Religion is like running a race, one needs strength and endurance, but most of all leadership. This book shows how strength helps one survive through the most horrendous of events. This strength is achieved by the Jews through religion. Religion is based on structure and the Nazis took this structure away from the Jews thus making many of them lose faith in God. In the novel Night, by Elie Wiesel, Eliezer’s faith falters by witnessing the painful death of many innocent lives, the harsh conditions of the environment, and the emotional turmoil induced by persecution.
Eliezer’s faith falters by witnessing the painful death of many innocent lives. Eliezer starts out very religious in the novel, he is eager to learn more about the torah and the many aspects of his religion. However, when he is taken to the death camps he starts questioning his faith. For example, Elie witnesses the hanging of a boy from the gallows in the camp. “For more than half an hour he stayed there, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes” (Wiesel 62).
Elie saw this as the death of his God, the boy represented God dying on the gallows. “Where is he? Here he is- He is hanging here on this gallows….” (Wiesel 62).
If God could let this happen to a child and all to bear witness to it, then God must not exist.
Faith In Religion Stace Men Essay
Man Against Darkness W. T. Stace Man Against Darkness is an essay written by W. T. Stace. He presents the philosophical background for the existential stance of the modern world. He tries to explain why religion no longer plays an important part in the modern world and what causes people to lose faith in religion. He begins his essay by explaining the viewpoint of the Catholic bishops of America ...
Eliezers faith falters because of the harsh conditions of the environment. The Jews were forced out of their homes marching, not knowing their destination. “The following morning, we marched to the station, where a convoy of cattle wagons was waiting” (Wiesel 20).
There were eighty people to a car, and barely enough food or water to survive. This challenges the faith because faith is about not knowing where exactly you will be, but trusting in God that you will be safe. However, the Nazi’s had taken away the Jewish church, and they had no leader. Religion is based on structure and leadership, and without a church things start to fall apart, and people lose faith, or denial begins to take over, denial that anything bad will happen to oneself. The Jews begin to turn against each other in fear of seeing the truth of their fate. A lady in Eliezer’s car begins screaming and yelling of flames and death. “Some of the young men forced her to sit down, tied her up, and put a gag in her mouth” (Wiesel 23).
This is not a religious act, people do not do this to each other, so this demonstrates how they are losing faith and are in denial that they will all die soon.
And finally, Eliezer’s faith falters because of the emotional turmoil induced by persecution. His faith had never been challenged before this major change in his life. He never realized how strong one must be to endure such atrocities, and how faithful one must be to rely on God. Eliezer did realize subconsciously that he did not have this strength. “For the first time, I felt revolt rise up in me” (Wiesel 31).
It is when Eliezer sees the crematories that he first revolts against his faith because he is in disbelief that any such thing was possible in this civilized world. “The Eternal, Lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent” (Wiesel 31).
Elie stood face to face with death in front of the crematories. “My forehead was bathed in cold sweat. But I told him that I did not believe that they could burn people in our age, that humanity would never tolerate it….” (Wiesel 30).
The Essay on Faith In Life Jews Hope Elie
In the horror of the Nazi death camps portrayed in Night, Elie Wiesel and his fellow Jews had to struggle to maintain their "faith in life." This battle that they waged against "icy winds" in camps where "death was all around [them]" was a constant necessity for them to continue to survive. Harsh as it was many Jews failed, and losing their faith in life died; yet many more, like Elie, found the ...
The cold sweat symbolizes Eliezer’s faith being challenged for the first time, and this made him nervous because he thought maybe the God he believed in his whole life was not around for him anymore. And from this he begins to resent God, which in turn means rebelling against his previous beliefs. “And in spite of myself, a prayer rose in my heart, to that God whom I no longer believed” (Wiesel 87).
Elie told himself that he no longer believed in God, saying a prayer was just to keep himself sane.
Elie’s faith slowly dissapates when bearing witness to murders of his people, the brutal elements of the surroundings, and the mental pain produced by suppression. Elie lost his ultimate faith in the end, he had lost all his family and saw the unthinkable and even unimaginable with is own eyes. His faith was challenged to the bitter end, and without a church for structure he lost guidance. The novel is very religious, yet it discourages belief in God. Many do not get their beliefs put to the test in such extreme conditions as Elie did, so this leads one to question another’s faith. If God is puts one to the test they will either have the strength to survive, or they will fold under pressure and follow the weak to the grave.
