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Shania Portilla
Bigelow
English 10
April 13, 2015
The Last Thing
In the holocaust faith is important because for the people its the last
thing they have. Faith in the holocaust can turn out having positive or
negative changes. In the holocaust faith was questioned yet it was still there.
This is shown in the book Night by Elie Wiesel. Faith in the book works by the
prisoners holding onto the last thing they have and that faith can be
questioned. Elie shows that faith can be questioned but once he loses
everything to believe in he finds freedom and death.
Faith in the book is being used as the last thing for the prisoners to
hold on to because all of the things that make them who they were are taken
away from them. In the book juliek has everything taken away from him and
the only thing that he has left is his violin. This is the same for the prisoners
when the only thing that they have left is their faith. Someone began to
recite Kaddish, the prayer for the dead (33). This shows that the prisoners
still have faith because they are praying to their god. They still believe that
they should pray for themselves and for others because their faith is the only
thing that they have left for each other. Faith still gives them a chance to

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believe that they still can get out of the camps. Blessed be the Almighty
The voice of the officiating inmate had just become audible. At first I thought
it was the wind. Blessed be Gods name Thousands of lips repeated the
benediction, bent over like trees in a storm (67). All of the prisoners were
praying to their god because they had the faith to. Faith for the prisoners is
like a spider having its last web and it just hanging on to it because its the
last thing that it has, which is the same thing for the prisoners. The
prisoners praying signifies them having the last bit of hope that they have.
Faith in general can be questioned but in the book it happens to be
questioned a lot through Elie. When Elie is in the camp he questions faith a
lot. I had ceased to pray(45). Elie no longer felt the need to pray because
he was losing his faith that he had left in him. Praying was a way for Elie to
connect to his god and to show his faith. Now he doesnt want to pray
because he doesnt have faith like he used to before. For Gods sake,
where is god?Where he is? This is where hanging here from this
gallows (65). Faith is questioned in this quote because it is asking where
god is. This is questioning the little faith that Elie has left. The quote then is
saying that their god has betrayed the prisoners and Elie; god is no longer
with them. They feel that their faith and god has betrayed them, which
makes them feel that their faith isnt there anymore.
At the end of the book Elie shows that faith isnt with him anymore and
once he loses his faith he then finds freedom and at the same time death. He

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finally gets a weight of his shoulders once his faith isnt there. Never shall I
forget those flames that consumed my faith forever(34). Elie right here felt
that the little faith that he had left in him had been taken away from him.
The little faith that he had is no longer there anymore. His faith has been
stripped down from him and now he is only a walking soul. If only I were
relieved of this responsibility, I could use all of my strength to fight for my
own survival, to take care only of myself(106). If only he were relieved of
his father. He had faith that his father still could survive and make it. At the
same time Elie felt that his father was the one that wasnt letting him
survive. This can lead Elie to freedom and death. Since my fathers death,
nothing mattered to me anymore(113). He now has freedom; he doesnt
need to worry about his father anymore who was bringing him down. All Elie
is worried about now is just surviving and having freedom. Yet he still wasnt
free because Elie still questioned his faith. I knew I was no longer arguing
with him but with death itself, with death that he had already chosen me"
(105). Faith for Elie isnt there anymore because now he has found death in
himself. He no longer worries about his faith and questioning it. All that
matters to Elie now is his freedom and death just sneaking up on him. From
the depths of the mirror a corpse was contemplating me (115). Elie now has
a dead body looking at him through a mirror. After all he has gone through he
has lost his faith, found freedom, and yet still has death looking at him right
in the face. His faith now is no longer important to him because all he is now

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is just a walking body that has nowhere to go or what to do. His faith is no
longer being questioned. He has found his death and his freedom.
Holocaust and faith can have a lot ways in turning out. Faith in the
holocaust can have good and bad results. In the end faith is questioned
throughout the holocaust yet is still ended up being there or not at all. This is
shown in the book Night by Elie Wiesel. Faith for the prisoners was the last
thing they can hold onto. Faith can be questioned and Elie shows that faith
can be questioned but once losing everything that Elie believed in he found
freedom and death.

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