Introduction
In the novel “Night” the protagonist, Eliezer, is a Jew, who lives in Sighet. He is a devoted believer who studies Holy Scriptures such as Torah and Cabbala. Unfortunately, the Nazi militants terminate his religious studies when they deport his instructor, Moshe. The story is set during the infamous civil war and the Nazi regime in Germany. Therefore, all the Jews including Eliezer go through outright discrimination and torture. The rebels force them to live in Sighet’s ghettos. Later, they deport them to Birkenau where Eliezer becomes completely alienated from his family. The Jews go through the worst form of human rights’ abuse in the hands of the militants. They enslave and force them to watch as their colleagues face the hangman’s hook. Although many of his colleagues die, Eliezer survives until the American army liberates the Jews. During this period, Eliezer’s faith in God becomes weak and diminishes eventually.
Eliezer’s Struggle to Maintain Faith in God
Eliezer struggles to remain faithful to God despite his tribulations. At the beginning of the novel, he is a very religious figure. He attends religious lessons until militants deport his teacher. However, following seizure by the Nazis, he goes through a chain of problems that make him question God and his deliberative role. His tribulations make him loose faith in the God. The Novel depicts Eliezer as a boy who grew up in a strict religious background. Almost all the inhabitants of Sighet town are Jews who observe religion and Eliezer is no exception. His father is a respected Jew and many view him as a role model. Eliezer seeks divine intervention in many occasions and begs God to cleanse him of his sins. He says “I knew that my sins grieved the Almighty and so I pleaded for forgiveness (Wiesel 68). From the statement, it is evident that Eliezer believes and trusts God to intervene in all situations. Therefore, he strives to become spiritually clean. He regularly prays and believes that God will respond to his prayers of supplication. He still hopes that God will intervene even after the militants deport them from the ghetto. He alongside other Jews thanks God for arriving in Auschwitz.
Although the novel presents Eliezer as a very religious person at the beginning, he loses his faith following a series of misfortunes. At the Nazi concentration camp, the Jews go through a lot of torture in the hands of the German militia. The tribulations make Eliezer question the existence of God. He asks, “what are you my God” (Wiesel 66). Despite his cries to God to save the Jewish fraternity from the cruelty of the Nazi’s; they do not get a reprieve. It is at this point when Eliezer’s faith in God starts fading away.
Eliezer believes that God turns a deaf ear to him in the times of need. He admits to being angry that God fails to respond to his prayers and has no reason to glorify him. He wonders why he cannot liberate the Jews from the malicious hands of the German Nazis who exploits and kills them. He believes that God is unjust because he allows the ways of the wicked such as those of the Nazis to thrive. He refers to him as a terrible master. He asks “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?” (Wiesel 33)
Conclusion
The novel explains the depth of human cruelty and the extent to which it can deprive one of faith. At the end of the novel, Eliezer’s relationship with God becomes completely strained. He cannot depend on any person or God to salvage him from the misfortunes. Bloom describes “Night” as holocaust literature (3). The holocaust led to misery in the concentration camps and it is to blame for Eliezer’s loss of faith in God. At some point, he believes that man is more powerful than God.
Works Cited
Bloom, Harold. Elie Wiesel’s Night. New York: Bloom’s Literary Criticism, 2010. Print.
Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006. Print.