preview

Loss Of Religion In Night By Elie Wiesel

Decent Essays

In the 1930’s and 40’s, Jews were stripped of their identities and put into death camps by the Nazi soldiers. This is what happened to Elie Wiesel when he was only 15 years old. Elie and his family were captured and put into an extremely large death camp called Auschwitz. As soon as he and his family stepped through the gates, his mother and sister were murdered and Elie and his father were put to work. This memoir, Night, is a description of how Elie stayed alive in the camp and how he lost belief in his religion. When put into a horrible situation, it’s easy to lose faith. In Night, many people, when put into camps, completely lose faith in their religion and become separated from what they were first holding onto. Elie’s faith was only made up his studies where he was taught that God was the only thing that was important in the physical and spiritual world. Wiesel shows readers what his doubt turned into when studying his religion, “Why did I pray? Strange question. Why did I live? Why did I breathe?” (4). At first, when starting his studies, he is very skeptical about faith, but is changed into a true believer as he grows older. As the book and his journey goes on, the hope that was placed in him, starts to fade and he loses the faith that he once gained. For many others that were placed in the camps and …show more content…

Elie’s father was his rock during the time that he was in the camp, “Since my father's death, nothing mattered to me anymore.” (Wiesel 113). Elie was extremely concerned about his father during their whole journey which caused him to work hard to keep them both alive. When Elie’s father died, it was the thing that broke him, yet led him to go on. After his father’s death, Elie had nothing and no one left to look after. Although this was devastating to him, it created an easier life for him and led him back to his

Get Access