Argumentative Essay – Night
The acts of Hitler during the Holocaust were known by many as unforgivable. As a survivor of the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel has had to reevaluate God in his world. In Elie Wiesel’s “Night”, Elie never really renounces his belief in God, but reassesses his faith and God’s role in a world that holds much evil, as shown through his writings, in which he questions God and tells us of the answers, or lack of answers, that he receives.
Wiesel thought of God before and and at the beginning of the Holocaust as both the protector and punisher of the Jewish people. Whatever had happened, he had faith that it was for one of God’s greater plans. Either way, he would accept God’s will without questioning. “God is testing us. He wants to see whether we are capable of overcoming our base instincts, of killing the Satan within ourselves. We have no right to despair. And if He punishes us mercilessly, it is a sign that He loves us that much more …” (Night 103). The town felt that God was with them and would protect them from anything horrible. They felt safe and secure in their faith. Even though things got worse, the Jews still had faith. Wiesel says, “Our optimism remained unshakable. It was simply a question of holding out for a few days…Once again the God of Abraham would save his people, as always, at the last moment, when all seemed lost.” (Night 125). It was not easy for Elie to doubt in God, or he would not have held on to his faith with such tenacity. But sooner or later, the meaninglessness of the suffering his people endured had to burst his Jewish faith. He had the idea that he was, “alone-terribly alone in a world without God…” (Night 65). Lack of faith turned to despair. If God wouldn’t save His children, who would?
During the Holocaust, God appears cruel. He allowed the pain to continue for His own cruel purposes. This cruel God is the source of Wiesel’s anger. The energy once spent in worship of God was now used for accusing and denouncing God, and demanding an explanation from God. Wiesel writes in Night, “In the concentration camp I had cried out in sorrow and anger against God and also against man, who seemed to have inherited only the cruelty of his creator.” (Night 12). God had played a cruel game, and it destroyed the passion Wiesel had felt about the Jewish role in God’s world. Wiesel questions, “What is man? Ally of God or simply his toy?” (Night 97). Elie feels as though the Jews are just pawns in God’s game of life.
The end of the Holocaust left Elie Wiesel still questioning. He knew that his relationship with God had changed significantly. No answers could be found, and no amount of questioning would bring out those answers. Any answer cannot come from man, but from God himself. This is what Moshe the Beadle had tried to tell Wiesel when he was a young boy in Sighet, before the Holocaust destroyed his life. Moshe said, “Man raises himself toward God by the questions he asks Him…That is the true dialogue. Man questions God and God answers. But we don’t understand His answers. We can’t understand them. Because they come from the depths of the soul, and they stay there until death. You will find the true answers, Eliezer, only within yourself!” (Night 56)
The Holocaust made people everywhere reevaluate the role of God in their lives. The pain and suffering that took place is so dark compared to what we would have thought possible in the presence of our God. Anyone who comes in contact with these horrors will be forever shaken in their faith. Some have reacted with anger toward God, and others with denial. Still others reacted with mistrust of all that God had meant before. But by asking questions, some have grown to learn that God never did things the way people expect Him to. God does not answer questions unless they suit His purposes. This is what we have learned from Auschwitz and from the writings of Elie Wiesel.
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