Jasmine - Blog Post #2

Faith has been an important theme in the novel. Because of the events that occurred during that time, a lot of people lost their faith. For example: At the start of the book, Elie wanted to become a/an (insert word here) but later, he pretty much abandoned that thought:

.... Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever.

Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live.

Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.

Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.  (Wiesel 34).

If that ever happened to me, I would never be able to regain my faith. But a few pages later, he thanks God for creating what he did “I had new shoes myself. But as they were covered with a thick coat of mud, they had not been noticed. I thanked God, in an improvised prayer, for having created mud in His infinite and wondrous universe.”(Wiesel 38). But a little while  later he doesn't believe anymore:

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 people's wounded minds, their ailing bodies? (Wiesel 66).

After what these people have gone through, they don’t seem to know what to believe anymore. In my opinion,  faith is the most important part of this novel.