The novel Night is an autobiography by Elie Wiesel written in first person. It is narrated by a boy from Sighet, Transylvania. Elie tells us about his experiences of the Holocaust. Eliezer’s struggle to maintain faith is a major theme and conflict in this novel. He struggles to maintain faith in God, his father, and mankind. However, in the end, I believe his journey during the holocaust left his faith in God, as well as himself, stronger than ever.
In the beginning of the novel, Eliezer studies in Jewish mysticism. He believes God is everything and his faith in God is stronger than ever. He believes that a world with God, is perfect. His love for God is unconditional and he couldn’t imagine a world without him. Slowly but surely, that unquestioning faith of the goodness of God is completely shattered by the events of the Holocaust. He wonders how God could possibly allow the cruel treatment of the Jews to continue on; and Him not do anything. As seen on page 45, “I was not denying God’s existence, but I was doubting his absolute justice. “ If someone
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He no longer accepted His unexplainable silence. Throughout the novel, Eliezer also struggles to maintain faith in his father, who is with him all throughout his journey. He loves him unconditionally but can’t help but feel that he is holding him back from survival. This is especially prominent when his father gets sick. He begins to give his father his rations of food, risking his safety. He has thoughts concerning the death of his father making things easier. He then prays to god to ask for forgiveness; then denies his faith in god. He completely lost faith in his father towards the end of the book and didn’t have the strength to feel anything after sadly, his father passed
However, as the horrors he is exposed to keep getting worse, Eliezer starts getting angry. He does not doubt God’s existence, but he rebels from the ‘fact’ that God will
"Night" is a novel written by Eliezer Wiesel. The book is about the Holocaust, the extermination of Jews by the Germans. Eliezer was the only one out of his family that survived the Holocaust. Three reoccurring symbols define and clarify Eliezer Wiesel's struggle to maintain faith in his benevolent God. Night is the first reoccurring symbol.
Eliezer describes himself as someone who believes profoundly. His faith at the beginning of the book was really strong until the Germans took him. None of the Jewish people expected the Holocaust to happen.
In Elie Wiesel’s book Night, there are several themes throughout the entire book. Some of these themes are emotional death, struggle to maintain faith, keeping dignity despite inhumane conditions, and self-preservation vs. family commitment. I feel like self-preservation vs. family commitment is shown the most throughout the book. Many charters throughout the book showed family commitment over self-preservation. The first example is when they first got to Auschwitz during the first selection.
Imprisonment. Faith. Emotionless. In the memoir, Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie and his father were kept prisoners in a concentration camp in Auschwitz for being Jewish. This time period was called the Holocaust. Elie and his father were distant but later they become closer and depend on one another.
A theme in Night by Elie Wiesel is, when someone is treated like an animal for so long, they become one. These animals are enveloped in darkness and rage with a fading conscience. They care about one thing, surviving. The first example of Elie showing this is when he feels pure rage and considers strangling a doctor. “To strangle the doctor and the others! To set the world on fire! My father’s murderers,” (Wiesel 109). Elie is so angry at this moment he wants the whole world to perish because of the actions of a few. No one is showing sympathy or care because they are now animals. Another example of this is when Elie explains what he and the other prisoners do once they are free. “ Our first act as free men was to throw ourselves into the
He demonstrates a strong commitment to his faith and a close relationship with God. His studies of Jewish spiritualism and his discussions with Moishe the Beadle reveal his genuine interest and dedication to his religious beliefs. Eliezer’s faith provides him with a sense of purpose and meaning in the face of the oppression and persecution that he and his fellow Jews experience. He finds comfort and solace in his faith, and he possesses a strong belief in the justice and benevolence of God. However, as the narrative progresses and the Holocaust unfolds, Eliezer’s perspective on religion begins to undergo a significant shift.
Eliezer spent all him time with his religion and strengthen it, everyday he seeks knowledge of what he wanted the most to understand his religion and God. He wanted and deepest connection he could get by “ We would read , over and over again, the same page,” the reason he would do this is to understand and “discover the very essence of divinity”. HIs religion , his relationship with God taught him the way to live life ; by that it helped to escape from reality and just focus on one thing.
Eliezer has too much faith that God will rescue him and his family from any calamitous event that may come their way. Eliezer is not
Throughout life people experience difficult times that are nearly impossible to make it through, but the presence of family helps one survive these troublesome experiences. The novel Night by Elie Wiesel is a story of the author's own experience growing up in the holocaust, and being in the concentration camps. A novel with equal hardships is Sold by Patricia McCormick, and tells about a girl named Lakshmi who gets sold into child trafficking. By examining the novels Night and Sold we can see Elie’s and Lakshmi’s connections to their families kept them alive throughout their tragedies, which is important because it shows that strong family connections can greatly help a person survive difficult times.
Night is a memoir written by Elie Wiesel, a young Jewish boy, who tells of his experiences during the Holocaust. Elie is a deeply religious boy whose favorite activities are studying the Talmud and spending time at the Temple with his spiritual mentor, Moshe the Beadle. At an early age, Elie has a naive, yet strong faith in God. But this faith is tested when the Nazi's moves him from his small town.
In the concentration camp Eliezer can’t understand why God allows so much death and destruction, and even though he is angry and questions God he never loses his faith. Although Eliezer never has his questions answered he never loses his faith. Eliezers evolving relationship with God is a major source of character development for himself.
One point in the story that Eliezer questions his faith in God is when they are forced to
At first the book started out with their relationship being strained. This was because his dad did not support Eliezer’s interest in studying the Cabala. “You are too young for that, maimonides tell us that one must be thirty before venturing into the world of mysticism, a world of fraught with peril”(4). A reason that there could be problems with Eliezer and his dad is that his dad was not always present. “He rarely displayed feelings, not even with his family, and was more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own”(4). But, even though at the beginning of the book Eliezer and his dad’s relationship was iffy, they grew a bond due to the tragic events they had gone
Eliezer was taught that God is supposed to be filled with good, yet as he goes through the Holocaust, he thinks that maybe God doesn't exist at all . As he and his father are walking through Auschwitz, he sees the Nazi's burning babies in a large pit. While his father began whispering to himself the prayer for the dead, reciting "may his name be blessed and magnified...," Eliezer asks himself, thinking that he would be burned as well, "Why should I bless his name? The Eternal, Lord of the Universe...was silent. What had I to thank him for?"(Page 31) This is the beginning of his lack of faith in god. As Eliezer and his father were together in Buna, an occasional public hanging would take place. Hangings were executed not only for those that committed a crime, but also for the prisoners of the camp, in order to learn a lesson from the accused. In Buna, one of three prisoners who were hung was a little boy, who was a servant of a member of the resistance group in the camp. Once the boy was publicly hung, the boy was still alive, just hanging there on the noose for about half an hour. As the prisoners in the camp were forced to watch the hanging, they began to cry. Eliezer said that even though there were so many hangings, this was the first time everyone was crying. At that moment, a prisoner asked out loud "Where is God now?"(Page 62) and Eliezer answered to himself "Where is he?