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Faith and Religion in Ellie Wiesel's "Night"

Faith and Religion in Ellie Wiesel's "Night"

Religion is like running a race, one needs strength and endurance, but most of all leadership. This book shows how strength helps one survive through the most horrendous of events. This strength is achieved by the Jews through religion. Religion is based on structure and the Nazis took this structure away from the Jews thus making many of them lose faith in God. In the novel Night, by Elie Wiesel, Eliezer's faith falters by witnessing the painful death of many innocent lives, the harsh conditions of the environment, and the emotional turmoil induced by persecution.

Eliezer's faith falters by witnessing the painful death of many innocent lives. Eliezer starts out very religious in the novel, he is eager to learn more about the torah and the many aspects of his religion. However, when he is taken to the death camps he starts questioning his faith. For example, Elie witnesses the hanging of a boy from the gallows in the camp. "For more than half an hour he stayed there, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes" (Wiesel 62). Elie saw this as the death of his God, the boy represented God dying on the gallows. "Where is he? Here he is- He is hanging here on this gallows…." (Wiesel 62). If God could let this happen to a child and all to bear witness to it, then God must not exist.

Eliezers faith falters because of the harsh conditions of the environment. The Jews were forced out of their homes marching, not knowing their destination. "The following morning, we marched to the station, where a convoy of cattle wagons was waiting" (Wiesel 20). There were eighty people to a car, and barely enough food or water to survive. This challenges the faith because faith is about not knowing where exactly you will be, but trusting in God that you will be safe. However, the Nazi's had taken away the Jewish church, and they had no leader. Religion is based on structure and leadership, and without a church things start to fall apart, and people lose faith, or denial begins to take over, denial that anything bad will happen to oneself. The Jews begin to turn against each other in fear of seeing the truth of their fate. A lady in Eliezer's car begins screaming and yelling of flames and death....

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