Faith In Elie Wiesel's Night

Under certain circumstances, one’s perspective towards their faith in God may change, which is demonstrated in the memoir Night. Wiesel’s initial devotion to God and his faith undergoes a radical transformation in the face of his horrendous experiences, resulting in apparently soils and cynical atheism, but his faith survives to some degree in spite of overwhelming odds, and in subsequent years move have revived enough to motivate this memoir. At the age of twelve, Wiesel began to question God and analyze the cabbala with his fellow friend Moche, and together there faith became stronger than before. Then, under circumstances, Moche was sent away, and returned as a different man. The motif of his eyes demonstrated his loss in the faith of
God. He cried to the people to believe that the horrific experiences he said was true, but no one could pull themselves together to believe. Moche’s faith was gone, and that only made Wiesel’s faith stronger. Wiesel’s devotion never disappeared as he stated, “I continued to devote myself to my studies. By day, Talmud, at night, the cabbala” (18). Yet, his faith began to take a turn when the Germans took over the life of the Jews. He described his experiences as hell, describing that god was trying to say that hell wasn't any worse than the experiences they were going through. Wiesel kept thinking of god, thanking him for every joyful moment that he came across. Wiesel’s faith became then weakened when he came across a rabbi. “Here came the Rabbi, his back bent, his face shaved, his pack on his back. His mere presence among the deportees added added a touch of unreality to the scene” (26), Wiesel faith weakened because seeing this rabbi left him in shock, making it so surreal. After the rabbi experience, Wiesel’s faith went downhill from there. When the night came along no one prayed, out of fear of the next day. Wiesel came across horrific experiences, making him question god.
He saw babies and humans being burned, for no apparent reason. Angered, Wiesel came to a solution by stating “Why should i bless His name?” (42). At times, Wiesel’s faith was totally gone because he was angered towards how people were treated, and why God didn’t do anything about it. Wiesel’s relationship with God remained as he believed that God was out there, just hidden saying “I did not deny God’s existence, but I doubted His absolute justice.” (53). Then time passes and Wiesel’s relationship with God is then questioned when he is influenced by the people around him. One day he came across three victims being killed, and listening to to people saying “Where is He?” (72). Wiesel was also influenced by Akiba Drummer, as the motif in his eyes showed that he lost total faith in God. Wiesel no longer blessed God because he realized that there was no point of blessing God when he allowed so many horrid things to happen. Wiesel also stopped praying, since he had no time to do so. All this resulted to an extent of Wiesel being spiritually dead. Wiesel lost total faith and spirit in God, because of the horrid experiences he went through, which changed his perspective on certain
things. After the concentration camp, Wiesel's spirit and faith revive. Looking back at his experiences, as he writes his memoir, he realizes how harsh he was to God. Wiesel acted bitter towards God, as he lost faith, not because he chose to, it was because of the circumstances he was under. Wiesel’s faith and spirit was probably gained as he slowly began to realize that God had nothing to do with the repulsive experiences he went through. The reason he lost faith in God was because he needed someone to blame, someone to take his anger out to, and that was probably understood a while after he was rescued. Overall, Wiesel’s perspective towards faith in God changes, which is demonstrated in the memoir Night. To conclude, Wiesel’s initial devotion to God and his faith undergoes a radical transformation in the face of his horrendous experiences, resulting in apparently soils and cynical atheism, but his faith survives to some degree in spite of overwhelming odds, and in subsequent years move have revived enough to motivate this memoir. In certain situations, one’s relationship with God can take a change, for the better or worse.