In the beginning of the memoir Elie is a young boy who was only seeking to serve god in any way he could, in other words he was very pious. An example of his devotion for God is in the book where it says, “He had watched me one day as I prayed at dusk. "Why do you pray?" he asked after a moment. Why did I pray? Strange question. Why did I live? Why did I breathe? "I don't know," I told him…”(4.) In this passage Elie’s master, Moshe the Beadle, asks questions that even Elie can’t answer about himself. When he’s asked about why he cries when he prays he makes it seem as it it’s something necessary to live and compares it to breathing and living. Young Wiesel believes that he was born to serve God. Unfortunately when he arrives in the camp his beliefs change. In the text it says, “ Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my souls and turned my dreams into ashes.” (32) Elie feels as if as in the moment that he was prisoner in the concentration camp his God wasn't the one he thought He was. Elie saw so much death that it actually destroyed his view on God.
Wiesel’s faith wasn't the only thing that changed through the book, his relationship with his dad also did. In the book as Elie and his father arrive at the concentration camp a traumatizing moment for any child happens, in the text it says, “I did not move. What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, before my very eyes, and I had not flickered an eyelid" (37) As Elie’s father gets beaten up by one of the guards Elie gets paralyzed and does nothing, he himself was even surprised. Before Elie was ever in the camp he would've definitely done something if one of his parents was ever disrespected like that, but the fear made him freeze and be a bystander. If you think about it Elie and his father were there for a small amount of time, which means that it only took a bit to change Elie. It also shows how cruel and terrifying the atmosphere was.
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