Job And Night

"Wiesel states that he sympathized with Job. After reading The Book of Job, how would you describe the similarities/differences between Wiesel and Job and their relationships with God? Compare the reactions of Job and Wiesel to their suffering and to the way their suffering affected their faith."


I think that Wiesel and Job faced the same test of faith. For Wiesel, staying alive depended solely on Wiesel's motivation to stay healthy and working. For Wiesel, faith was an unjustifiable weight that Wiesel couldn't carry. He mentions several times in his novel the fact that Faith for him changed over the years, and for so long he was angry with God, this would make Wiesel's reaction to the Nazi's test of the Jewish Faith, similar to Job's but with very distinct differences. For instance, Job was richly rewarded with everything he had lost being returned to him, something that to this day I bet Wiesel wishes could happen to him. Another difference is the way Wiesel was warned about what would happen to the Jewish people of his village but did nothing to stop it, where as Job had no warning. Some similarities between Job and Wiesel are how the both questioned God's motives for the things happening to them, and the spiritual growth that each one experienced because of what happened to them. Eventually Wiesel becomes, more wise as to the inner workings of God, just like Job did, but unlike Job, Wiesel overcame so much more, and yet his faith in God, although it faltered a little, is still there today.

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Accessed Feb 2, 2010