...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...
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...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...
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...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...
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...learned? Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel speaks of the importance of sharing his story and others alike to demonstrate to people an event in which he and millions of others lost so much to never happen again. Wiesel speaks of “those moments that murdered [his] God” as he pushes to survive and realizes he will no longer be the same boy as before but a man willing to persevere through the camps without religion to guide him and emphasizes the loss he feels in the camps (Wiesel 34). As Elie Wiesel documents his experience of the Holocaust in his memoir Night, he uses rhetorical questions to demonstrate how the belief in God is challenged, and ultimately lost, during times of tremendous suffering. At the arrival of the first camp,...
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...humanity lets go of faith, humanity will crumble. In the novel Night, by Elie Wiesel, the author puts the reader in his of view where he is the Jew, and the Nazis have captured him. This all takes places during the Holocaust and the novel shows the harsh conditions that the Jews were put through. The camps that the Jews are put into are made to crush their desire for freedom and make them lose all hope. Faith, one of the main themes in this novel, is portrayed very well through the main protagonist. Elie Wiesel, a faithful person in the beginning of the novel, starts to decline his relationship with faith as he is put through more trials and tribulations. In Night, Elie, the main protagonist, is put...
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...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 work with Moshe the Beadle to help increase his knowledge in his studies because “during the day I studied the Talmud, and at night I ran to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple. One day I asked my father to find me a master to guide me in my studies of the cabbala” (1). Wiesel applies diction such as “Talmud...
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...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...
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...that happens to most people but the majority have not had it stripped away or been forced to question entire religious beliefs. Elie Wiesel did. In Night by Elie Wiesel, he discusses how Jews were stripped of their homes, titles, gold, and religion. He explains his story of being deported and taken to concentration camps, where he endured countless cruel acts. Elie once an extremely religious young man, tells the story of losing his faith during those horrific months. Eliezer’s loss of faith forever impacted him because seeing such horrible things made it hard for him to have faith how he previously did. Before being taken to any concentration camps, Elie is devoutly religious and is extremely faithful. Wiesel...
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...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...
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...in a religion that is consistent throughout the group. Four of those children grow up to practice the religion and build their lives around it. On the other hand, the one child, who grew up in penury, discarded his/her devotion to the god and focused all his/her efforts in the family’s survival. This is similar to the relationship between Elie Wiesel, his father and God. At first, Elie built a barrier between him and his father because he felt that his father did not care for their family as much as he cared for others: Eliezer, devoted to his religion, is not close with his father because he refuses that Elie read the Kabbalah, a religious text. After he and his father are separated from the rest of his family, Elie realizes that they are going to have to depend on each other to survive the Holocaust. Throughout Night, Elie grows closer to his father, whilst...
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...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...
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...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...
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...In the book, Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie and his father go through major relationship changes throughout the book and it is interesting to watch the evolution of a father-son relationship like this. Elie and his father live in a town called, Sighet, they live in a Jewish community and are jews themselves. They have a person in the community named, Moshe the Beadle, he is taken away for a bit and when he returns he tells a story of how he and other people were taken out to a ditch and everyone was shot and killed, he escaped. Nobody believes such a thing is possible, until the Hungary police and nazis come in and put them in ghettos, small walled off communities. Then they are sent to the camp. The first time Elie and his father’s relationship is shown, they are distant. His father cares more about the community than his own family. Elie and his father don’t really talk much at all and have no sign of any good relationship there. Elie said, “My father was occupied with his business and the doings of the community” (Wiesel 5). His father has all his time occupied by everything but his family. Elie at this point is devoted to his religion and constantly is studying on it and learning more through a book called the “Cabbala”. It is a higher learning of their religion. Elie and his father’s relationship is getting better, but only due to them being forced to be together in the...
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...In Night by Elie Wiesel, a young boy, Elie, finds himself in the exact situation when Elie and his father are separated from the rest of the family and put in the concentration camps. There, they are treated like animals, the cruel treatment is excruciating and hard to handle, but Elie makes it out alive leaving his father behind. During the traumatic experience, Elie Wiesel and other Jews were exposed to a great deal of cruel treatment in the concentration camps during the Holocaust. Therefore, he was struggling to keep his faith in the midst of it all....
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...other groups that lasts from 1933 to 1945 under the control of a German dictator, Adolf Hitler. Elie Wiesel is only 15 years old when he and his family are sent to Auschwitz and 16 years old when he is liberated from the concentration camp. In his memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel demonstrates the loss of Jewish identity during the Holocaust through his use of literary devices: personification, foreshadowing, and metaphors. The Jews experience a loss of identity and self value before they even get to the camps due to the dehumanizing acts of authoritative...
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