Albert Schweitzer once said, “The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.” Schweitzer is saying that in life, helping others and showing compassion is an important step to take. In the novel Night by Elie Weisel, Elie has experiences that cause conflict and a shift in his priorities like his faith and him showing or not showing compassion. Elie shows the reader that showing or having compassion can be is vital in getting through arduous times, whether it is positive or negative.
Compassion is a feeling of love and wanting to help someone in need. In Night, Elie experiences things that are compassionate and callous. One example is when Stein, Elie’s cousin, gives Elie and his father advice. “Take …show more content…
He is very weak, very dehydrated. Take care of yourselves, you must avoid selections. Eat! Anything, anytime. Eat all you can. The weak don’t last very long around here” (Wiesel 45). By giving Elie and his father advice, Stein is showing that he wants to help them by telling them that if one is weak or sick, they are put on the list for selections. Elie and his father both know that selection means death and they both want to survive to get out of Auschwitz. However, Elie also experiences events that are callous. When Elie was working by loading diesel motors onto freight trains, he experienced something that no son should ever experience. His father was being beat by Idek, another prisoner who has authority given to him from the Nazi’s. “And he began beating him with and iron bar. At first, my father simply doubled over under the blows, but then he seemed to break in two like an old tree struck by lightning” (Wiesel 54). Elie uses the metaphor “like an old tree …show more content…
He believes that God is real. However, in the poem “Never Shall I Forget,” Elie tells the reader that what he experienced the first night changed his life forever. “Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes” (34). When Elie says this, he is saying that the callousness that the Nazi’s show make Elie began to think that God is not real. He thinks to himself why is God not doing anything? Why would he let this happen? This shows that Elie’s faith is weakened by his experiences of people showing no compassion. Another example of Elie’s faith changing due to actions that are not compassionate are when his father starts to pray to God. “Yisgadal, veyiskadash, shmey raba… May His name be celebrated and sanctified…” whispered my father. For the first time, I felt anger rising within me. Why should I sanctifiy His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the univers, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for” (33). For the first time, Elie feels anger towards God because God shows no mercy and compassion on the Jews. Elie’s father is praising God and Elie questions why should he worship and love God if he offers or shows no help. This shows that Elie believes that God has no compassion because he does not offer any help to those in need. However, Elie’s experiences also show that family is important and that he and his father must stick