Faith In Elie Wiesel's Night

Words: 576
Pages: 3

Faith is defined as a strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof. Faith was tested many times during the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel describes his relationship with God throughout his memoir Night. In Night, Elie reveals the central theme that hardships change a person's faith, during difficult times.
Elie’s first test of faith occurred when Elie had arrived at Auschwitz. Upon arriving, Elie and the other Jews are forced to march past the crematoriums where Elie witnessed babies burning. He questions his father’s prayer stating, "Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent" (Wiesel 33). Elie had been through a lot and he felt that God had put him in a scary position after all the time he had been praying to him. Elie feels betrayed and left by God, because he was stuck in a horrific situation. The theme that hardships change a person's faith is present because Elie
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Elie was being pushed mentally, and seeing all of what happened to the victims, he described how his soul has been burned. Elie had been shaved, and saw people being burned in the crematoria. Elie described what had happened to him after what he has seen. Elie recalled, “Talmud, the child I was, had been consumed by the flames. All that was left was a shape that resembled me. My soul had been invaded-and devoured-by a black flame"(Wiesel 37). The burning Elie had to witness and feel inside was why Elie questioned God and changed his faith. Elie felt like he lost his soul after coming into the concentration camp, seeing the SS killing so many people. Elie was “devoured” by this black flame, emitting how his faith has been burned. This is an important factor to why Elie had changed his faith because those horrors the Nazis brought lead to Elie’s question of