Loss of God
Elie Wiesel has been questioning his faith throughout this entire memoir. At the beginning, he studied everything he could in order to better understand God. But as soon as he could no longer study, he began to question Him. Wiesel started to ask himself things like, Why was God was putting everyone through this? Where was God? Could he no longer hear their prayers? Or was he just choosing to ignore them? Wiesel finally made it to the point of no return. He no longer had faith in God. “As I swallowed my rations of soup, I turned that act into a symbol of rebellion, of protest against Him. And I nibbled on my crust of bread. Deep inside me, I felt a great void opening” (69). When Wiesel explains that a “great void” has opened deep inside of him, he’s telling us that God has left him. That God had finally given up on restoring faith in him and multiple other people. “One day, he said to me: ‘It's over. God is no longer with us’ … Poor Akiba Drumer, 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.” (76). It wasn’t just God who had given up on these people. They had given up as well, because without God in their life they no longer felt strong enough to live another day. But with Wiesel, he wanted to stay and keep fighting even without the fictional help of God. He wasn’t going to give up as easily as the others because he still had something to fight for. He still had his father.
Elizabeth, I really like how you pulled out that despite the fact that Elie no longer believes in God, he still has the will to survive. In a quick glance over other posts, I noticed that few others had pulled that out, so great job. I considered a few possible reasons for Elie's continued will to live despite all his hardships. One possibility could be that Elie doesn't want to loose his father. I noticed that as people loose family members through either death or separation, they loose their will to live soon after. Another possibility is that Elie wants to stay alive in order to stick it to God in a way. I think that Elie could be thinking that if God wants him to die, then why should he? If Elie wants to rebel against God, then this would be the perfect way. Great post! I can tell you put thought into it!
ReplyDeleteI really like the way You said that the empty void is where god left him, Mabey you could include the scene where Elie says that god was hanging from the gallows when the man in front of him questions where god is. Good Job on your post
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