Monday, February 14, 2011

Chapter 5 (pages 66-84): How? Why? What?

What is happening to Elie's faith?

6 comments:

  1. Elie's faith is diminishing slowly but surely. As the Jews around him celebrate God for what he has delivered them from in the past and keeping faith for the future perserverance. However, Elie is not satisfied believeing in a God who hasn't shown him any hope lately. He needs a quick resolution to his current agonizing condition. He doesn't understand why God would allow hatred and injustice to wipe out nearly a whole race of people. For what purpose are the massacres serving? If God was so trustworthy he wouldn't keep chancing his father's life? He feels as if God has left him to die. That God has left the Jewish race. Elie is still kind of skeptical due to the death of Akiba Drumer, because he lost his faith in God. Elie doesn't want to die due to his lost of God's interest but it seems as if that the Jews fate anyway.
    -KeAmber Green

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  2. Elie is starting to lose faith. On New Years, while the others prayed to God, he cursed God. He questioned him for answers for what was happening. At one point he said that he felt more powerful than God. He really began to scare me because he has completely transformed from this boy who was very sure of his believes to a person who believes that he is more powerful than God. The transformation is blinding and i wonder if he is of weak faith or if the circumstances have destroyed his faith.

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  3. Elie's fai is slowly fading away. He was very religious and prayed every night. He even had Moshe and the Beadle be his spiritual mentor. The worse things got, the more Elie started to lose faith. He felt that he knew the god he was learning about and praying would have most definitely helped them through the hard times. After seeing and experiencing the things he experienced in Aushwitz made him wonder what exactly was god trying to do. He didn't understand why God would put him through hell instead of helping him escape. He saw people die, his father get beaten, and people get burned to death. After seeing such horrific things, the thought that everything will get better never crosses his mind. He's waiting on God to help things get better, but it gets worse, giving him a reason to lose faith in God's power. Also others losing faith around him and questioning where God was, gave him a reason to doubt what God was capable of doing. He didn't see things getting better nor did the other prisoners.

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  4. Elie is losing faith because he thinks that God should stop these horrible troubles since he is well God. In the beginning of the book he prayed and was a religious person. Since the Holocaust has occurred he has lost his faith in his God because his God is allowing these horrid atrocities to go on. How can he not lose his faith when men, women, children, and babies die everyday??

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  5. I believe he is losing faith because he doesn't see how these horrors could be allowed. If God does exist, then why did he allow his people to be killed so ruthlessly? This is what I believe was going through his mind. At first, he was very religious. He wanted to know more about everything. He prayed and was devoted to God. But when the awful things began to occur, he questioned His existence. After a while, he lost hope and faith. He thought, if god was really out there, he should've done something by now. He thought that those he still believed, were dumb and stupid. He couldn't take their ideas that the whole thing could be a test. To test how devoted they were. He didn't think that God would sacrifice his own people to "test their faith". They were going to die, why did it matter if they were faithful? -vanessa gonzalez

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  6. Elie's faith, like him, is withering away. He begins his journey as a devout Jew, but that is quickly changed as he observes his surroundings. People are burned alive , shot, and beaten. As these same people continue to pray to god, the situation never changes for them. They remain in the camps, and are still burned, shot, and beaten. Some chose not to blame god "Master of the Universe", but others like Elie refuse to turn a blind eye. He knows that something like genocide is not a test. The god that he had devoted his life to is abandoning him and his fellow prisioners. If there was a god, why would he allow this to happen? Why is he just watching as we suffer? Elie was haunted by these questions. Even though the others had faith, Elie's grew smaller and smaller with each torturing day in the camps.

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