In the book, Night by: Elie Wiesel, Eliezer and his family are Jews that are caught in the midst of World War II. The inhumane treatment of Eliezer and his father during the war caused them to go through intense physical and mental struggles. The treatment of Eliezer and his father causes them to let go of all hope, beliefs, and faiths. Soon they become puppets, only caring about survival. As they started to arrive at the camp everyone’s confidence starts to waver. ”The beloved objects that we had carried with us from place to place were now left behind in the wagon and with them, finally our illusions.” (29 Wiesel) this shows that everyone is starting to realize the harsh reality they are soon going to face. The first thing that started …show more content…
”I had ceased to pray. I concurred with Job! I was not denying His existence, but I doubted His absolute justice.” (45 Wiesel). Eliezer’s coming to realize that his God isn’t as all powerful/good as he seems. As Eliezer witnesses the atrocities of the camp his beliefs start to vanish. Eliezer’s beliefs are at an all time low after he witnesses a young boy being hanged. After the traumatizing event someone starts to ask "For God's sake, where is God?" (65 Wiesel) and in Eliezer’s mind he replies "Where He is? This is where—hanging here from this gallows (65 Wiesel). Following the death of the young boy Elizer continues to question his belief and grows angrier at his god, his anger is apparent during the service of death when they were blessing god. “Why, but why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled.“Because He caused thousands of children to burn in His mass graves? Because He kept six crematoria working day and night,including Sabbath and the Holy Days? Because in His great might, He had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many other factories of death? How could I say to …show more content…
His love for his father doesn’t change but as his father becomes sick with dysentery he starts thinking that maybe he should leave his father behind to increase his chances of survival. This is demonstrated when Elizer wakes up and he can’t find his father. Instead of panicking, Elizer thought, “If only I didn't find him! If only I were relieved of this responsibility, I could use all my strength to fight for my own survival, to take care only of myself...Instantly, I felt ashamed, ashamed of myself forever.” (106 Wiesel). Soon the only thing that Elizer cares about is his survival. Even after they had been freed and the Germans were destroyed, everyone from the camp didn’t feel vengeful; all they wanted was some
The travesty of Genocide has tragically claimed both his innocence and childhood prematurely. When the young child is hung for all the Jews to see he no longer tries to conjure or repeal god, Elie simply thinks to himself, “He [God] is hanging here in the gallows” (Wiesel 65).Elie
Elie Wiesel’s novel “Night” is the story of what Eliezer and millions of other Jews experienced during the Holocaust. Eliezer, the narrator and main character, changed throughout the novel physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Eliezer was sent to a labor camp, therefore his physical state changed. The novel, “Night” has shown the readers the physical changes that Eliezer has gone through. For example, Eliezer became malnourished due to the lack of food being provided.
Eliezer questioned his faith in God, he never understood how such a fatality could happen and why. The one person Eliezer trusted was Hitler because everything Hitler said he made happen. Eliezer said the holocaust “murdered his God” Eliezer had always had faith the holocaust challenged his faith and connection with God. Elizer witnessed major horrors in the camp that was forever burned into his memory. Eliezer's faith in God came and went, but his faith to live stayed with him.
Every fiber in me rebelled. Because He caused thousands of children to burn in His mass graves? Because He kept six crematoria working day and night, including Sabbath and the Holy Days? Because in His great might, He had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many other factories of death? How could I say to Him:
Eliezer says, “Where is he? This is where-hanging here from these gallows...” (Wiesel 65). This is where he loses all hope because he does not believe God would hang a child. He mentions his loss of faith multiple times because of all the awful events he is put through.
The circumstances of two different types of people in the same situation. “Night tells the story of Eliezer Wiesel, a studious Orthodox Jewish teenager living in Hungary in the early 1940s who is sent to Auschwitz, a concentration camp. In Auschwitz, Eliezer struggles to maintain his faith, bearing witness as the other prisoners lose faith and humanity” (“Night by Elie Wiesel | Summary, Quotes & Memoir - Video & Lesson Transcript”) The prisoners experience starvation, succumb to disease, and abuse from the guards. The Nazi doctors regularly perform selections where they decide who is no longer fit to work and, therefore, will be executed.
As the story unfolds, it becomes a prominent theme that difficult situations bring a loss a faith, identity, and character. Eliezer is faced with many strenuous obstacles, and it reveals the truth in his faith. The narrator hears a man yell out, “‘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…’
The Holocaust is the most horrible genocide that has ever occurred, and it must never be forgotten. The dehumanization of the Jewish community results in innocent people suffering emotionally, physically, and spiritually. This also causes them to lose their sense of identity, their faith, and their general sympathy for other people. As Eliezer's degradation worsens, he begins to lose confidence in God and wonders how He could be so wicked as to permit such heinous and cruel atrocities to occur. Eliezer loses his identity and his understanding of self when he faces the brutal crimes and savagery that take place in the concentration camps of the Holocaust.
Elie utilizes this concept to highlight his point of challenging God—Why should he respect and bow down to someone who turns a blind eye to the torment of their most loyal followers? “‘For God’s sake, where is God?’ And from within me, I heard a voice answer: ‘Where He is? This is where— hanging here from this gallows…’” (Wiesel, 65).
The next step of his loss of faith starts again with a heartbreaking event. One night, Elie says that he and the other men at the Buna camp had to watch a young boy as he was hanged and “were forced to look at him at close range” (65). This agonizing event from the book upsets all of the witnesses as they watch the young boy dying in front of them “lingering between life and death” (65). From this, Elie admitted to himself “Where [God] is? This is where--hanging from this gallows…” (65).
Evidence of Eliezer’s faith dying is when he says: “Behind me I heard the same man asking: ‘For God's sake, where is God?’ And from within me I heard a voice answer: ‘Where He is? This is where, hanging here from the gallows.’” These examples help me understand that no matter how devoted you are, a horrid situation can always make you lose your
In fact, I was pleased with what was happening to him: my gold crown was safe”(Wiesel 52). The full impact of this scene requires a certain level of context. Before having entered Auschwitz Wiesel was but a young, simple,
In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, Eliezer Wiesel narrates the legendary tale of what happened to him and his father during the Holocaust. In the introduction, Wiesel talks about how his village in Seghet was never worried about the war until it was too late. Wiesel’s village received advanced notice of the Germans, but the whole village ignored it. Throughout the entire account, Wiesel has many traits that are key to his survival in the concertation camps.
Eliezer has not only lost faith in god but he has begun to feel hatred towards him for letting innocent men and women be slaughtered and burned. Elie now feels strong hatred towards god for not protecting the Jews. Elie’s view of god changed for the worse. He was very religious and close to god in many ways. He slowly began to lose faith and hope in god.
“I realized that he did not want to see what they were going to do to me. He did not want to see the burning of his only son”(42). When Eliezer arrives at Auschwitz, the separation of his family puts an emotional toll on his father since he realizes that only him and Eliezer are still alive. This will be a catalyst to their relationship becoming stronger as they endure more together. Elie Wiesel, the author of the novel Night writes his own personal accounts of experiencing the Holocaust through the character Eliezer.