The screams of the beating being given, the constant bells controlling everyone like how strings control a puppet, everybody was now a robot with little to no emotion following out orders ad doing labor nonstop; this is how Eliezer, Shlomo, and the rest of the Jewish people would have to live for a period of long drawn out years. Loss of faith. What is the loss of faith? || believe the loss of faith is the will for someone to carry on acting how they would have acted before an event and the loss of hope to carry on with day to day life after a tragic event.
From what I think the loss of faith is I do think Eliezer lost faith. I think Eliezer lost faith in others, in God, and in himself. Eliezer had his faith vanished in others due to the cruelty of his adversaries. For example, one of the moments he lost faith in others is when the babies were burned. “Not far from us, flames, huge flames, were rising from a ditch. Something was being burned there. A truck drew close and unloaded its hold: small children. Babies! Yes I did see this with my own eyes. 1
This clearly had huge devastation of a young man who was terrified, this was a crucial moment for when he began to lose faith in others. In addition, He also lost faith in others because people became selfish and cowards. For instance, he lost faith in others when the Rabbi’s son dropped behind so he didn’t have to worry and take care of his father. “A terrible thing crossed my mind: What if he had wanted to be rid of his father? He had felt his father growing weaker… and he went on to say that the Rabbi’s son would free himself from a burden so he would have a better chance to survive. 2
This was crucial to the story because it showed just how far people were willing to go just to survive that they would betray their own kin. In conclusion, Eliezer had lost faith in others due to antagonists and in allies. In addition to Eliezer losing faith in others he also lost faith in God because God was not there to help the captives when the captives needed him the most. To illustrate, Eliezer began to lose faith in God when the prisoners were reciting Kaddish for themselves. “For the first time I felt anger rising within me.
Why should I sanctify his name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible master of the Universe chose to be silent. What was there to thank him for? “3 This was vital to the story and was showing how Eliezer was beginning to lose faith in his God which was allowing for him to lose more faith. Furthermore, Eliezer was losing faith in God because others were losing faith in god. In particular, Eliezer was losing faith when the Rabbi lost his faith. “I knew a rabbi from a small town in Poland… One day, He said to me It’s over god is no longer with us. 4
This is essential to the story because it shows that even the most holy people who spent their life preaching about a supernatural power even lost faith. As a result, Eliezer lost faith in his own god due to others losing faith in him and God not helping when the prisoners needed him the most. To go along with losing faith in others and in God, even worse he lost faith in himself. For example, He lost faith in himself when he left his father behind in the snow. “I knew he was running out of strength, close to death, and yet I abandoned him… e went on to talk about him not being able to pass the test just like the Rabbi’s son. “5
This is showing how even he was not strong enough to do the right thing anymore and that was a cause of making him lose faith in himself. Moreover, he also lost faith in himself to even live. For instance, he lost faith in himself to even live when they were lined up going to the furnace. “Father if that’s true then I don’t want to wait. I’ll run into the electrified barbed wire fence. “6 This indicates that he lost faith in himself to live that he was willing to take his own life because he thought all of the pain would be over.
In summary, Eliezer had lost so much faith that he had even lost it in himself. All in all, Eliezer had lost faith in others, in God, and even himself. Throughout this novel faith was continually lost in many ways. All of the quotes in this story about the loss of faith were included to illustrate everyone’s understanding of how tragic the situation actually was and what people were willing to do to survive. Overall the theme of this text was the complete loss of faith in many ways and how dire the situation actually was.