A Religious Conflict

 Conflict is what makes a story interesting and creates content that attracts the reader's attention. In the memoir “Night” By Elie Wiezel, he uses his experiences in the holocaust as a source of extreme conflict. The most powerful example is his emotions concerning his religions. When Eliezer loses faith, his struggle against god becomes the central conflict on “Night”

Eliezer is traumatized because of his experiences at the concentration camps. Being someone with a love of religion, he struggles with the feeling of being of abandoned by god and feels alone: “My eyes were and I was alone, alone is a world without God and without man. Without love of mercy. I had ceased to be anything but ashes...” (65) Feeling deserted, Eliezer is forced to come to terms with the harsh reality of the situation he is in. His mind suffer as he starts to show signs of depression; seeing no point in his world. The dramatic changes of how he feels because of how feels about god shows how character versus religion is the central conflict of night. He rebels and defies more traditions of the Jewish faith.

Eliezer takes respite, but still from defying traditions of the Jewish faith. On the day of Yom Kippur, He refuses to fast. He thinks, “I no loner accepted god's silence. As I swallowed my bowl of soup, I saw in the gesture an act of rebellion and protest against him... In the depths of my heart I felt a great void” (66), but he still finds anger. The two anomalies are him breaking a sacred tradition and him suffering from a self-righteous anger but still feel guilty about his choice. It is out of the norm for him to break a tradition, showing the he must be having a conflict not only against a supernatural force but also himself. This is further explored in him feeling guilty. He is going against something he had great faith and love for, and instead of feeling good, he feels empty; a great void. He anger festers further as he has controversies with other traditions.

At the height of Eliezer's conflict, he finds great anger. When the people of his block are praying, he is affected by controversies between the status of god and how he feels. He thinks:

“Why, but why should I bless Him? In every fiber I rebelled. Because he had had thousands of children burned in His pits? Because he kept six crematories working night and day, on Sundays and feast days? Because in His great might He had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many factories of death? How could I say to Him: 'Blessed art Thou, Eternal , Master of the Universe, Who chose us from among the races to be tortured day and night, to see our fathers, our mothers, our brothers, end in the crematory? Priased be Thy Holy Name, Tho Who hast been chosen us to be butchered on Thine altar?'” (64)

The examples Eliezer provides serve as great points for proving many conflicts, but the root of it relates to his anger revolving god.