Reflective Essay On Night By Elie Wiesel

682 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Night by wiesel elie essay faith

Christina Evans Essay Edwin Louis Cole once said, “God never ends anything on a negative; God always ends on a positive.” In Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night this quote is very significant to me. He wrote the book to inform people about the horrific nature of the Holocaust in a way that was more real than a few sentences in a history book. The biggest themes are loss of religion, destruction of self, and the darkness which Wiesel felt internally, but in the end Elie wins his well-deserved liberation. Therefore, Wiesel wrote Night to show us readers how he lost his once, close knit faith during his imprisonment along with many other things. Elie shows us the horrific events that he and others faced during this time within his novel Night. I mention this because I feel like his overall purpose in writing this novel was to inform readers that you should always keep looking for that light at the end of the tunnel. Elie had to deal with countless acts of violence, brutality, and death and many times I know he doubted that he would live any longer than what he has. “I pinched myself: Was I still alive? Was I awake? How it was possible that men, women, and children were being burned and that the world kept silent? No. All this could not be real. A nightmare perhaps…” (32) This was only one of the very first traumatizing experiences Elie faced out of many while in the camps. He saw at that moment how heartless people could be and it all seemed so surreal to him. Elie had lots of unwilling and unintended change within himself through this story; some of the change helped him cope while living in the camps. Elie changed throughout the story. Most of the change was unintended or unwilling change. The change was both good and bad (emotional, ... ... middle of paper ... ...he mirror and sees a “corpse,” suggests that Eliezer’s survival is a stroke of luck, a strange coincidence, no cause for rejoicing. It seems from his closing vision that Eliezer believes that without hope and faith, after having seen the unimaginable; he might as well be dead.” I feel like if Elie just kept his faith and hope throughout his time in the camp he would’ve felt way different when he was freed. Maybe this was a test God put him up to. Seeing how close he would keep his faith even under unmeasurable circumstances, like the ones he was put under. Though I would have kept my faith close to me Elie shows us how he lost his faith, hope, and trust throughout this novel. I started this essay off with a quote by Edwin Louis Cole that said “God never ends anything on a negative; God always end on a positive” and that’s exactly what God did for Eliezer Wiesel.

Show More
Related

  • The Dangers of Fear

    948 Words  | 2 Pages

    After being forced into concentration camps, Elie was rudely awakened into reality. Traumatizing incidents such as Nazi persecution or even the mistreatment among fellow prisoners pushed Elie to realize the cruelty around him; Or even the wickedness Elie himself is capable of doing. This resulted in the loss of faith, innocence, and the close bonds with others. Throughout his recollections, it is clear that Elie has a constant struggle with his belief in God. Prior to Auschwitz, Elie was motivated, even eager, to learn about Jewish mysticism.

    Read More

  • Loss Of Faith In The Book Night By Elie Wiesel

    1341 Words  | 3 Pages

    Most people have never experienced anything near as awful as what Wiesel experienced. He was one of the only people who found a way to hold onto their faith. Many made excuses not to perform rituals and eventually lost all faith. Wiesel was weakened, but remained faithful. Akiba Drumer, a friend of Wiesel, tried to convince himself that it was a test by God. However, Akiba also lost faith. “Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.” (Wiesel 34) This quote was from a small portion of Wiesel’s “Never Shall I Forget Poem.” It showed how Elie lost faith in God when he saw what the Nazis were doing to families and children. This quote shows how the religious part of Elie was “murdered.” Elie seemed to become foreign and isolated from his people. He seemed to be just going through the motions during his time in the camps. “In the midst of these men assembled for prayer, I felt like an observer, a stranger.” (Mauriac XXI) This quote shows how Wiesel felt like he was a stranger to the religion, community, and faith. Elie Wiesel couldn’t understand why God would hurt people, and most of all why he was spared. “And question of questions: Where was God in all this? It seemed as impossible to conceive of Auschwitz with God as to conceive of Auschwitz without God.” (Hope, Despair and Memory) This shows how Wiesel couldn’t grasp the reasoning behind God. He wanted

    Read More

  • Analytical Essay On Night By Elie Wiesel

    527 Words  | 2 Pages

    An estimated 11 million people died in the Holocaust. 6 million were Jews. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel tells his story as a Holocaust survivor. Throughout his book he describes the tremendous obstacles he overcame, not only himself, but with his father as well. The starvation and cruel treatment did not help while he was there. Elie makes many choices that works to his advantage. Choice plays a greater factor in surviving Auschwitz.

    Read More

  • Commentary On Night By Elie Wiesel

    560 Words  | 2 Pages

    Night by Elie Wiesel was a memoir on one of the worst things to happen in human history, the Holocaust. A terrible time where the Nazi German empire started to take control of eastern Europe during WWII. This book tells of the terrible things that happened to the many Jewish people of that time. This time could easily change grown men, and just as easily a boy of 13. Elie’s relationship with God and his father have been changed forever thanks to the many atrocities committed at that time.

    Read More

  • Indifference in Night by Elie Wiesel: A Poison That Spreads

    1050 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the novel “Night” by Elie Wiesel, the author displays the transformation and the evolution of the average human being, through a horrible experience that he personally went through. When he is transported from one place to another, forced to leave everything behind, to go live in the ghettos, then in a horrible concentration camp. In the concentration camp, Elie experiences numerous events that challenge his physical and mental limits. Some of these events made him question his faith, and whether there is such a thing as God, turning him from a conservative Jew to a reform Jew. Elie doesn’t love the concentration camps, yet he doesn’t hate it, in fact he does not care anymore.

    Read More

  • Night In Elie Wiesel's Night

    939 Words  | 2 Pages

    Night at the beginning of the novel is described as though Elie was having a difficult time realizing that everything that had happened to

    Read More

  • Important Quotes In Night By Elie Wiesel

    1425 Words  | 3 Pages

    Here he is no longer ignorant to the world around him, here he experienced one of the darkest times in man's history. Elie having been through so much already lost his faith in god. Being treated like cattle every day, seeing hundreds killed and burned in the “chimneys,” and even watching live babies thrown into pits of fire was enough for him to lose his faith, something he had once adored so much. A pivotal moment in the story is the hanging of a young boy. When inmates were suspected of breaking the rules or attempting to start an uprising they were tortured for information and then sentenced to hang at the gallows. During this scene, one of the accused is a thirteen-year-old boy who was described to have the face of an angel. Wiesel brings him up to reinforce that his faith is gone, the death of the boy is the death of God to him, “Behind me I heard a man asking: ‘For God’s sake, where is God?’ And from within me, I heard a voice answer: ‘Where is he? This is where hanging from the gallows…’ That night the soup tasted of corpses.” And after that, we see him slowly begin to change as a person. Throughout the whole journey, Elie was lucky enough to be able to stay with his father. Through the text, one of Elie's main focuses is ensuring that his father is taken care of and no matter what happened they were to remain united. After rumors that the Russians are approaching begin

    Read More

  • Elie Wiesel Loss Of Faith In Night

    921 Words  | 2 Pages

    One minute Elie Wiesel was sitting at home enjoying time with his family then, all of as sudden, he was forced out of his own home and on his was to a death camp with tons of other people just like him. What was he going to do in order to survive? How would he overcome the physical and mental challenges that this horrible death camp will bring? In the beginning of the novel, Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie turned to studying the Kabbalah and studying his God. Throughout the novel, we see parts where Elie’s faith begins to slip and he questions why, why is God doing this to him and others in the Auschwitz camp. The author wants his readers to see the changes the camp on his religious beliefs. In Night, Elie Wiesel uses tone, diction, and repetition to illustrate the loss of faith in Elie.

    Read More

  • Book Analysis: Elie Wiesel's 'Night'

    1046 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the Holocaust many people were severely tortured and murdered. The holocaust caused the death of six million Jewish people, as well as the death of 5 million non-Jewish people. All of the people, who died during this time, died because of the Nazis’: a large hate group composed of extremely Ignoble, licentious, and rapacious people. They caused the prisoners to suffer physically and mentally; thus, causing them to lose all hope of ever being rescued. In the novel Night, by Elie Wiesel, Elie went through so much depression, and it caused him to struggle with surviving everyday life in a concentration camp. While Elie stayed in the concentration camp, he saw so many people get executed, abused, and even tortured. Eventually, Elie lost all hope of surviving, but he still managed to survive. This novel is a perfect example of hopelessness: it does not offer any hope. There are so many pieces of evidence that support this claim throughout the entire novel. First of all, many people lost everything that had value in their life; many people lost the faith in their own religion; and the tone of the story is very depressing.

    Read More

  • Elie Wiesel Change In The Book Night

    719 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the book “Night” by Elie Wiesel The main character was effected by the events in the book because he didn’t care if he died, he wasn't mournful over death, and he was psychologically affected. Elie Wiesel was affected because of his time in the concentration camp and the things that they did to him and others. While ending here, the effects of the concentration camps during the holocaust left many people with nothing to live for and nobody to live for. The holocaust was one of the worst times in history and should never have happened, and will never happen

    Read More

  • Elie Wiesel Night Reflection

    1034 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the novel Night, Elie Wiesel faces the horrors of the Holocaust, where he loses many friends and family, and almost his life. He starts as a kind young boy, however, his environment influences many of the decisions he makes. Throughout the novel, Elie Wiesel changes into a selfish boy, thinks of his father as a liability and loses his faith in God as an outcome his surroundings.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Change In Night By Elie Wiesel

    780 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the beginning of the memoir, Elie is an extremely passionate and devout Jew, but as the story progresses, Elie sees horrendous things in the concentration camps, and as a result, he slowly loses his faith. Elie displays his extreme devotion in the beginning stages of the memoir when he states, “By day I studied Talmud and by night I would run to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple. I cried because something inside me felt the need to cry” (Wiesel 4). Elie is clearly very fond of learning more about his religion and connecting to God in a spiritual way. Furthermore, Elie is only thirteen years old, so when he says he cries because he feels the need to cry, he is exhibiting incredible passion. Elie reveals signs of change and begins to lose his faith in God just a few moments after arriving at the concentration camp when he says, “Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes” (Wiesel 34). Elie exclaims that he cannot worship God anymore due to the awful things he has seen at Auschwitz. He does not want to believe in the being that could have allowed these awful events to happen. This is a completely different Elie from the loving and caring Elie in the ghetto. Elie also uses rep...

    Read More

  • Elie Wiesel's Survival in Night

    781 Words  | 2 Pages

    Elie Wiesel writes about his personal experience of the Holocaust in his memoir, Night. He is a Jewish man who is sent to a concentration camp, controlled by an infamous dictator, Hitler. Elie is stripped away everything that belongs to him. All that he has worked for in his life is taken away from him instantly. He is even separated from his mother and sister. On the other side of this he is fortunate to survive and tell his story. He describes the immense cruel treatment that he receives from the Nazis. Even after all of the brutal treatment and atrocities he experiences he does not hate the world and everything in it, along with not becoming a brute.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Night By Elie Wiesel

    1870 Words  | 4 Pages

    The ground is frozen, parents sob over their children, stomachs growl, stiff bodies huddle together to stay slightly warm. This was a recurrent scene during World War II. Night is a literary memoir of Elie Wiesel’s tenure in the Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel created a character reminiscent of himself with Eliezer. Eliezer experienced cruelty, stress, fear, and inhumanity at a very young age, fifteen. Through this, he struggled to maintain his Jewish faith, survive with his father, and endure the hardships placed on his body and mind.

    Read More

  • Character Changes In Night, By Elie Wiesel

    966 Words  | 2 Pages

    This new behavior lead him to develop new character traits. While Ellie was in the concentration camp he became angry at many things, for example “I would have dug my nails into the criminals flesh” (Wisel 39). Elie shows extreme anger when the Nazi officials are beating Elie’s father. Elie was angry because the Nazi soldiers were not treating them nicely and putting them in poor conditions. Elie is usually not a person for anger but he shows this when his family members are being hurt. Elie wants to stand up for what is right and for his family members. Despite his studying, Elie wavered in his belief in Kabbalah while he was at the camp. In the book Elie says, “‘Where are You, my God?’” (66). Elie is wondering why God is not helping the Jews. Elie had complete faith in his religion until now, when he is starting to question his beliefs. He had learned that God will punish evil and save the righteous. However, when Elie saw that God was not helping the Jews situation then asked himself the question, “Is God real?”. Elie became worried because he felt he had lost a companion that always seemed by his side at all times. He lost hope. While Elie was in the camp he had changed the way he acted towards his Dad. Before Elie was sent to the camp Elie had a love hate relationship with his dad. However while they were in the camp together they became closer. Elie showed this when, “I tightened my grip on my

    Read More

More about Reflective Essay On Night By Elie Wiesel

Open Document