People look to religion for many reasons. Sometimes they look to religion for guidance. Sometimes they are looking to help. No matter what the reason is, religion has been a part of peoples’ lives for a long time. In the story, Night by Elie Wiesel, the central conflict is character vs. supernatural because the main character Eliezar has a hard time keeping faith in his religion.
Eliezar begins to question God’s role in his life. Eliezar and his family are taken to concentration camps. He is separated from his mother and sister upon arrival, never to see them again. From the start, Eliezer witnesses horrifying scenes of those already in the concentration camps. This is when he begins to question. As he narrates, he explains: “I did not deny God’s existence, but I doubted His absolute Justice” (42). Eliezar faith in God is beginning to fall apart. Eliezar, once strongly religious and growing up in the belief that everything was a reflection of God’s work, began to lose his faith. Not only that, but he also wanted to grow up to become a Rabbi. This was very surprising of him, especially given the fact that he spent almost all of his childhood studying the Torah and praying at the temple. Though Eliezer is loosing faith in his religion, he stills hasn’t given up on it completely. He is still merely in the beginning phases of ‘doubt[ing] His absolute justice”, meaning he still has a strong relationship with God. As more and more devastating events occur and Eliezer begins to crumble on the inside-out, he then begins to doubt more than just His justice in the world.
Eliezar begins to question God’s role in his life. Eliezar and his family are taken to concentration camps. He is separated from his mother and sister upon arrival, never to see them again. From the start, Eliezer witnesses horrifying scenes of those already in the concentration camps. This is when he begins to question. As he narrates, he explains: “I did not deny God’s existence, but I doubted His absolute Justice” (42). Eliezar faith in God is beginning to fall apart. Eliezar, once strongly religious and growing up in the belief that everything was a reflection of God’s work, began to lose his faith. Not only that, but he also wanted to grow up to become a Rabbi. This was very surprising of him, especially given the fact that he spent almost all of his childhood studying the Torah and praying at the temple. Though Eliezer is loosing faith in his religion, he stills hasn’t given up on it completely. He is still merely in the beginning phases of ‘doubt[ing] His absolute justice”, meaning he still has a strong relationship with God. As more and more devastating events occur and Eliezer begins to crumble on the inside-out, he then begins to doubt more than just His justice in the world.
Eliezar begins to lose patience in waiting for an answer from God. Eliezer and the rest of the prisoners continue to go through brutal conditions and many of them are killed as each day goes by. More questions begin to arise within Eliezer about whom God is and what is his role in the concentration camps are, killing the faith in his religion he once strictly followed within him softly. As the prisoners prey for a sign of hope from God, Eliezer exemplifies his rebellion through his narration in the book: “Why, but why should I bless Him? In every fiber I rebelled. Because He had had thousands of children burned in His pits? Because He kept six crematories working night and day, on Sundays and feast days? Because in His great might He had created Auschwitz, Birkenav, Buna, and so many factories of death?” (64). Eliezer is basing the death camps on his religion, in which he believes he believes everything is a reflection of God’s work. So, he connects it to that belief by stating that God is the reason for all of these inhumane practices that are occurring. Eliezer is moving into a phase in which he now questions God’s intentions. He is in a way comparing God to a devilish figure, something hugely out of context of his Jewish religion. Eventually, the concentration camps are too much and lead to a disastrous conclusion about how he feels towards his religion.
Eliezar’s faith in his religion has lost all stablebility and he moves into a state of confusion. As each day goes by, the gap of hope he has that he’ll be free shrinks. But it was not the possibility of him being free that destroyed his faith, but it was his experiences in the camp and why God hasn’t acted in freeing the innocent lives in the concentration camps. His questions have come to a silence. In a foreshadowing located early in the story, Eliezer describes the setting and position he is in: “the night was gone. The morning star was shining in the sky. I too had become a completely different person. The student of the Talmud, the child that I was, had been consumed in the flames. There remained only a shape that looked like me. A dark flame had entered into my soul and devoured it” (34). Eliezer states here that the teachings, faith, and knowledge of God within him have been carved out of him. God is no longer a figure he looks up to. His frustrations within the death camps and witnessing those who were completely innocent died there have convinced him: God is not there.
Eliezer was a kid who loved his religion and there was all good in it. This all changed for him in what seems like an instant. There are a lot of people who convert to other religions due to similar occurrences, even though they might not be as harsh as what Eliezer went through.
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