How Does Elie Wiesel Use Faith In Night

Words: 511
Pages: 3

Night Essay - Faith and Night Elie Wiesel describes his brutal account and memories of the Holocaust in his memoir, “Night.” Perhaps, the biggest conflict in “Night” is the struggle with faith. Eliezer, the main character, questions his faith and God throughout the traumatic events of the Holocaust. His views of God and his faith drastically change from the beginning of the novel to the end of the novel. He struggles to keep his faith in God, and this struggle reflects why the memoir is titled “Night.”
Eliezer, at the beginning of the novel, is very religious; he has a thirst for religious knowledge. Moshe the Beadle acts as his tutor in the endeavor. He has complete and absolute faith in God. When he is asked why he prays, he replies, on page 2, by thinking, “Why did I pray?...Why did I live? Why did I breathe?” Eliezer doesn’t quite know why he prays, he just knows that it is an important part of his life. His studies from Moshe the Beadle and of the Jewish religion have taught him that God is everywhere and has touched every part of life. However, when he is taken away to
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There are many times within the camp that the people question God. For example on page 61, when the Gestapo hangs the young boy, a man asks, “Where is God? Where is He?” The camp is left in complete silence. All the prisoners, along with Eliezer, question the actions of God and how these atrocities could happen to them. This event heavily changes Eliezer’s faith because he starts to ask the question, where is God. Eliezer’s struggle with faith can reflect the title, “Night.” He questions his faith, God, and His actions. One possibility for this titlle is that it represents a time or place where God has no presence or power. Also, the worst things always tend to happen whenever night falls: Eliezer and his father are informed about the Jews being deported, they are taken to Auschwitz, and the prisoners run from