The Creation, Fall, and Redemption in Night
In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie survives the Holocaust after an enormous amount of near-death experiences, unbearable deaths that surround him, and emotionally numbing experiences. Being only 12, he watched as his sisters and mother were separated from him and his father. Unfortunately his sisters and mother’s death was very soon after he saw them being lead away. Throughout the novel, Elie constantly has to watch his father slowly weaken and wither away and he loses his father. So for him to become numb to the death and suffering around him was his only option. Elie struggles with understanding how humanity could be so cruel. Through all of this Elie questions God and His love for his people.
…show more content…
The Nazi soldiers and the german society were led to believe that the Jews were a burden to the perfect race and needed to be exterminated. Orders were put into place and the beginning of this massive genocide began at the end of a gun barrel pointed at an innocent human. As soon as the victims would be brought into the camps, they would be stripped of their clothes, shaved in all places, and be yelled at like dogs in order to dehumanize the jews. The Kapo and SS leaders were so corrupt and cruel to all their victims. In Night, the SS condemned the young Pipel to death because they found weapons on him. Forced to watch this horrific event Wiesel noticed that “the SS seemed more preoccupied, more worried than usual. To hang a child in front of thousands of onlookers was not a small matter” (64). Then apparently “ the Lagerkapo refused to act as executioner. Three SS took his place” (64). This man who was about to hang a child couldn't do it, which means at least he had guilt in his heart. This shows his human nature and that there was still a part of him that knew what he was doing was wrong but as soon as he said he couldn't act as executioner 3 men stepped in to take the reigns. How wrong is that? When Elie and his father were in the train there was a woman, Mrs. Schachter who wouldn't stop screaming “fire! I see a fire! I see a fire!” (24). This woman wouldn't stop even after being bound and gagged. …show more content…
Before the camps and the Jews were “relocated”. Elie Wiesel had the desire to grow in his faith and wanted to find someone to guide him in his studies of the Kabbalah. Then in one night, his hope for Gods intervention in his life dissolved. “Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes” (34). This was the first night when Elie Wiesel was at the camp. As Elie and his father grew weaker and weaker Elie felt God become farther and farther away. When people in the camp recited the Kaddish, Elie “felt like an observer, a stranger” (68). So step by step Elie loses his faith a little more each day. After each murder, each row of innocent people that were moved into their concrete tombs, Elie couldn't comprehend how there could be a loving, just God. Eventually this leads to Elie not even mentioning God any more but he focuses on his survival and explains how life was pointless after his fathers death and shows no need for God. He did not have the desire for revenge but just wanted food, to live, to survive. Elie didn't say that he wouldn't listen to God anymore but he believed that God turned his back on him. God was silent. Some believed that God would prevail and take them out of this terrible situation. Others stood up and proclaimed God in the midst of this torment and anguish although they didn't
Elie loses complete faith in god in many points where god let him down. He struggles physically and mentally for life and no longer believes there is a god. Elie worked hard to save himself and asks god many times to help him and take him out of the misery he was facing. "Why should I sanctify his name? The Almighty, the eternal, and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent..."(page 33). Elie was confused, because he doesn’t know why the Germans would kill his race amongst many others, and he does not know why god could let such thing happen to innocent people. "I did not deny god's existence, but I doubted his absolute justice..."(page 42). These conditions gave him confidence, and a courage to
Stated in the book, “ How could I say to him: Blessed be thou, Almighty, Master of the universe, who chose us among all nations to be tortured day and night” ( page 67). All the Jews in the concentration camps questioned why their savior was letting this happen and not helping them and Elie was one of those Jews. Without having much insight of what was to come of their lively hoods Elie and rest of the Jews pushed through tough conditions, Elie states, “ It’s over, god is no longer with us” (page 76). After time Elie and other Jews started believe that their was no God, and they should accept their fate. Elie’s will power decreased throughout the book, after understanding everyday was a fight for his life. When something is desperately wanted it is fought for, easier said than done when surviving the conditions Elie lived in: scarce food, bad weather, and poor sheltering, In the words of Elie, “I’ll run into the electrified barbed wire, that would be easier then a slow death in flames”(page 33). He wanted to give up once finding out his fate to be. At the time he thought why should he sit
Elie first recalls Dr. Mengele’s “eight short, simple words” (Wiesel 27) when he enters the camps: “Men to the left! Women to the right!” (Wiesel 27) In this part of the book, Elie and his father are separated by his mother and sisters. This metaphorically kills Elie because he is very attached to his family as are they to him. A piece of Elie has been taken away from him forever. Later in his memoir, he mentions the cruel hanging of the Pipel. Previous hangings that day did not phase Elie, but when the young, angelic Pipel was hanged, Elie said his once flavorful soup “tasted of corpses.” A man near Elie was saying “Where is God now?’ And I heard a voice within me answer him: “Where is He? Here He is- He is hanging here on this gallows…”(Wiesel 62) This is a powerful quote that shows how Elie has also began to question his faith. This brings about the mindset of the death of God in Elie. Elie begins to show distrust and rebellion in his God. This is a sharp contrast to Elie’s former beliefs. When Elie’s father dies, Elie emotionally shuts his mind off. He says “After my father’s death, nothing could touch me anymore.” He had finally given up. His father was his rock tied to the balloon, his reason to keep going. Without his father, Elie gave up and became zombified like the rest of the broken souls. Elie fully turned into the emotionless man that he was set to become as a result of surviving
His father died because, he was sick, and he did not want to eat so that Elie could have a bigger chance of surviving. This took a toll on Elie because, he was really close with his dad, and seeing your dad get sick and then die will make you start losing faith on if you will survive or not.
God has not been there for him or the other prisoners. Elie says that god has died. Elie believes that god is not protecting them when times are rough. Elie thinks god does not care about them. Secondly, Elie goes through mental/emotional changes.
Elie and his father are taken to Auschwitz where they are separated from the rest of the family and first hear about atrocities such as the incinerators and gas showers. In the beginning Elie believes that everything is a rumor, a lie, that humankind cannot perform such crimes, but he soon is forced to witness the demise in front of his eyes. This is when his outlook on his faith starts to waver. While watching the smoke billow up from a crematory, Elie hears a man standing next to him begging him to pray, and for the first time in his life Wiesel turns away from God. “The Eternal, Lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank him for?” (31).
In the memoir, Night, written by Elie Wiesel is about his own experience inside the concentration camp as the target of the Nazi. He is a young Jewish boy who was determined to learn about his religion despite his parents wanting him to study the basic subjects in the beginning. However, his secret, private lesson stops as soon as Jews are transported to the concentration camps. Upon his arrival, he witnesses cruel executions such as burning and hanging the prisoners of the camp. Throughout the book, Elie's faith in God weakens because of his encounter with cruelty and the evil inside mankind. As soon as Elie enters the concentration camp, he witnesses infants being thrown into the crematorium. He claims, "Never shall I forget those flames
In the novel Night, by Elie Wiesel, both Elie and his father Shlomo are able to persevere through the hardships of the Holocaust because of their sense of duty to take care of each other, which is exemplified as time passes. When Allied forces are about to free the concentration camp they are imprisoned in, the Nazis force all able men to run to another concentration camp, over one hundred miles away. During the run, Elie wants to stop running, drop down, and subsequently get shot by a Nazi officer. He reminisces, “My father’s presence was the only thing that stopped me. What would he do without me? I was his only support” (92-93). The sense of duty that Elie felt to take care of his father is what kept him going. Without his father, it is
Over the course of his time there, he is worked hard and witnesses horrific deaths. Because of all the traumatic events that occurred, he lost faith in the God he once believed in unconditionally. John Roth, author of In the Beginning, explained that the holocaust could only have happened if there was no God (35). However this is not true. In actuality, Eliezer explains that there is a God, he just does not believe in His power anymore. Elie does not say that he has become an atheist or that God had died as many people believe” (Brown 72). Elie simply does not believe in Him because of all the events that occurred while he was in the concentration camps.
Night, by Elie Wiesel, showed the devastation of Eliezer’s childhood and illustrated the loss of innocence through the evil of others. Elie Wiesel expressed to us that one’s own faith and beliefs can be challenged through torture and ongoing suffering. The novel, Night, allowed the reader to witness the change in Eliezer from one of an innocent child who strongly adhered to his faith in God into a person who questioned not only his faith and God but of himself as well. The cruelty is shown to him while in the concentration camp forced him to wonder if there was a God and if so why would he put him and the others through such torture. Through his suffering, Eliezer’s beliefs dramatically and negatively changed his faith in God and compelled him to experience a transformative relationship with his father.
Kids tend to rebel against their parents as they grow older. In the memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel recalls his experiences with his family during World War II. His mother and sisters were taken away from him as soon as he arrived at Auschwitz, only his father remained. Elie Wiesel witnessed many terrible events during his first night at camp; the only thing that kept him in line was his father. Elie Wiesel’s father kept him from possibly killing himself. When Elie Wiesel lives in the concentration camp with his fellow Jews, he begins to question the fairness of God, who he had followed his entire life. Elie Wiesel lost faith in God, particularly the faith that He would use His divine power to help him, and he began to rely on his father instead, which gave him more reason to live.
The murder of thousands can not only impact the universe, but the ones that live in it. For instance, victims of the Happiest had to deal with, not only losing all of their loved ones but the deaths of others around them. In “Night”, Elie is expiring death, of not only his loved ones, also other Jews who were taken by Hitler. The loss of your family is petrifying. But watching others have their lives slipped away from their fingertips, is indubitably scary. In the book “Night” by Elie Wiesel, Elie changes drastically throughout the book, because of the time he spent in Auschwitz, one of the most infamous concentration camps.
“To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering” (Nietzsche). This quote, said by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, describes the desire to survive that was inside of Elie Wiesel in his story. The book describes Elie’s late teen years when he was sent to a concentration camp by the German government. In the book, he is separated from his whole family except for his old father, and both are put to work inside of the camp. As Elie suffers through the camp, his faith and his life face many tests and trials. There are many instances throughout the book when people die or when somebody loses their faith. The theme of the book Night, written by Elie Wiesel, is survival, as shown by the death of many Jews during the Holocaust, people willing to do anything to survive, and people’s faith not surviving the traumatic experiences of the concentration camps.
While Elie was in the concentration camp he changed the way he acted. This new behavior led him to develop new character traits. While Ellie was in the concentration camp he became angry at many things. For example “I would have dug my nails into the criminals flesh” (Wisel 39). Elie shows extreme anger when the Nazi officials are beating Elie’s father. Elie was angry because the Nazi soldiers were not treating them nicely and keeping them in poor conditions. Elie was usually not a person to display anger, but he shows this when his family members are being hurt. Elie wants to stand up for what is right and for his family members. Despite his studying, Elie wavered in his belief in Kabbalah while he was at the camp. Elie was a religious boy before he went to Auschwitz, but while in the camp, he became angry at God. In the book Elie says, “‘Where are You, my God?’” (66). Elie is wondering why God is not helping the Jews. Elie had complete faith in his religion until he experienced and witnessed such horrible suffering. He had been taught that God will punish evil and save the righteous. However, when Elie saw that God was not helping the Jews situation,
In his book, Night, Elie Wiesel spoke about his experience as a young Jewish boy in the Nazi concentration camps. During this turbulent time period, Elie described the horrifying events that he lived through and how that affected the relationship with his father. Throughout the book, Elie and his father’s relationship faced many obstacles. In the beginning, Elie and his father have much respect for one another and at the end of the book, that relationship became a burden and a feeling of guilt. Their relationship took a great toll on them throughout their journey in the concentration camps.