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(Page 1-3)Wiesel learns about the Kabbalah and other knowledge about Jews from Mosh the Beadle.
In the very start of the book, Wiesel is exposed to the lessons and morals of his Jewish heritage by Moshe the Beadle. (Theme) This event helps Wiesel understand the importance of his heritage and it sets him up to resent his God later in the story. (Event: Character Development) (Negative) -
(Page 7-11)Wiesel and other Jews are expelled and deported from their homes.
Wiesel, his family, and other Jews were notified to leave their homes and they were put into ghettos. The Jews were then slowly deported, Wiesel's family was one of the last groups to be deported. (Theme) This was to start of Wiesel's descent into resenting the God that he prays to. Also Wiesel is no longer put into an environment where he is accepted.(Event: Turning Point) (Negative) -
(Page 31) Wiesel refuses to pray to God after witnessing multiple deaths
Wiesel, his father, and other Jews arrived at camp, they were being separated into groups. Wiesel's father began to recite the Kaddish and Wiesel refuse to pray with his father and the group. (Theme) Wiesel begins to renounce the morals of god and begins to lose faith in the justice that God brings. (Event: Character Development) (Negative) -
(Page 53) Wiesel refuses to give his golden crown (Teeth) to a fellow inmate and he watched his father get beaten.
A fellow inmate demanded that Wiesel give him his golden crown but Wiesel refused because it might be worth something in the future. The inmate beat his frail father up for 2 weeks until Wiesel finally succumbed to give him his crown. (Theme) Elie Wiesel begins to recognize that his father is a burden to his own livelihood and he is exposed to the cold reality of survival. (Event: Character Development) (Negative) -
(Page 60-61) Wiesel and the other inmates of the camp witness the execution of a child.
Wiesel is telling the reader about hangings in the camp, he said he had never seen anyone cry when they were executed except this one instance where a child was hung. (Theme) After witnessing this execution at the gallows Wiesel and another questioned the presence of God. This event further motivates Elie Wiesel to denounce the judgement of God because he would let a child be hung and suffer even though he was innocent. (Event: Character Development) (Negative) -
(Page 87) Wiesel witnesses someone abandon their father because they were a burden.
After the death march, a man was looking for his son. Wiesel remembers that the boy that the man was looking for had left his father in the death march because his father was slowing down. (Theme) Wiesel is at first disgusted by the action of the son but that event planted the seeds that his father is too helpless without Wiesel's help and maybe Wiesel would survive better without the burden of his father. (Event: Character Development) (Negative) -
(Page 105) Wiesel's father dies.
Wiesel's father is no longer able to keep up with the physical need of the journey and he has no willpower left to give. Without his father, Elie is left with nothing and he has no reason to keep going on, he has already denounced God's actions. (Theme) In the most dire time of need, God could not help Wiesel's father from death and despair. (Event: Turning Point) (Negative) -
Theme Statement
Theme Statement: The loss of religion and piety are consequences of direness and grave events.
