Night by Elie Wiesel
Introduction
In the year 1928 of September 30, in Sighet is when Elie Wiesel was born. The town is situated in Transylvania which in the current times it is integrated with Romania whence then it was integrated with Hungary in the year 1940. The family of Wiesel was religious and was part of the Orthodox region hence attributing to the fact that the ancient way of life was keenly followed by them. In the earlier days of his life, Wiesel was receiving education based on traditional Jewish texts, for instance Torah that involved the beginning five books of the Old Testament, the Talmud which was composed the oral law which was written using codes as well as the mystic texts of the Cabbala. The Night is an experience by Elie Wiesel in the earlier period time. The story is presented to us by Eliezer who is of Jewish origin and stays in Wiesel in Sighet and is displayed as Wiesel.
It is widely believed that the laying of belief or faith in God has its own benefits that come with it. God created human beings for the purpose of living a life without suffering. Individuals are hence aligned towards laying their trust in God with the belief that they will benefit from this like not suffering or lack their needs. There is however several issues that arise of whether the faith really does work in their favor, taking an instance of the story from the bible of Job who suffered despite his faith. Hence raising the question, why God created us and lets us to suffer despite the faith we have in him.
Wiesel acknowledging God
Wiesel is demonstrated as having faith in God; it is widely shown of how he is contradicted. The story begins by the strong faith or believes that he has in the almighty God. His faith is so strong that he cannot live without him, terming him as omnipotent (Wiesel 16). As the story progresses, the holocaust attribute begins showing, this present the challenges that he begins to face in the faith that he has in God. The faith that Wiesel has was developed in the Jewish mysticism that showed God was present in each and every place, that is omnipresent and his divine power was showing itself in every part of Wiesel’s life. The transformation of Wiesel’s life, the challenges, can be attributed to the cruel and evil nature he was acquainted to due to the holocaust.
As time goes by Wiesel starts to attribute God with everything that is happening to him in the sense that he allows such negativity to happen to him. This leads to Wiesel to develop a reduced faith in God, moreover, the selfish nature and cruelty he saw in the prison led to him reduce the faith he has in God. The nature of the prisoners to alienate themselves displays the aspect of being evil and lay blame to God for creating them (Wiesel 31). This further leads him to consequently term that evil that was present in the world due to holocaust displayed God as being non-existent. Other acts that occurred in camp continue to display some specks of a not diminished faith. Instances of questioning then took place concerning the form of good and evil and if there is any existence of God.
The rising of emotions that was displayed by Wiesel made him to confront his faith in God. The emotions were attributed to his inner self. Moreover, Wiesel is concerned as to why God was not acting to the evil that was taking place due to the holocaust (Bentz). This instance is shown from their gestures in the camps by the quiet mood that goes on after the questioning. The quiet mood that goes on is related to the biblical Akedah story, the story was about how God kept silent even as blood was being spilt (Wiesel 42). His faith is later diminished by the in human treatment that was going on. The story concludes with Wiesel coming on with faith on the omnipotent God that he learnt in the Jewish mysticism.
Conclusion
The Night shows the manner that individuals undergo in their daily lives. In the starting part of the story, the boy, Wiesel, was organized. Similarly as Job from the bible, Wiesel undergoes a lot of suffering and challenges that leads him to question the existence of God. It however does not change that God is the same he was there initially and still to the end of time. Wiesel as he later found out realizes that the faith that he had was faulty just as the disciples of Jesus from the bible. It hence becomes imperative that the faith we have has to go through varied forms of temptations. This is however not desired to inflict harm to an individual but to create a sense of closeness between the person and God using suffering of Jesus (Smith). The aspect of God being quiet in the event of inhumanity, cruelty and suffering does in no way show God as being uncaring. The silence was desired to teach Wiesel that God had an objective for the situation.
Works Cited
Wiesel, Elie. Night. Bantam, 2011.
