Night: Final Exercise

Theme:
Faith is essential to overcoming struggles, in the novel "Night" author, Elie Wiesel, emphasizes that we need to stay faithful, because it gives us a reason to believe that there is hope despite the severity of the hardships we face.

Quotes:
"Behind me, I heard the same man asking:
'Where is God now?'
And I heard a voice within me answer him:
'Where is he? Here He is--He is hanging here on this gallows...." (62)

"Lately he had wandered among us, his eyes glazed, telling everyone his weakness: ' I can't go on.. its all over'. It was impossible to raise his morale. He didn't listen to what we told him." (72)


"And, in spite of myself, a prayer rose in my heart, to that God in whom I no longer believed." (87)

"'Don't let yourself go under,' my father said, trying to encourage him. 'You must resist. Don't lose faith in yourself."(97)


Character:
Elie Wiesel's faith in God is tested through the horrific events leading up to the Holocaust and proves that staying faithful will give you hope in times of despair.

Quotes:
"'What are you my God,' I thought angrily, 'compared to this inflicted crowd, proclaiming to You their faith, their anger, their revolt? What does Your greatness mean, Lord of the universe, in the face of all this weakness, this decomposition, and this decay? Why do You still trouble their sick minds, their crippled bodies?" (63)

"Why, but why should I bless Him? In every fiber I rebelled. Because He had had thousands of children burned in His pits? Because He kept sic crematories working night and day, on Sundays and feast days? Because in His great might He had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many factories of death? How could I say to Him: 'Blessed art Thou, Eternal, Master of the Universe, Who chose us from among the races to be tortured day and night, to see our fathers, our mothers, our brothers, end in the crematory? Praised by Thy Holy Name, Thou Who hast chosen us to be butchered on Thine altar?'" (64)

"But at the same moment this thought came into my mind: 'Don't let me find him! If only I could get rid of this dead weight, so that I could use all my strength to struggle for my own survival, and only worry about myself.' Immediately I felt ashamed of myself, ashamed forever."(101)

"I spent my days in total idleness. And I had but one desire--to eat. I no longer thought of my father or of my mother." (107)