Elie Wiesel: His Journey of Faith What are people without faith? Some find it a necessity, unable to function without it. Others find it pointless, untrusting God’s of will. This question is answered in Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, with his journey of faith throughout the Holocaust. Elie struggles to find trust in God, for he feels his God has abandoned him, allowing his people to live in such pain.
Interpretation Elie Wiesel went through many internal and external conflicts during the time he spent at the concentration camps. These conflicts can be broken down into three main categories; conflicts with others, conflicts with faith, and conflicts with the environment. Wiesel wrote about these conflicts in his memoir titled Night. There are many people, such as the Nazi soldiers, who oppose Elie and the rest of the Jews. Elie also questions how there can be a God when the Nazis are so cruel.
The theme of Night by Elie Wiesel is loss of faith in God. In Night, Elie is taken to a concentration camp in Poland called Auschwitz. From there he was moved to a few different camps. The troubles he faced caused him to slowly lose faith in God. The prisoners also stopped practicing their religion while they were in the camps.
He was beyond shock that this world could be so cruel. Also, his faith in God slowly began to fade. How could God be so ruthless and let babies burn to death? Besides the babies, Elie observed a boy being hung. Lastly, Elie watched a young boy being hung.
Wiesel starts to blame God for the misdoing he has posed on him especially since he was a devout worshiper. This soon turns into Elie completely rejecting God and doubting his entire existence. For most of us, at first glance, this seems extremely harsh and irrational but I too would feel this way. Wiesel put his heart and soul into the loving of God and he felt as if he was betrayed. “Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust.” In the book, many literary terms are used to depict the silence portrayed through many characters.
When I saw the book, the death was at every corner, it was easy to fall over and die. But, to hold on to hope and faith and to survive was difficult - a constant struggle. Like the Nanjing Massacre, the terrifying thought of what other suffering the people of Nanjing endured without being witnessed is unbearable. I saw a lot of people give up and give in to death in this book. But, still a lot of people seek to survive no matter what they have to sacrifice include their father.
After his first sermon Rambert was so disturbed by the priest’s words that he tried to escape the town. Shortly after Father Paneloux’s sermon, Young Jacques Othon suffers slowly in front of Father Paneloux and while the boy was screaming and dieing slowly, He cried out “My god spare this child!” This had a large effect on the way Father Paneloux looked at the plague. Father Paneloux’s second sermon had a different domineer; he supplied comfort to the community instead of scaring them off. "It gives us a glimpse of that radiant eternal light which glows, a small still flame, in the dark core of human suffering. And this light, too, illuminates the shadowed paths that lead toward deliverance.
Although this helped increase people’s faith, it meant that doctors did not attempt to find out what was causing these plagues scientifically; resulting in no improvements made in medicine. The Christian church encouraged people to believe in Galen and the four humours, which meant that doctors were again discouraged to look for the real causes of disease and were forced to follow Galen’s wrong ideas. As a result, doctors were delayed and medical knowledge failed to progress However, the Christian church introduced hospitals which the sick, poor and old could stay in and were looked after by the nuns and priests, this had a great impact because it meant that people with certain problems had a safe place to go to and would get help, this helped medicine progress a lot. However, hospitals might have hindered the development of medicine a little because they did not allow people with contagious diseases to stay in these hospitals in fear that other people would catch them. This meant that these ill people had no choice but to go back home, which would have resulted in them spreading their diseases to people on the streets because they didn’t have proper medical care and weren’t under supervision and were not isolated from everyone else.
The logos in Wiesel’s speech, or the logic he uses to support his point, is that he doesn’t want the American people to be bystanders. Elie Wiesel recalls the countless experiences of ignorance and fault by people all around the world. He doesn’t want his audience to be someone who ignores cries for help like so many people had done during the Holocaust. This led to such a big impact; People who really needed help had felt abandoned and hurt. They had been through such a terrible experience and others did nothing to help them!
Many people turn away from them because they don’t believe in what Jehovah’s Witnesses believe. I know most people don’t appreciate them coming to their door preaching their religion to them. I am horrible for it because when they come to the door I either don’t answer the door or open the door and pretend I don’t understand English. I don’t believe anyone knows the contributions to American culture they have been a part of. According to "Jehovah's Witnesses" (2009), "Since World War II, Jehovah’s Witnesses have organized relief efforts to help members and more who suffered because of the war, natural disasters or other hardships.” They also have organized literacy programs for people who have no proper