Eliezer's Struggle to Keep his Faith in God - Book Report/Review Example

Night Analysis on Wiesel’s Understanding of God Introduction Night is Elsie Wiesel’s account of excruciating and harrowing tribulation that he went through under the Nazi harsh rule. It is a masterpiece book that offers chronological memoir and a candid and horrific treatment during 1940s as a teenager. In his memoir, he uses his personal starvation, long travels and diseases at the refugee camp where his fellow Jews had gathered as a painful experience that God should not allow. He watched his father succumbed to terrific dysentery while starvation was imminent (Wiesel and Wiesel 22).

He uses night, dawn and morning as imagery presentation of dark days in his life and dawn as new hope. Surprisingly, he finds his suffering as a test from God to the Jew community. Analysis Firstly, his understanding of God before holocaust was that he is protector and punisher of the Jew people. Wiesel notes that during the holocaust, there had been rumors of Nazi crimes against his tribe, but he dismissed. He had a conviction that nothing would happen to his Jew community because he knew God was on their side.

It was this believes that showed his conviction of God as the protector who would thwart any evil thoughts and deeds about His people. His fellow Jews held an understanding that God would guarantee them safety and security in order to secure the faith. In fact, he says, "All will be well, God sees to it that the harmony may not be destroyed." Evidently, this is a person who had complete trust in God (Wiesel and Wiesel 24). However, during the holocaust and thereafter, unprecedented events started to put his faith in God.

Jews were abused in streets; the hatred grew against his tribe. Despite, this Wiesel notes "Our optimism remained unshakable" (Wiesel and Wiesel 31). He understood God has forever enduring and listener to troubled people. He hoped that he would soon reverse the imminent atrocities in order to have His name exalted and respected. He believed that through endurance, God would finally manifest in his favor. He held steadfast faith in God. However, as Jews were punished and forced into camps abused and killed by ruthless Nazi rule, the faith grew cold, and he started questioning why God would allow such harrowing experience.

Wiesel faith was shaken during stay at the cam; his ailing father who later succumbed allowed his faith in God shaken. He wondered how a benevolent being would add more pains in his hopeless stay. He notes that feeling of guilt and blaming of Satan characterized the stay in the camp. Surprisingly, he later said, "If God wants to see us suffer, it is because we deserve it, it is for good" (Wiesel and Wiesel 38). Evidently, he displays that God his purposeful; he accomplishes mission through atrocities and suffering to test the faith of his people.

He related it with biblical Job suffering, where God welcomed Satan to test his servant. He drew consolation from his in-depth reading of scriptures that he said was his source of strength. In his book, he brings out attributes of God as all-knowing, he recalled young men preferring to die at battle field than keeping the lamb slaughtering Jewish ceremonies. The old men were more hopeful of God, and he remembered his teaching that God will have its purpose. Despite the starvation, diseases and uncertainties that bedeviled the camp dwellers, his faith in God received a test of a lifetime.

Evidently, he recorded "For the first time I felt revolt rise in me, why should I continue blessing Him" (Wiesel and Wiesel 39). He expressed his understanding of God as insensitive; he felt that he had been through a lot of tribulation while God appeared to be taking long answer him. Conclusion Lastly, despite his questioning of God throughout the tribulation, he renewed his understanding of God. He realized that the pursuit to understand His work was pointless.

Wiesel says, "To expect an answer is a mistake." God plans and deeds as he later confessed after the American rescue from the camp are unknown to man, they are a mystery. In reading, Night by Wiesel one would wonder how much does it take for Gods hand t manifest during predicament. It is perhaps the question that kept troubling the author and more likely, no one understands.Works CitedWiesel, Elie, and Marion Wiesel. Night. Unabridged. ed. Prince Frederick, Md.: Recorded, 2006. Print.