Suffering In Elie Wiesel's Night

Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, recounts the horrors of his time spent in concentration camps during the Jewish Holocaust. The emotionally raw, firsthand account of the horrors millions of Jews faced during the Holocaust gives a devastating point of view on how these experiences scar survivors, like Elie Wiesel, forever. Pushed to breaking points, both mental and physical, victims undergo shifts in personality and morals. Night examines the limits of human self awareness and the extents of which suffering can lead us to change into an unfamiliar person. Through the book, Elie undergoes multiple shifts in his relationship with his father, his faith, and his choice ofsurvival as an effect of cruel treatment in concentration camps. Throughout Night, …show more content…
His dramatic transformation from the innocent young boy who begged his father to learn about more advanced religious teachings to someone numbed by the horrors of the holocaust visualizes the horrifying acts prisoners endured daily. Elie, once passionate about his faith, has initial doubts in God’s abilities very soon into his journies, hearing others praying Elie is outraged: “Why should I sanctify his name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank him for?” (33) Seeing the merciless acts of the camp weakened Elie’s trust in God and any power God had to protect them. This dramatic and seemingly sudden transformation in Elie’s faithfulness illustrates how even a highly faithful person, when put in trying situations, can easily lose trust in God’s abilities and grow anger toward the God they once worshiped: “‘For God’s sake, where is God?’ And from within me, I heard a voice answer. ‘Where He is? This is where-hanging here from this gallows…’” (65) Seeing the harsh divide Elie experiences in his relationship with God serves as proof of the many ways the effects of the holocaust changed Elie greatly as a