Night By Elie Wiesel: Character Analysis

Words: 669
Pages: 3

About six million Jews died during the Holocaust. During the novel, Elie Wiesel discusses how his family was taken away from their hometown, Sighet, and put into concentration camps. Wiesel explains all of the treacherous experiences he witnessed at several different death sights in Germany, and how he managed to survive. In the book “Night” by Elie Wiesel, the main character, Elie, was affected by the events in the book because of his change in physical appearance, loss of faith, and loss of his identity.

Elie’s physical appearance was damaged by the concentration camp’s lack of food, and harsh conditions. For example, the novel states, “Should we fast?... to fast could mean a more certain, more rapid death. In this place, we were always fasting” (page 69). At the concentration camp, food was scarce and old. As you can presume, they were so physically weak that if they fasted for Yom Kippur they would most likely parish. Also, (page 115) Elie claims that, “From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me.”
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As noted (page 66) Wiesel writes, “ What are you, my God?... What does your grandeur mean,... in this face of all this cowardice, this decay, and this misery?” Throughout this part of the novel, Elie was contemplating whether or not he still believed in God. Ultimately, he kept wondering why God would put them through torture, and just watch it unfold right in front of all of the Jewish people. For instance, when the SS men hung the little boy “...he remained for more than half an hour lingering between life and death, writhing before our eyes”(page 65). The author was stuck between a rock and a hard place wondering why God would let them kill off this little boy. Elie ended up doubting God’s worthiness because the actions of the Holocaust were too inhumane. In brief, Elie’s religious beliefs were wounded by his past experiences in the concentration