Stephanie Rubio 01/07/15 Interpretive response #1 Mrs. Martinez
Elie Wiesel, as an author reflecting back on his life, believes that God is not dead. His Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech included a prayer, “blessed be thou… for giving us life for sustaining us, and for enabling us to reach this day”. I think Elie knows the only true one who freed him and the other Jews could be none other than God himself. As the book said before it could be a test of faith. He passed the test, even though he did doubt God. Elie, as a kid going through the events, doubted the existence of God, but for some reason he still prayed, he still believed, and he had faith that he would once again be free someday. Even though his faith was “shattered” he still listened to people recite Kaddish, messages from God, and over all still thought about God. God was not silent during the pleading of the Jews, he was simply working. Elie at the time did not understand why God let it happen to him; he thought God was a phony God. Shortly after losing his father he finally declared freedom over the Jews. Elie was relieved and I am pretty sure he realized that no one else could have freed him. Faith played a HUGE role during the holocaust for Elie, because he was motivated and distracted by questioning God that he forgot about what was going on around him. Without something to look forward too I think Elie would have lost faith. In dire situations he prayed because he thought God would answer his prayers, and many times God did, even though Elie did not realize it. I think Elie wasted his time questioning God, when he knows and has read the portions of the bible where God destroys but has better plans for whatever it is. Wiesel had faith but he did not believe that there was a God listening to him and watching him go through the situations he went through. He did not believe because he was thinking God was doing