...“Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the of the universe,” Elie Wiesel. The persecution of one for race, religion and religion are the reason Elie, as a 15 year old, was sent to concentration camps. Elie wrote the Nobel peace prize winning book, “Night” to reveal the untold events that transpired at the time of WW2. In the book , “Night”, Elie’s religion, personality, and fear of death changed because of the events arose. Elie’s religion in “Night” was affected because of the events that took place. IN the beginning of the book, Elie is a highly religious boy. Shown on page 4, he says, “ one day I asked my father too find a master...
Words: 814 - Pages: 4
...RELIGION AND SOCIETY UNIT ONE * The Holocaust By Chelsea Nguyen 11 Silver QUESTION NUMBER 3: Discuss the relationship Wiesel has with God throughout Night. Eliezer Wiesel presents the Jewish faith in a moment of extreme darkness however, what gives him the courage and strength to continue to live is his connection with religion and his relationship with God. Initially Elie shows strong devotion, then becomes disillusioned with God’s power, and ultimately redefines the position God holds in his life. In the beginning, Elie Wiesel’s relationship with God in Night shows strong devotion. Wiesel made spirituality inherent to all activities, wished to spend his life focused around Judaism, and devoted all his free time and energy on religious studies. Wiesel believed that religion was a basic survival need, showing that he followed his religion instinctively. When asked why he prayed, Wiesel couldn’t think of a proper answer and thought, “…strange question, why did I live, why did I breathe?”. Wiesel maintained confidence in religion as the situation deteriorated. Wiesel and his people gave thanks to God for survival, keeping hope that God was putting them through a test of hardships what would keep them alive if they kept their faith. When they had arrived at Auschwitz, they thanked God and were able to regain their confidence because, “Here was a sudden release from the terrors of the previous nights”. Wiesel thanked God for the little things that helped him because...
Words: 882 - Pages: 4
...resist the desire of death. In a beautiful villanelle dedicated to his father, Thomas told him: “do not go gentle into that good night,” but to “rage, rage against the dying of the light” (Thomas, 1 and 3). Thomas hoped that his father would find the strength to not give up in his fight for life. Their familial love gave his father the hope to do the seemingly impossible and defy death, for a little longer. Hope is key to surviving in any situation, but it takes a lot of emotional strength to maintain. During the Holocaust, this was truer than ever for millions of people, who faced death every day, and were tortured, starved, and violated. Their hope in religion, the goodness of humanity, and themselves were continually tested and most victims’ hope were eventually lost because of their suffering. One survivor, Elie Wiesel, wrote a memoir, Night, sharing his experiences during the Holocaust and in a concentration camp, and solemnly displaying his progression of hope. Elie's gradual loss of hope caused him to lose the emotional strength that he needs to survive, which made him desperate to cling on to the familial identity that was...
Words: 1708 - Pages: 7
...Wiesel’s Changes of Faith The Holocaust brought about many hardships and created severe adversity for its victims that may have created experiences ultimately too traumatic that transformed their lives for years to come, either through starvation and labor in the concentration camps or execution and incineration in the extermination camps. In the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, Wiesel tells the story of himself as a young Jewish boy born in Romania, who in 1944, was forced into ghettos with the rest of the Jewish citizens and later deported, along with his father, to the Nazi’s largest killing center, Auschwitz-Birkenau. While living through this day-to-day horrifying basis, Elie begins to live with overwhelming fear and total alienation, as well as his increasing loss of faith on God and whether God is even existent or not for His lack of participation in trying to help the Jews. Although Elie manages to survive his long and frightening journey through both labor and death camps, his faith was never at the high-most air-reaching level as it dramatically changed throughout the course of the novel because of his disturbing experiences in witnessing cremated human beings, executions, and the going through the loss of his entire family. Prior to being deported to the camps, Elie’s faith was extremely high as he was well-established with his studies in mysticism and the cabbala and his great involvement with religion through prayers. Elie is finding a great interest in wanting to...
Words: 1428 - Pages: 6
...Elie Wiesel’s Loss of Innocence There comes a time in one’s life where a tragic event results in the loss of innocence and an increase in knowledge. Unfortunately this is one of life’s few promises. Some experience this ablution a lot sooner than they should. In children who survived the holocaust in concentration camps, their innocence was taken as soon as their ordinary everyday life was imposed upon by the Nazis. In Elie Wiesel’s book Night, he describes himself as an innocent teenager, a child whose innocence was taken from him as the result of the nefariousness performed by the Nazis in World War Two. Elie and his family were transported to Birkenau where his family was torn apart, leaving him with his father, his sisters and his mother. Once they were separated, he began to slowly lose his innocence. Towards the end of 1941, in the small village of Sighet, Hungary, twelve-year-old Elie Wiesel spent most of his time studying the Talmud. Elie was one of four children born to his mother and father. Hilda was the eldest, then Bea, he was the third, and Tzipora was the youngest. The two eldest sisters helped the parents run the family store while Elie stayed home to study. Elie was very passionate about the theology of his religion, Judaism. He studied Talmud by day and by night he would go to the synagogue to pray. One of his main interests was Kabbalah which is an aspect of Jewish mysticism. Elie asked his father to find him a master to guide him in his...
Words: 2010 - Pages: 9
...The worst manslaughter in history, forgotten? Relieved? Forgiven? Human minds in need of such remembrance of something that accepted such a crime to wipe out an entire race? Elie Wiesel’s Night not only reminds us of the unforgivable crimes that Hitler committed, but helps us with the further understanding of the differences in human nature by culture/religion. This experience dramatically changed Elie from a dreamer and believer to someone who has no faith and lives to only eat and sleep. The death of his father would haunt him, only for Elie to find out when his dad dies, he wouldn’t care anymore. The Holocaust changed many people immensely and shot a hole in the heart of history. Before Elie was plucked into the worst manslaughter in the...
Words: 558 - Pages: 3
...Elie Wiesel’s Night illustrates through the use of anaphora and simile to allow the reader to see how men who fail to attain even a respite are much more likely to relinquish their religion. Elie himself develops to find his god erroneous whilst endeavoring to keeping his body and soul through excessive work and little food in a Nazi concentration camp, and begins to loathe his omniscient being, whom punishes Elie at his leisure. When people are faced with an incredibly gruesome scene, they tend to be traumatized by it, which may lead to effects on their psyche. This change in conduct may alter the way they perceive the world around them, including their religion. In Night, Elie is faced with the scene of babies burning, and feels: “[colon Quote Related To”Never Shall I Forget Anaphora]”(Wiesel __). This is Elie traumatized by the melting children and the acrid scent, knowing that he would be a part of it all too soon. It is seen later on that when “[Sentence Flow Quote Related To His Father Being Beaten]”(Wiesel __), which shows how Elie has been desensitized to the anguish of other people, even the ones as close as family. Trauma on this caliber...
Words: 442 - Pages: 2
...Change is inevitable. It is something that is bound to happen no matter what the outcome.In the novel night, Elie Wiesel’s character goes on a journey that will forever change his life and many situations around them. People go from living in a house to being forced and killed in a concentration camp. No one can predict what the outcome will be because the possibilities of life and death are endless. Elie Wiesel changes his religious beliefs because he lost faith and his religious beliefs couldn't save him from. In the beginning of the article many of the jews were prominent in their religious views. I continued to devote myself to my studies, Talmud during the day and Kabbalah at night (Wiesel 8). Talmud is a body of Jewish civil and ceremonial law and legend. The purpose of the talmud is to project writings that are often ventured onto other subjects broadly on the Hebrew Bible. The Kabbalah is one of the main forms of their Jewish religion that is seen throughout the book. He wanted to drive the idea of studying Kabbalah from my mind (Wiesel 4). In the novel Elie’s dad doesn’t want...
Words: 548 - Pages: 3
...good luck trying to find it. Sayonara, au revoir, adios, bye. Elie Wiesel’s Night deals with his loss of faith in his God. Wiesel’s problem can be root all the way back to 1942, the beginning of Elie’s awakening, his first insight into the real world, his first insight into the Holocaust. The Holocaust was a horrid event, of ruthless killing, of senseless slaughter, destroying families, and a whirlwind of destruction. Under strain, ones happiness and ones faith is slowly whittled under the knife of opposition and pressure. Elie has lost so much through out his life, losing his family, his friends, but most importantly his faith. The first example of Elie loosing his faith is when he arrived at Auschwitz, Elie and his father are directed to go to the left; a prisoner then informs them that they are on their way to the crematory, Elie’s father recites the Kaddish or prayer for the dead, revolt rises up inside of Elie and he questions God, “Why should I bless His name? The Eternal, lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank Him for? (Wiesel 31)”. Elie is hopeless, his situation rendering him of his beliefs unable to believe that a holy being could cause such grief. He was stricken with terror that even after his prayers, his deep devotion to the great “lord” that God has thrust him into this “hell”. Another example of prisoners in the concentration camp loosing their faith in Night is when the Pipel, a young child, was hung in front of the...
Words: 779 - Pages: 4
...The book, “Night” by Elie Wiesel is a first person person narrative of Wiesel’s time in Auschwitz, the obstacles he has to surpass and the sacrifices he has to make in order to stay alive and how his faith waivers as his desperation to survive increases. As one of the millions of Jew-ish survivors of the Holocaust, Wiesel shares his personal story from his point of view bringing the themes of faith and desperation to surface. The desperation to survive changes Wiesel’s be-lief in God from one of unquestioning faith to a cynical more callous view. As the book unfolds these two themes present themselves and are tied to the storyline and Wiesel’s disposition and mental state. Throughout the book, Wiesel often talks about his faith and how...
Words: 896 - Pages: 4
...In 1986, Elie Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his human rights activism and campaigns against worldwide genocide and violence. In his acceptance speech, Wiesel said “When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe”. Wiesel found himself a target of the Nazi “Final Solution” while still only a teenager. Confined first to ghettos, Wiesel along with his whole family were then deported to the death camps at Auschwitz in 1944. The tough labor, the gruesome beatings along with the terrible conditions of Auschwitz...
Words: 863 - Pages: 4
...English 10 Rough Draft Essay In the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, the author uses symbolism, and metaphors to show the theme loss of faith. Both Elie and his father express signs that they have lost faith in the Jewish religion. This is important because religion is supposed to help people through hard times, and give them faith in the world around them. The first example of this is when all of the Jewish civilians are forced to wear the yellow Star of David. When Mr. Wiesel was asked what the community should do about being shamefully forced to wear the star. His response was rather nonchalant stating. “The yellow star? So what? It’s not lethal…” (11) This shows that Mr. Wiesel is not holding the offense to his religion in high regard, showing...
Words: 402 - Pages: 2
...Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength. Elie Wiesel’s Night, is the story of his experience through one of the most catastrophic events in history, the Holocaust. In the book we get to see his experience through his eyes. The lose of his family members and friends. Throughout the story, we start to see Elie progressively change chapter to chapter. Elie went through the most horrible times of his live. Even though he knew giving up would be easier, and feeling as if there was nothing to live for. He did the only thing he could do, survive. After being taken to the camp, Elie was striped from his religion, and his faith....
Words: 265 - Pages: 2
...I believe that the story “Night” shows us a multitude of angles on which people lived during the holocaust. Though I do not belive that in these times that human kindness prevailed, often prisoners would kill for food or drink, and many people turned a blind eye to the actions in Germany. The history of the world is plagued by mankind’s inability to settle for what they have and who they are. Wars have been fought over religion, tradition, territory, and in this case, the idea that one race is superior to another. World War II was a horrible time in the world. The First World War was “the war to end all wars” and yet chaos spread over Europe. Elie Wiesel’s story, Night, is no exception. Elie was a Jewish prisoner who escaped the Nazi death camps. Night redefines what a common theme of man’s inhumanity to man. This theme is shown through the murder of a young boy, Elie’s belief in God, and Elie’s self-worth. The first display of Nazi inhumanity is the murder of a young child. An man and the boy (his assistant) were accused of blowing up a power plant on the camp. The man and boy were tortured and questioned and refused to give any information about the incident to the Nazi soldiers. The boy was described as “having the face of a sad angel” and was sentenced to be hanged. Everyone at the camp liked him and the SS officer in charge of the hanging refused his job and was replaced. The child was so light he hung for half and hour before actually...
Words: 880 - Pages: 4
...“The yellow star? So what? It’s not lethal…” (Wiesel 11). But the yellow star eventually would be the downfall and ultimate fate of many European Jews, including multitudes of teenager Eliezer Wiesel's friends and family members. In the memoir Night, Wiesel’s adolescent years are stained by the devilish mark of Hitler’s death camps, where prisoners endure torture and demise on a routine basis. As he witnesses son against father and friend against friend, he must control himself to not turn against his ailing dad. So how does Wiesel escape turning against his only remaining family member? Despite seeing the treacheries around him, Wiesel somehow manages to keep moral ground, even up to his father's sickly death. With the power of faith, family, and community, Wiesel keeps himself from betraying his father. Elie Wiesel’s naturally faithful self is a key part in his struggle to keep morality. Before being sent off to the concentration camps,...
Words: 669 - Pages: 3
