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Analyzing the Book "Night" Faith in God Elizer was a product of the Jewish mysticism, where he learned that God is a supreme being and lives everywhere. He also learnt that there is nothing that exists without God’s invention, as everything in the world is a reflection of the will of God. This is in reference with God’s holiness and power, as his faith is based on the fact that God is omnipresent. From the fact that God is good, he therefore expects that everything around the world to be good as well as it is a reflection of God’s goodness.
From this, faith in God is a dominant conflict in Night in relation with Eliezer’s experience. In the beginning of the narration, it is evident that the Elizer’s faith is God is quite strong as compared to his later life. This is because he believes that God is unconditional; therefore, he cannot think of a life without him. However, everything changes after the whole experience with the Nazi and the Holocaust (Wiesel 45). The faith in Elizer is highly shaken by the cruelty and evil as he witnessed the Holocaust.
This is in reference with the undertaking in the concentration camps. He thought that this cruelty could in away reflect divinity, as he wondered how a merciful God would allow such things to take place, yet he had the power to control the whole world. His faith for God is also compromised by the cruelty and animosity among prisoners. This is in relation to their selfish acts, which exposed their fellow prisoners to compromising circumstances. The worst of them all was the treatment of prisoners by the Nazis.
He could not understand how this reflected the will of God yet he fully believed that God was good thus did good to everyone. This thought was interpreted in a way that he did not expect evil to prevail in existence of God. The whole experience made him lose his faith for God as he did not get to know why a powerful God would entertain evil and cruelty. Despite the whole experience, he was able to hold some of the experiences. An ideal example is his experience as he spent in the camp for the first time; during the hanging of pipel (Wiesel 56).
Faith in human Eliezer’s spiritual challenges owes to his shaken faith to both the people around him and God as well. This makes Elizer to lose the sense of his world resulting from such cruelty. The disillusionment is because of the prosecution by the Nazi; it also comes from the cruelty of his fellow prisoners. He also discovers the cruelty under his capacity. In other words, the experiences in the war show him how strange and horrible man can be in treating his fellow man. This is a revelation that troubles him through.
One of the suppressing moments he experiences is the brutality by the Nazi. In his first encounter with the Nazi, no one would think that they would be that inhuman (Wiesel 34). This following his first interaction with the German where everything seemed reassuring; they had a distant attitude, but their talks seemed polite. It is difficult to comprehend the whole issue concerning the Holocaust, as it is out of human though that people would slaughter their fellow human. To make the whole issue worse, the Nazi slaughter over a million men and women.
All the victims were innocent, and this is the reason why Elie doubts his faith on other human beings. This is quite human, an action out of the thought out of the deed capable of being accomplished by human beings. There is also an illustration in the Night, that cruelty breeds cruelty. This is in reference with the life of prisoners. We expect prisoners to comfort each other, as they are people under military surveillance. However, they were busy turning against each other, some killing each other over petty issues.
This is evident from the statement made by Kapo to Eliezer, that in prison, everyone has to fight for himself and forget about the wellbeing of his fellow prison mates. Kapo adds and says that there are no fathers, brothers or friends in prison, as you will die alone. In reference with the assignment give to the Kapo by the Nazi: Kapo were prisoners in charge of other prisoners, they facilitated the Nazi in exploiting prisoners. The whole process was cruel yet, they were under the same brackets as prisoners.
This is the reason why Eliezer terms Kapo as functionaries of death; they helping people in turning against other people. The position of “The Kapo” represent the cruelty, as self-preservation if the highest virtual among them. This is the reason why he can hardly have faith in fellow human beings. Works cited Wiesel, Elie, and Elie Wiesel. Night. , 1982. Print.
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