Also his decision to leave was very ironic; he figured that if he left he would be safer, but soon after he left some people he left behind were liberated. It's like he was meant to emotionally regress as he continues to suffer more and more, yet empathize and trust a lot less.
Chattahoochee River
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Ch 5
Chapter 5 stresses the chances Elie had taken. First, Elie seemed to have lost religious spirit. He even described his (choice of) lack of fasting as a form of rebellion and as a way to respond to what he perceives to be God's passivity when he took a few bites of bread. I think it's interesting how this was the start of the chapter and how evident their lack of faith was.
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Diana I also noticed that throughout this chapter Elie seems to have lost faith in God because of all the terrible things he's seen that has been done to the Jews. I believe he is losing this faith because he doesn't know why God would let this happen to the Jews. He seems to have created anger towards God yet still refers to him in the chapter. I found that a bit weird.
ReplyDeleteDiana, I agree that this chapter really showed how much Elie had lost his faith in humanity AND in divinity, but I feel like this loss of faith had been building up over the course of the novel so far. It's clear that this is a difficult situation for Elie, since before these experiences, he had wanted to study his religion and its mysticism, but now he's going so far as to renounce the sacred holidays and the God himself. I think we all know religion is a device that helps people to cope with the hardships they face, but this experience has been so traumatic and horrifying that he cannot continue to believe in a God that doesn't believe him/that's allowing His followers to be killed off so brutally.
ReplyDeleteYou're definitely right about how Eliezer is responding to God's passiveness, but I do not think he'll ever stop believing in God. I think that if Eliezer had truly lost faith, he would start to be indifferent about God. Being angry at God and not believing in Him anymore are two completely different things. I think Eliezer's religious background makes it almost impossible for him to disconnect himself from God completely because it had so much influence on his perspective.
ReplyDeleteYvonne makes a good point when she distinguishes not believing in God from being angry at God. You can't be angry at something, or someone that you don't believe in because in doing so, you must admit that either the person exists or that you have no logical reason to be angry. But I don't really want to start a discussion on all of that, what I really want to get at is the fact that regardless of how far Elie gets from his faith, how angry he gets at God, part of him will always keep believing. I really don't think it's possible for hint to just stop believing because it's been a part of him for so long.
ReplyDeleteYour comment on Elie's style of writing leads me to think Elie's intention was to highlight his frustration with God. Yvonne brings up a very interesting topic where you must believe in something/someone in order to be angry at it, and I wonder how significant it is that Elie continues to express his anger at God. Are his comments about his anger at Him in fact clues trying to show his faith never faltered, just the emotion within the faith that varied?
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