Author: Elie Wiesel
Pages: 81-109 (End)
Prompt: How do Elie's experiences during the Holocaust change him as a person?
Throughout the book Elie Wiesel change his viewpoint about God and religion. At the beginning of the book Elie wants to dive in deeper into his religion, he said "One day I asked my father to find me a master to guide me in my studies of the cabbala" (1). This shows that Elie wanted to be a very religious person and believed in a God. However, the concentration camps changed his religious viewpoint. He stated many times throughout his time at the camp that God was dead. He witnessed a hanging happen and said "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). This shows that he truly believed that God was dead and could lent help them.
Elie's relationship with his father also changes throughout the book. Before the concentration camps Elie and his father had a normal relationship. When they were transported to the camp there bond became very strong, they almost never left each other's side. He also never let his father give up hope. He said "'Father! Father! Wake up. They're trying to throw you out of the carriage'... I set work to slap him as hard as I could. After a momemt my father's eyelids moved slightly over his glazed eyes" (94). Then as his father is about to die Elie thinks to himself "I thought in the most secret region of my heart, but I dared not to admit it. It's too late to save your old father, I said to myself. You ought to be having two rations of bread, two rations of soup" (105). This is a huge difference compared to how Elie thought of his father before.
Elie as a person has changed since the beginning of the book. Elie is now an activist and is trying to help out people who need it. Throughout out the book he only looked out for his father, friends, and himself. Now he trying to help out anyone he can and is trying to bring peace. From this he has a Nobel Peace Prize from telling his story of living through the Holocaust.
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