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History History The Holocaust is an adversity, which prompted the various situations and experiences that changed the way Elie Wiesel viewed the world. Elie Wiesel tends to change his perception of the world in response to his camp experiences. Reflecting upon his final utterance, Elie is simply trying to describe his feelings as he looks at how his face has transformed ever since he entered the camp. Elie is subjected to physical, religious and mental changes throughout the camp experiences. With regards to his physical state, he has been starved, dehumanized, beaten and worked with no mercy.
Religiously he tends to ask God why all these diversities befell him. Mentally, Ellie watched his father die and was separated from all the female members of his family. Upon looking at the mirror, Elie’s eyes revealed a person that was transformed into a broken person. From his inception at the camp he was a young, religious and loving boy, but when he left the camp he was totally broken. It is from this point that his view on the world had changed completely.In order to have an insight of how Elie’s views of the world changed, two significant aspects will be looked at, that is, religion and mental/emotional aspects.
To start with Elie states that: “Never shall I forget the moments that murdered both my God and soul and turned all my dreams to dust (p.32).” This description of Elie regarding his religion is as a result of the difficulties he and the Jews faced in the camp. Elie’s faith undergoes a crisis because of how he watched his own father and others undergo a torturers death as well as the deplorable living conditions he was subjected to. It is at this point that Elie underwent a major change as he tried to reconcile all the difficulties he and others were facing together with the beliefs he had been taught about God.
He does not deny God, but he chooses not to remain silence regarding why God left all these difficulties face them. Elie thus changes his perception that God is merciful and just and he comes to a conclusion that he will not just sit there and wait for his death. From the beginning of his experience, Elie was a religious person, but in this new world all the aspects and teaching of religion became meaningless for he had lost his faith.With regards to mental/emotional aspect, Elie also tends to change his view of the world considerably.
He thought of the things that he would never do and the circumstances that have made him to be repulsive in this context. For instance, Elie states: “I gave him some of my soup but it was with a heavy heart. I simply felt like I was giving part of me (p.102).” After his transformation, Elie did things, which he never thought he would do and he also witnessed bad things happening to others without caring to offer his assistance. He had become a zombie and as a result he became inhumane to the hardship others faced.
This was far from the young and caring boy who joined the camp earlier on. His mental and emotional state are conflicting as at one point, he ran away from his father with thoughts that he would not find him again as he was draining him of his energy to survive.In conclusion, it is quite clear that Elie’s perception of the world have changed both mentally/emotionally and religiously. He becomes a transformed person after his camp experiences whereby he is left broken.ReferenceWiesel, E., & Wiesel, M. (2011). Night.
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