Night By Elie Wiesel: Character Analysis

Identity which is all of the things that make up who you are and how others view you plays a key role in the novel Night. Throughout the novel, the main character, Eliezer, faces many problems that affect his identity. Many of the things that he witnessed, such as death, hangings, and the dehumanization of Jews at the camps changed the way Eliezer thought about and viewed certain things. Throughout the course of the book, Eliezer’s identity changes negatively greatly due to the situations that he experienced at the camps. After watching many children get burned alive in the crematory and himself nearly being sent as well, Eliezer’s faith towards God deteriorates. At Auschwitz’s reception center named Birkenau, people were being sent to the left or right which was basically life or death. Eliezer was sent to the left with his father and believed he’d die because he saw the crematory where babies were being thrown in. After being sent to the barracks instead, he states, “Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever.”(Wiesel 32). Eliezer was deeply religious and very devoted to God, but after seeing what God had allowed to happen to innocent people, he states that his faith has been destroyed. He is starting to think that Cruz 2 God has forsaken the Jews and believes he’ll never be able to forget what he has done to them. …show more content…
Watching the deaths of many children in front of his very own eyes weakens his faith towards God, yet it strengthens his reasons to accuse and defy Him. As a result of witnessing the abuse and many hangings at Buna, Eliezer refuses to accept God, accuses him of all the horrors he's experienced, and defies him. Eliezer saw many hangings, including one of a child, and he questions God angrily about killing those people. He is so angry at God for allowing crematories and camps to exist and for all of the deaths that have occurred that he doesn't fast on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. He reveals, “…there was no longer any reason why I should fast. I no longer accepted God’s silence. As I swallowed my bowl of soup, I saw in the gesture an act of rebellion and protest against him”(Wiesel 66). Eliezer is tired of God for not helping the Jews and accuses him for all the deaths and the power Nazis have over Jews. He defies Him by not fasting which is a sacred commandment and represents the willingness to surrender to discipline. When he doesn't fast, he’s denying God’s existence and is rebelling against him. By denying, accusing, and refusing to accept God, he has shown how much the camps have caused his identity to change in a negative way. When Eliezer’s father dies, he feels free and guilty relief that he doesn't have to support his father’s “dead weight” anymore. In the beginning of the book, Eliezer sees his father as his reason to survive and doesn't want to be leave him behind. However, his father becomes very ill after the train ride to Buchenwald. When he realizes that he can’t do anything for him and that he was only killing himself by giving up his food for his father, he wants to get