Friday, April 6, 2012

How does Elie Wiesel's faith change in the book Night?

In Elie Wiesel's Night, the narrator, Elie, goes through a significant transformation in regards to faith. At the beginning of the memoir he is a very religious young man, studying the Kabbalah and other esoteric parts of the Jewish faith.


The horrific events throughout the novel cause Elie to lose his faith bit by bit. The last of his faith in God is lost when an "angel eyed" little boy is executed by hanging. Elie and the other prisoners in the concentration camp watch the noose slowly suffocate the boy rather than break his neck. As Elie walks past the not yet dead child, a voice inside his head tells him, "Where is he (God)? This is where...hanging here from this gallows..."


Later on, as the other prisoners offer prayers during the Jewish New Year, Elie decides that he can no longer pray to a God who would allow such cruelty to exist. At no point later on in the book does he regain his faith.

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