Premium Essay

Suffering In Elie Wiesel's Night

Submitted By
Words 682
Pages 3
Revival To humans, the cause of suffering will always remain a mystery. Calamities, persecutions, hardships, insults; humans live to suffer. Elie Wiesel is an American Romanian-born Jewish writer and Holocaust survivor, who tells of his horrific tale in the novel, “Night.” Throughout the novel, Wiesel tells a journalistic story about suffering and death as he endures dreadful experiences in Nazi death camps. At one point in the story, Wiesel compares himself to Job, a character of the Bible who he feels he can relate to. At first, Wiesel fights the urge to reject God in his suffering which is an uncommon action when all hope is gone.
Firstly, within the pages of the Bible reads a narrative story called, “The Book of Job.” In Job, there is a man who God allows to be directly attacked by Satan. He is an illustration of devotion as he is stripped of everything yet he remains devoted to God. By allowing Satan to attack Job, God testifies his faithfulness to him. Job was abundantly blessed by God. He had a wonderful family, a huge house, plenty of animals, and food on the table. Through …show more content…
As mortals, humans cannot know all of God’s reasons. It is very frustrating to understand how a good God can allow such evil and suffering in the world. Throughout the course of the novel, Wiesel struggles with this concept. Wiesel conveys his anger with God when he states, “Blessed be God’s name? Why, but why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled … Blessed be thou, Almighty, Master of the universe, who chose us among all nations to be tortured day and night, to watch as our fathers, our mothers, our brothers end up in the furnaces (Wiesel 67)?” Some say that suffering is the result of sin while others say it is God’s way of humbling humans. Whatever the reason for suffering is, when in the face of it, feelings of abandonment, anger, and betrayal are bound to happen as part of human

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Suffering In Elie Wiesel's Night

...enough to survive through the brutal concentration camps that the Nazi Regime forced them to undergo. In such a barbarous time in history, the preservation of strong faith is what people thought would help them to endure through the dark times and give them hope. However, it was nearly impossible to trust God and His plan when the ground around the prisoners assumed the role of a graveyard and the living struggled to survive through the night. Elie Wiesel, a survivor of the Holocaust and prisoner of multiple concentration camps in Europe, wrote the memoir Night about his unimaginable suffering during...

Words: 1171 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Elie Wiesel's Night Analysis

...Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night tells the story of the Holocaust, the mass genocide of the Jewish people and important event in WWII. The memoir Night begins in the polish town of Sighet. The story is About Elie Wiesel, a Jewish boy whose family gets deported to the concentration camp with other Jews from his town. Upon arrival his Mother and Sister, Tzipora are separated and executed by the Nazis in the Auschwitz death camp. Following that, after months of work, with the advancing allied front, the prisoners were forced to march all night to the Gleiwitz concentration camp. As Elie’s story continues, after being stuffed inside a camp barrack for 3 days without food or water, the Prisoners were let out for a selection, Elie’s Father was chosen to...

Words: 1665 - Pages: 7

Free Essay

Night Plot Summry

...Chapter 4 Once Elie Wiesel and his father arrive at Buna, they are put to work counting electrical fittings in a warehouse. They stay in a barrack of musicians with a nice head Kapo. Here, Elie meets Juliek, a musician, and two brothers, Yosi and Tibi. A little while later, Elie is summoned to have his gold crown removed by the dentist. Wiesel is able to continuously put this off until the dentist is hanged for keeping the gold teeth for his own profit. Then Wiesel's work Kapo, Idek beats him terribly, but then a French girl helps and talks to him. Years later Wiesel sees this girl again in Paris and gets a chance to talk to her. Later Idek savagely beats Wiesel's father, but Elie Wiesel isn't concerned for his father's health or safety, and is instead mad at him for not being strong enough to defend himself. Then Franek, another head of the camp demands that Wiesel hand over his gold crown to him. He refuses, and so Franek takes out his fury on Wiesel's father until Wiesel finally gives him the tooth. In the warehouse, Elie Wiesel accidently catches Franek with a woman, and in retaliation, Franek whips Wiesel publicly until Wiesel goes unconscious. Later there is an air raid, and all the prisoners are confined to their blocks. Some days later, a man is hanged for trying to steal during the air raid when he was supposed to be in his block. There were a few more hangings following that one. One which involved a young boy accused of sabotage. When Wiesel sees how they cruelly...

Words: 1097 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Rhetorical Analysis Of Night By Elie Wiesel

...effective devices that express the message in a very clear and meaningful way. Two of the ways Elie Wiesel conveys his message to the reader is through his diction as well as his tone throughout the novel, Night. The diction throughout Elie Wiesel's memoir Night is very descriptive and vivid. Diction keeps the reader interested, but also helps them clearly understand the situation or environment: “Suffering from dysentery, my father was prostrate on his cot, with another five sick inmates nearby” (Wiesel 108). In this quote, the use of the word “prostrate” helps the reader clearly imagine how his father is lying on the cot, face down and dying...

Words: 446 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Elie Wiesel Loss Of Faith In Night

...In Elie Wiesel’s “Night”, Elie describes his experiences during the Holocaust. He expressively shares his horrifying experiences and suffering as a Jew. Along all of this, Elie has to deal with his losing faith with his god. The theme of Elie Wiesel’s “Night” is about loss of faith. The book quickly starts up by showing Elie’s religious status. The introduction shows that Wiesel is religious and prays oftenly. When Elie and his father arrives at the concentration camp, Wiesel questions God on how such a place could exist. He struggles mentally and physically during his time in the camp. He was treated cruelly and inhumane. Later on in his experience in camp, the Jews forget about friends and family and start focusing on self survival. God...

Words: 302 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Elie Wiesel's Response For Night

...Would you ignore if six million people were assassinated? The historical background of Elie Wiesel, the author of Night, has experienced such a significant event. Wiesel is an Auschwitz survivor and his memoir, Night, reflects the society and the beliefs of its time. A controversy about this work is that some people believe the Holocaust never happened and as a result regard the book as false. However, this novel was important at the time it was written, because it was a time when people didn‘t believe in the Holocaust. In addition, Elie Wiesel’s background is essential to the Holocaust’s memory, because it deals with the Nazi’s genocide. The author of Night, who is also the protagonist of the book, shows how delusion and rumors spread false hopes and lies throughout the camp. The author also showed how Hitler’s belief that other races were inferior and didn’t deserve to live led to Hitler’ rise to power. Wiesel’s story is crucial to that time-period since it shows his perseverance through multiple concentration camps and the loss of close family members....

Words: 596 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Violence In Elie Wiesel's Night

...desensitization enveloped the camps. Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night shows how desensitization leads to a state of indifference towards violence enacted upon others through the use of man vs. society conflict, situational irony, and imagery. The consistent nature of the conflicts between a prisoner and the twisted society around them creates an indifference to the violence brought upon others. For instance, on the train...

Words: 1147 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Night Bystander Quotes

...help someone more than you think. In the novel Night, written by Elie Wiesel, there are several times not being a bystander helps the suffering and endangered. Examples of this are when Elie’s former maid offered the Wiesel family help, Moishe the Beadle warning the Jews, and the french girl consoled Elie when he was badly beaten by Idek. Near the beginning of the movement to the concentration camps, the Wiesel’s maid, Maria, offered the family to go hide in her village:”Maria, our former maid, came to see us. Sobbing, she begged us to come with her to her village where she had prepared a safe shelter”(20). THe maid’s act of risking her life trying to save the Wiesel family is an excellent example of not being...

Words: 374 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Night Essay

...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

Premium Essay

Elie Wiesel's Loss Of Hope

...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

Free Essay

Night

...jealousy, and power. A perfect example of the latter would be the Holocaust where humans tortured and killed other humans because they were different. In Eliezier Wiesel’s memoir, Night he describes the extreme cruelty and suffering he endures in Auschwitz and other concentration camps as a child inmate during the Holocaust. Wiesel can neither explain nor understand the reasons for human cruelty that he witnesses and endures during the Holocaust, but learns that cruelty breeds more of the same and in the end survival and self-preservation is all that matters. Night sample thesis statements: You may borrow one, make it your own or write one from scratch: 1. Question: Analyze Elie and other characters’ struggle with faith. You can approach this chronologically or by effects. What is Elie’s final judgment on the benefit/cost of faith? Consider Elie’s interpretations of God’s intentions and use of visual imagery (such as death and night imagery). Thesis: At the beginning of the novel Elie has a desire to grow his religious faith and connection to God; however, as the story progresses and he witnesses tremendous suffering and loss his faith is shaken and lost. 2. Question: Analyze the essence and effects of dehumanization and human cruelty in Night on the perpetrators and/or the victims. Does Night help explain why people are capable of terrible crimes against...

Words: 420 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Faith Challenged by Evil Historic Event

...stronger growing faith and untouched humanity ideas during an evil historic event like the Holocaust? Elie Wiesel’s book, Night, will answer this question. Throughout history humanity has faced numerous tragic event caused either by nature or human beings, both of God’s creations. The Holocaust, which means “sacrifice by fire”, began in 1933 when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. During the Holocaust the Jews were the most affected. The Nazis killed eleven million Jews, almost two-thirds of all the Jewish population living in Europe. Jews were not the only ones the Holocaust targeted; Gypsies, homosexuals, and Jehovah’s Witnesses were also victims of Hitler’s plan. In recent years, events like The Twin Towers terrorist attack in 2001 and the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami have brought enormous suffering to the world, suffering that can somehow be compared to the one lived during the Holocaust. Continuing is the analysis of Elie Wiesel’s horrific experiences during the Holocaust. Did these experiences affect his faith? Was his perception of humanity ideas impacted? The book Night starts describing Elie’s faith as one indestructible. As young as he was he had deep knowledge of Jewish mysticism studies. Elie believed in God; a God of love and unlimited power. He was told that God is the master creator of all world’s wonders and that these wonders where the emanation of the divine world. Elie concluded that if God was the creator of everything in the physical world and God is a God of love...

Words: 1226 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Response To Threat In Elie Wiesel's Night

...Response to Threat In Elie Wiesel’s Night, the holocaust experience affects religious identity. Wiesel as a Jew born in Sighet, Romania in 1928 drew upon his personal holocaust experience. His original homeland Sighet was taken by the German army in the early 1944 and taken captive and sent to the Nazi work camps. The camp was not favorable to the Jewish; many were condemned and hanged as punishment. The prisoners endured pain and experienced both psychological and physical threats. The prisoner's responses were clear whether God existed in their suffering. In Wiesel’s Night, he expresses the physical and emotional threats and contends with the issue of God’s existence and God’s silence in the face of suffering, does God exist or not. Physical...

Words: 785 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Rhetorical Analysis Of Elie Wiesel's Acceptance Speech

...Billy Lynch Ms. Pound English II PreAP/Block 7 14 May 2018 Rhetorical Analysis;“Elie Wiesel’s Acceptance Speech for the Nobel Peace Prize” Author and human rights activist Elie Wiesel, in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize, discusses the nature of human injustice and its impact on his life and humanity as a whole. He adopts a forthright and heartfelt tone throughout his speech in order to gain support from his audience. Wiesel's purpose is to convince the audience to unite against injustice and human rights violations. In the beginning of the speech, Wiesel’s intention is to remind the audience of the scale and inhumanity of the Jewish genocide and to establish his own personal experiences with it. When presented with the Nobel Peace Prize, Wiesel asks a hypophora “do I have the right to accept this great honor on their behalf? I do not”. He includes this in order to establish a sense of humility with his audience so the case he presents is much more convincing to them. This...

Words: 698 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

What Does The Violin Symbolize In The Book Night

...in reality. In Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, the reader is let into the mind of a changed person; one who will forever remember such atrocities committed by Germany from 1933-1945. Throughout this short book, it seems as though it goes by so fast. From a peaceful God loving child, to a rebellious and miserable 15 year old boy who now denies him, Night shows how the NSDAP changed the minds of people forever through hate and murder for 12 long years. This text is filled with deep similes, metaphors and allusions, especially symbolism. The author uses the symbols fire, a violin, and train cars to portray a sense of hopelessness,...

Words: 695 - Pages: 3