Number a-7713
Number A-7713
“Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. […] Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never” (Wiesel).
This quote, taken from the book Night by Elie Wiesel, testifies to the concept of transformation for Eliezer, a Jewish teenager who was forced to experience the horrors of the Holocaust. Eliezer, when living in Talmud, was the perfect gentle person devoted to God. Suddenly, after getting deported to the concentration camp, he started to become aware of the horrors that life can reserve and he began to doubt his faith to the point that all values of compassion and charity were vanished. The process of de-humanization which developed in the concentration camps allowed him to see the real nature of selfish human beings, and after this experience his beliefs would never go back to where they were.
What can bring someone to change so deeply? In Night the whole process of transformation in a person can be seen. The protagonist was brought from a socialized world, where he followed his principles and religion, to an environment where he struggled to live in and he had to take care of his own survival. Eliezer, in fact, was really attached to his religion and suddenly, when deported to the concentration camps by the Nazis, started to get lost and confused. At a certain point he would state, “Why should I bless His name? The Eternal, Lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank Him for?" and again “I did not deny God 's existence, but I doubted His absolute justice” (Wiesel).
If the world is full of horrors, does God really exist? At the beginning of the work it is clear that his belief in a benevolent God is unconditional, and he cannot imagine living without faith in a divine power, but this faith is traumatized by his experience during the
“Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. […] Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never” (Wiesel).
This quote, taken from the book Night by Elie Wiesel, testifies to the concept of transformation for Eliezer, a Jewish teenager who was forced to experience the horrors of the Holocaust. Eliezer, when living in Talmud, was the perfect gentle person devoted to God. Suddenly, after getting deported to the concentration camp, he started to become aware of the horrors that life can reserve and he began to doubt his faith to the point that all values of compassion and charity were vanished. The process of de-humanization which developed in the concentration camps allowed him to see the real nature of selfish human beings, and after this experience his beliefs would never go back to where they were.
What can bring someone to change so deeply? In Night the whole process of transformation in a person can be seen. The protagonist was brought from a socialized world, where he followed his principles and religion, to an environment where he struggled to live in and he had to take care of his own survival. Eliezer, in fact, was really attached to his religion and suddenly, when deported to the concentration camps by the Nazis, started to get lost and confused. At a certain point he would state, “Why should I bless His name? The Eternal, Lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank Him for?" and again “I did not deny God 's existence, but I doubted His absolute justice” (Wiesel).
If the world is full of horrors, does God really exist? At the beginning of the work it is clear that his belief in a benevolent God is unconditional, and he cannot imagine living without faith in a divine power, but this faith is traumatized by his experience during the
Cited: Hofstein, Irene "Horrors of Holocaust Destroyed Her Faith." Boston.com. The New York Times, 05 Feb. 2012. Web. 13 Mar. 2012 Joymaker. "Selfishness: Effects and Causes in Human Nature." Helium. Helium, 16 Apr. 2007. Web. 22 Mar. 2012 Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Bantam, 1982. Print. W. Perret "Evil and Human Nature." Evil And Human Nature. Web. 13 Mar. 2012.