Monday, February 14, 2011

Chapter 5 (pages 66-84): Strength

Elie wrote that man was stronger than God. Why did he feel that way? Does it make sense to you? Do you think you can understand his feelings? What would you tell him?

5 comments:

  1. Elie has completely lost all faith in God. He felt that the God that he was worshiping had completely forsaken him, and no longer cared for him or even the people who used to worship him with all they had. He thought that since he could allow a single man to do all of this to them that man had to be stronger that he. A single man was doing this to all of them and Elie felt that if God was real then they would have already been liberated or not forsaken. I understand his point of view, because i this was ever to happen to Christians many of us would had gone through the same thing a while ago, but Elie should not have turned his back so quickly, he should had of further invested in his faith and waited for the great day of liberation in the infirmary.

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  2. Like Peter say it does seem like Elie has lost his faith in God. He does not understand how one single man was able to persuade millions into exterminating an entire race. Elie says that man is stronger than God because he does not see God doing anything to prevent so many people from dying. He sees men worshiping and praying to God but they get nothing in return. They have no mercy to live off of. The biggest impact Elie felt was of young children and women being sent to crematoriums and being thrown into pits of fire. Elie feels that if God really loved them none of this would be happening. I do understand how he could feel that way but people need to keep their faith. They say things happen for a reason but the death of millions of people in such a short period of time and in such inhumane ways just does not make sense. I would tell and encourage Elie to have faith in God and that the cruel people that caused so much pain and suffering would eventually be punished. Losing faith means losing all hope and the want to live.

    -Evelyn M.

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  3. Like Peter and Evelyn said, Elie was already losing his hope in his God. He didn’t understand how one man could be doing a lot of damage to millions of people. He also asked himself why his God wouldn’t help him after everyone believed in him. I think Elie said, that men were stronger than God because he felt that men had more power than God. For example everything that the Nazis were doing to the Jews made Jews understand that Nazis were superior to them. So maybe Elie thought that if God was powerful why wasn’t he helping them? Why were there many people dying and no one helping not even their God? In a way I understand what he means, believing in someone that when many people of your religion die no one helps them, not even your God. But I guess that’s why you believe in someone because of something they do and knowing he will help you. If he would have waited he would have seen that his God did help him. He helped end the war. I would tell him to be patient and that nothing happens fast. Hardship moments can sometimes takes a lot of time to resolve; like a war. It is good that he kept moving forward because it helped him survive the holocaust.

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  4. Here Elie has given up on God and feels betrayed and lonely, he has lost all his faith because he is noticing that God wasn't helping him get out of there, and that nothing seemed to work, He almost felt like Hitler was more powerfull than God at the moment even if it weren't like that. he felt like he couldn't move forward or believe in anything that happened daily to him, his faith was destroyed.

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  5. He says this because look at what the nazis were doing to them. He was thinking that if god was who he was he could have stopped them anytime he wanted to , but yet he didn't, and Eli couldn't think of a explanation for this. Only thing that is even possible is that the humans were stronger than god. I would understand this, if you believe your are gods chosen ones it would be logical to believe he would protect you from harms on earth, but again he didn't save them. If I was there with him I would just say don't think about that right now, just focus on surviving as long as you can and make it out of the camps alive.

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