Night.
By Elie Wiesel.
"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed 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" (Night, Ch. 3, Pg. 32).
Night is a powerful account of the holocaust through the eyes of Eliezer Weisel, also known as Elie. The reader engages in the compelling spiritual, mental and physical transformations of a Jewish teenage boy in the midst of the holocaust. Elie's concepts of hope, survival and evil become the pivotal characteristics in which he uses for understanding and enduring his traumatic experiences. .
Faith is one of the underlying themes throughout the book. In the beginning Elie is incredibly enthusiastic about the Jewish religion. He thrives to study the Talmud and Cabala and is especially focused on Jewish mysticism, which teaches that God is within everyone and everything. During his initial imprisonment in the camps, his faith is what helps him survive. He prays regularly for the end of the persecution as well as for strength. As many of the other Jews, he turns to Akiba Drumer, a pious Jew who proclaims that the Holocaust is merely God testing the Jews. However, as he sees and endures atrocity after atrocity perpetrated by the anti-Semitic Nazi regime, his faith becomes shaken. Similarly to the biblical character of Job, Elie begins to question God's absolute justice. On the night of Rosh Hashanah, Elie refuses to pray. He feels a strong rebellion against God where he "was the accuser, God the accused I had ceased to be anything but ashes, yet I felt myself to be stronger than the Almighty I stood amid the praying congregation, observing it like a stranger" (Ch.
