Ms. Kemen
Advanced English 9
21 November 2008
Elie Wiesel describes what had happened to him in his book, Night, with intricate detail. Before he came to one of the concentration camps, Elie devoted all of himself to his God. When he arrived and saw what was happening to other people, he began to question his faith. In the end, Elie had lost so much he held dear to him, he might as well have ceased believing in a god. Throughout the novel, Elie continues to lose his faith in God, eventually leading him to believe that if there is a god, he must be vile and cruel or not exist.
IT was 1941 and Elie was almost thirteen years old. He was deeply observant and was very religious. “I studied Talmud and by night I would run to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the temple” (Wiesel 3). His faith in god never faltered. At one point in his life before the Holocaust, Elie wanted to find himself a master who could guide him in the studies of Kabbalah. His father told him that a person had to be thirty years of age to study this subject, but Elie didn’t care. “He wanted to drive the idea of studying Kabbalah from my mind. In vain. I succeeded on my own in finding myself a master for myself in the person of Moishe the Beatle.” (Wiesel 4). Elie seemed to need to have answers. Answers were what he sought out in the questions involving his religion.
Elie is fifteen when he first arrives in a concentration camp. He is told to tell the SS officer that he is fifteen years old, is in good health, and works as a farmer. This is the first day that he begins to question his faith in God. As he marches toward the crematorium, Elie states “Not far from us, flames, huge flames, were rising from a ditch. Something was being burned there. A truck drew close and unloaded its hold: small children. Babies! Yes, I did see this, with my own eyes . . . children thrown into the flames.” (Wiesel 32). After seeing this happen, he pinches himself and asks, “Was I still alive? Was I...