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Devout
"Why do I pray? Strange question. Why do I live? Why do I breathe?" (Page 4) Elie compares his faith to living and breathing. -
Faithful
"I was almost thirteen and deeply observant. By day I studied Talmud and by night I would run to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the temple."
(Page 1) -
Anger at God
"Where He is? This is where---hanging here from this gallows...That night, the soup tasted of corpses." (p65)
Elie begins to feel anger and resentment toward God for causing death and heartbreak amongst his people. He no longer looks up to God as a figure that will protect the Jews. -
Begins to hate his oppressors
"That was when I began to hate them, and my hatred remains our only link today. They were our first oppressors. They were the faces of hell and death." Elie traces his hatred back to this moment when he recalls the treatment they faced upon being deported -
Questioning Faith
I looked at my house in which I had spent years seeking my God, fasting to hasten the coming of the Messiah, imagining what my life would be like later. Yet I felt little sadness. My mind was empty." (p.19)
Elie begins to question his earlier faithfulness. -
Elie Loses Hope and Faith
"My eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God, without man. Without love or mercy. I was nothing but ashes now..." (p68) Elie feels hopeless once he realizes that God is not there to protect the Jewish people. He begins to doubt God's love and mercy. -
First Night at Camp
"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed....never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes." (pg 34)
Elie's first day at camp is a wake-up call for him. He begins to lose faith in his God, his soul is destroyed and his dreams become distant memories. -
Faces Death
"I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. But I was out of tears. And deep inside me, if I could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience, I might have found something like: Free at last!..." (p112)
Elie struggles to grieve and mourn for his father. It pains him that he almost feels relieved and free after his father passes. -
A Corpse
"From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me." (pg 115)
Elie compares himself to a corpse after being starved, beaten, and abused by the Nazi's. His life and his soul were slowly drained out of him over the years.