Throughout the memoir Elie Wiesel changed drastically. He was 15 when the Germans took him to a concentration camp. Elie lived in Sighet with his father, mother, and sisters. In the book it says, “My father was a cultured, rather unsentimental man. There was never any display of emotion, even at home. He was more concerned with others than with own family” (2). This quote shows his dad was sort of orthodox by not showing his son any affection because some people believe showing emotion means you are weak. Even though his dad doesn't show any love, he knows he loves him and Elie loves him back. Elie believed in God very much and he prayed everyday because he had so much faith in him, and he even decided to find a mentor. Wiesel used to be very pious at the beginning , in page 3 it says, “Moshe the Beadle...talked to me for long hours of the revelations and mysteries of the cabbala. We would read together, ten times over, the same pages of the Zohar. Not to learn it by heart, but to extract the divine essence from it.” This quote shows that Elie is looking deeply into the cabbala and the Zohar to learn as much as he can because he is very interested in his religion, and he has faith in God.
After being in the concentration camp for a while Elie saw horrible things, like people being burned, this made him see life different. In page 31 Elie states that , “For the first time, I felt revolt rise up in me. Why should I bless His name? The Eternal, Lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank Him for?” This quote shows that Elie is questioning his faith, and he's starting to lose his faith in God. This part of the memoir is important because it shows what he's struggling with and how he feels. After his father’s death Elie said, “I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. But I was out of tears. And deep inside me, if I could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience, I might have found something like: Free at last!...”(106). Elie’s dad was very sick, he was all he had left and he did so many things to help him, but he couldn't not save his dad. Elie used to give him his ratios and stay with him to make sure he was alright, his dad in a way stopped him from doing crucial things (like eating). Even though Elie says that he says that, he still cares and loves his father because he admits later on he felt guilty for thinking that.
At this point Elie is starting to give up on his life because because he lost everything he had, and he thought he was going to die. After a child was killed in front of all the Jews Elie says “... I no longer pleaded for anything. I was no longer able to lament. On the contrary, I felt very strong. I was the accuser, God the accused. My eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God, without man. Without love or mercy. I was nothing but ashes now, but I felt myself to be stronger than this Almighty to whom my life had been bound for so long” (65). This quote shows that Ellie doesn't have faith in God because he did not help him, and because Elie thinks he's unfair. In other words Elie is not pious anymore, yes he still believes god exists but he doesn't dedicate his life to him like he used to. At the end of his memoir, Elie says, “I remained in Buchenwald until April 11. I shall not describe my life during that period. It no longer mattered. Since my father's 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” (107). This quote shows that Elie doesn't think about his family that passed away, instead he is focused on getting enough food so he can survive.
At the end of the Holocaust Elie was a completely different person. In the last page Elie claims, “... I wanted to see myself in the mirror hanging on the opposite wall… From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me. The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me” (109). To me this quote means that Elie feels lost because he doesn't know who he is anymore. Elie had everything he needed, but then the Germans came and took it away, Elie at this point probably is very disheartened.
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