitz. He becomes angry with God for letting His own creations starve, torture, and mercilessly murder His devout worshippers. Wiesel cannot understand why his creator would open “six crematoria working day and night” to slaughter human beings (Wiesel 67). He does not trust God to be just any longer, for “every fiber in [him rebels]” (67). Wiesel feels he is stronger than the God whom he was bound to for so long, and he “no longer [accepts] God’s silence” (69).
How these factors still influence our world today Conclusion Begin your essay here: The collapse of moral principles and the committing of unimaginable acts of brutality can cause disastrous effects of losing faith and dehumanizing others. Oftentimes, it is easy to reject our morals and justify horrific acts, which can lead to a chain reaction of violence. Violence has the ability to undermine the basis of civilization and leave both the victims and perpetrators of these atrocities with permanent wounds.
In the memoir, he struggles with his understand of god. Eli is born in a family whom are of orthodox Jewish religions. He explains that at a young age he spent his time prating Jewish text and the oral laws even though it was against his father’s wishes. The crudity and the gruesomeness of the concentrations camps is what cause Wiesel to feel the way he feels about his religion. That is what causes him to reflecting and question is there really a god.
Throughout the memoir as a result of his experiences, Elie goes through profound transformations physically since prisoners in the camp are not taken care of, emotionally as he is forcibly desensitized to barbarity, and spiritually because he questions why his God
During the trauma of the concentration camps, Elie changes physically, spiritually, and emotionally. During Elie’s imprisonment by the Nazis, he undergoes a physical transformation. As the Nazis forced them to march Elie wrote, “I had no strength left. The journey had just begun and I already felt weak…”(Wiesel 19).
When Rosh Hashanah arrives, thousands of Jews dangerously gather to pray. As they are praying, Wiesel thinks to himself, “Blessed by God’s name? Why, but why should I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled.” Elie is now very angry and clearly disapproves of God’s actions.
The Holocaust is when the Jews really need that support from God, and they are simply not getting it. There is an instance in which an innocent child described as a “sad-faced angel” is hung in front of thousands of onlookers. The Lagerkapo reject the idea of executing this boy, causing the SS to perform this action, but even they are troubled with this act. The prisoners watching this event are shocked and disgusted that their God would even allow this to happen, this merciless death of a naive, wide-eyed child. When the spectators cry out asking where God is now, Elie thinks to himself: “He is hanging here on the gallows” (Wiesel 48).
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
The cruelty of the German officers at the concentration camps change Elie’s personality throughout the novel. At the beginning of the novel, Elie is deeply religious and spends most of his time studying Judaism. However, by the end of the novel, Elie believes that God has been unjust to him and all the other Jews, and has lost most of his faith. The cruelty of the German officers also changed the other Jews as well. The events of the Holocaust forces the prisoners to fend for themselves, and not help others.
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.