Jordan W.

Bengtzen

Gary Bigelow

English 10

15 April 15, 2015

How Faith affects people

Many people search for purpose in life. This purpose might be

faith and thats how people get by. It could also serve a purpose as a

survival technique and help some survive in dire situations. In Elie

Wiesels Night it shows how faith can help people survive. Faith plays

two parts in this book because of the way it can be affected through

what people experience and as an outlet of anger for people. It also

teaches a lesson of how people need faith in something to survive.

Wiesels faith changed from better to worse throughout the book.

It is apparent when the book says: By day I studied Talmud and by

night I would run to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the

Temple (3). This shows that at the beginning Wiesels faith is strong

and unwavering. It also shows that he is absolutely devoted to his

religion and he works at making it stronger every day. But later in the

book it says: I too had become a different person. The student of

Talmud, the child I was, had been consumed by the flames. All that was

left was a shape that resembled me. My soul had been invaded--and

devoured--by a black flame (37). This is showing that he is no longer

as religious as he previously was. It shows that he slowly lost faith and

as a result his soul had been ruined.

 Faith can also be an outlet for anger. In the book it says, What

are You, my God? I thought angrily. How do You compare to this

stricken mass gathered to affirm to You their faith, their anger, their

defiance? What does Your grandeur mean, Master of the Universe, in

the face of all this cowardice, this decay, and this misery? Why do you

go on troubling these poor peoples wounded minds, their ailing

bodies (66). This is showing that Wiesel is downright angry with God

because of the way God is handling the situation. Wiesel is also angry
because he is seeing all these bad things as a test of faith in God and

its a terrible way to do it. It also shows in the book Why, but why

would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled. Because He caused

thousands of children to burn in His mass graves? Because He kept six

crematoria working day and night, including Sabbath and the Holy

Days? Because in His great might, He had created Auschwitz, Birkenau,

Buna, and so many other factories of death? How could I say to Him:

Blessed be Thou, Almighty, Master of the Universe, who chose us

among all nations to be tortured day and night, to watch as our father,

our mothers, our brothers end up in the furnaces (67). This is showing

that Wiesel extremely angry that many of the things God is allowing to

happen directly impacts the people that worship him such as the

crematoria keeping burning on Holy Days and the Sabbath. Hes also

angry that its Gods fault that peoples families are being torn apart

because of the things Hes allowing to happen.

People have to find faith to survive in dire situations regardless

what the faith is in. It is seen in the book when it says: And he himself

was so thin, so withered, so weak The only things that keeps me

alive, he kept saying, is to know the Reizel and the little ones are still

alive. Were it not for them, I would give up. One evening, he came to

see us, his face radiant. A transport just arrived from Antwerp. I shall

go to see them tomorrow. Surely they will have news He left. We

never saw him again. He had been given the news. The reaI news

(45). This is showing that their relative was literally only still alive

because of his family. And as soon as he learned what really happened

to his family, he disappeared without a trace. Faith is implied as a

survival technique again when the book says: Poor Akiba Durmer, if

only he could have kept his faith in God, if only he could have

considered this suffering a divine test, he would not have been swept

away by the selection. But as soon as he felt the first chinks in his

faith, he lost all incentive to fight and opened the door to death (77).

This is implying that because Akibas faith wavered, it caused him to

lose the will to survive. It also shows how quickly one loses their will to

live after losing their faith.

In conclusion, Faith is a large part of the book. It shows easily

faith can be affected through peoples experiences. It also shows how

people can be angry about what the used to put their faith in. And

lastly it shows how people use faith to survive no matter where they

put their faith in.