Where Is God Now?

Elie, the main character of the novel “Night” finds himself in the same predicament as Job. He thought to himself, “How I sympathized with Job! I did not deny God existence, but I doubted His absolute existence.” (Night pg. 42) Once he was happy, in a peaceful town, oblivious to pain and suffering. He lived with his family, enjoyed time with his friends, “believed profoundly.” (Night pg. 1) Like Job he was without flaw in God’s eye. He believed and found himself deeply influenced by God in everything he did. Then one day, the inconceivable happened. Everything he knew, everything he loved and had just blew out the window. Job lost his family, land, wealth, purpose. Elie lost the same. His family and him went separate ways, he no longer had a sense of purpose, simply to survive. He was treated like an animal and deprived of every human right. If Elie is to Job, then the Nazis were to Satan. They took everything from the two. After all was taken from them they began to question God. How could a loving God allow imprisonment and torture and the death of so many people? How could God take everything away from a man who was so devoted to the faith? They blamed God for their predicament when all they had to do was be attentive and trust God, trust their brothers and sisters in faith. Moshe the Beadle warned them of what could happen, there were rumors of concentration camps and slavery of all the Jews, but they would not listen. Eventually their pain and suffering came to such an extent they questioned his existence. They asked one another, “Where is God now? … Where is He? Here He is-He is hanging here on this gallows.”(Night pg. 62) Then out of the havoc and pandemonium, out came salvation. For Job, he was shown the light by Elihu the young boy who was wiser than the old men. For Elie it was the Americans who liberated him and freed him from his torment.