What Is The Loss Of Innocence In Night By Elie Wiesel

In Elie Wiesel’s novel ‘Night’ Wiesel gives readers a glimpse into the life of a Jew in a Nazi concentration. After being taken from his home town of Sighet, Transylvania in a cattle car, Wiesel ends up in the infamous Auschwitz. Throughout the novel Wiesel experiences a loss of innocence due to the traumatizing things he is exposed to, such as hangings and mass cremations. This loss of innocence results in a loss of faith. In the book, Wiesel employs the motif of religion to illustrate the idea that faith is easy to lose when faced with continuous pain and suffering because of feeling abandoned by a higher power.
At the beginning of the book, when Wiesel is still living with his family, he has a strong sense of faith. He “believes profoundly”(1)