Elie Wiesel's Loss Of Faith

The Holocaust was a very difficult time for all people, but mostly those of the Jewish faith. Each person involved in the Holocaust had a different way of coping with the fact that their friends, family and religion were being taken from them. In the book “Night,” the author, Elie Wiesel, recounts how he survived the Holocaust and what effects it had on his faith. By the end of the memoir, Elie had lost his faith in himself, in mankind and in God. It can be believed that Elie lost his faith because he could not sense that his God was helping him in any way, shape or form. Elie gave up hope because he felt that God had abandoned him and, as such, he would now abandon his God. A person who only thinks about bad things that occur will probably
First, his age had a large effect on the way he formed to his surroundings. Elie was removed from his home at an early point in his life. Without the experience that many of those around him had, he was not able to react in a way that reflected his experiences. Secondly, this was most likely the first instance that he had been separated from his family for such an extended period of time. An abrupt and unpredicted separation such as this would be very likely to stick in the back of Elie’s mind, causing decisions driven by a moment of pain in the past. Third, the large volume of suffering that Elie was put through had a major impact on his style of coping with his loss of innocence. As it was put by Viktor Frankl, “If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete (Frankl 16).” Even though suffering is a part of life, Elie is like a deer in the headlights when the sudden exposure misery reveals itself. He has simply never seen these abominable acts be performed on such a large