Night Blog

Focus Question: How do Elie's experiences during the Holocaust change him as a person?

          Elie's experiences during the Holocuast did indeed change him as a person in many ways. One significant way that Elie was changed was his views on his religion. In the beggining of the book, Elie had very strong faith in his religion and he would take his religion studies serious. In the very beggining of the book, Elie states "One day I asked my father to guide me in my studies of Kabbalah." This shows us how Elie took his studies serious and he even wanted someone to be able to guide him and teach him more. Later in the book, as he is placed in the concentration camps, he starts to question and doubt God. After time has passed in the concentration camps, Elie states "I was not denying His existence but I doubted His absolute justice." As you can see, here is saying that he has not given up completely on God because he is not denying his existence. It also shows us how he has been doubting God ever since he was placed into the concentration camps. 

          Another way that Elie changed after experiencing the Holocuast as a person was how he no longer cared about anything, and he isolated himself and he became a different person. Being in the Concentration camps, and seeing all those terrible deaths really does traumatize you with those horrible memories forever. Elie was so traumitized that he didn't want to talk about what he went though for a whole decade. That shows you he had been really affected by what the Nazis had made him go through. Towards the end of the book on page 113, Elie says "Since my fathers death, nothing mattered to me anymore." "I spent my days in total idleness. With only one desire: to eat. I no longer thought of my father or my mother. From time to time, I would dream. But only about soup, an extra ration of soup." This shows us how having his father die also affected him. He felt like he had no one left in his life, and he felt loneliness. Elie tried not think about the experiences he went through, and he would just think about the food. This shows us how he really was traumitized from those experiences. 

          Another way that Eli changed after experiencing the Holocuast throughout the book would be with his relationship with his father. In the beggining of the book, he would be terrified of his father dying because he felt he would be lonely if his father left him. Elie never wanted to get separated from his father, and he wouldn't want to leave his father's side at any times. He was very attached with his father at the beggining, and they had a pretty strong relationship. Elie would pray so that him and his father would never be separated. Elie saw how Rabbi had left his father for a better chance at surviving, and Elie didn't want that to happen to him. Then towards the end of the book, his father got really sick, and he was dying. Now that his father was dying, Elie felt like he was going to have to take care of his father now and help him and he was the one who was going to have to take care for the both of them. He started to feel like with his father, he isn't going to survive. He felt as if his father was only slowing him down. When his father finally died, Elie didn't even cry. He was sad, but he didn't even cry. This shows us how he didn't really care anymore if his father had died, because he wanted to survive and to be able to get his freedom.