How Elie viewed his culture and religion was affected by his experiences in the holocaust he was only a victim in the concentration camp. Before he was very naive, along with the rest of the people in the little town he lived in. For example when Moishe the Beetle from Night was warning everybody about how the germens are going to kill all the Jew’s, they all thought he was crazy. “Even I did not believe him. ” (Elie 7).
Says Elie, he tried understanding his grief but the only thing he was able to do is have was pity him.
Elie was also faithful to his religion before he experienced being a holocaust victim. In the book, Elie was reflecting on flashbacks in his religious beliefs back then: “in those days, I fully believed that the salvation of the world depended on every one of my deeds, on every one of my prayers” (Elie Pg 68).
However, during his stay at the concentration camps, he started feeling lonely and also he soon realized that no one was going to be there for him, not even God: “My eyes have opened and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God, without man.
Without love or mercy” (Elie 68) When he said that, it felt as though he has given up believing that God would rescue him from this pain and misery that he was experiencing. Elie, deep inside him “Felt a great void opening” (Elie 69) because of the new revelation that he was alone in his rebellion against God and against the traditions set by God. While Elie and his father stayed longer and longer both were getting weaker but his father was starting to rely on him more, and Elie soon realized it was his age, and his father was getting to an ending point. Elie also went through a lot of pain while working in the brutal conditions.
As weeks went by the father continued becoming weaker which soon led to Elie to take care of him as well as himself because he had prayed to his god, “Oh God, Master of the Universe, give me the strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahu’s Son Has done. ” (Elie 91) However it seemed hard for Elie to keep his promise because he wanted to be “relieved of this responsibility” (Elie 106) of looking after his dad but feels ashamed of thinking like that: “If only I didn’t find him, I could use all my strength to fight for my own survival, to take care only of myself… ” (Elie 106).
Finally, Elie’s father became too weak and died in his sleep, but Elie was in a way very nonchalant about his father’s death and instead, a part of him rejoiced, “Free at last! ” (Elie 112).
Elie most likely did feel remorse and pain at his father’s death, but after all he has experienced his heart has become numb to even the worst kind of pain; the pain of losing a loved one, “I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. But I was out of tears” (Elie 112).
In the last paragraph I explained how Elie from Night was affected by his experiences and religion and culture, now its Malcolm X’s turn.
I read The Autobiography of Malcolm X which was written with the assistance of Alex Haley. I thought to use for this essay, because Malcolm went through a lot. Malcolm X was a member of the original Islamic Nation. Although he wasn’t an extremist his methods about racial equality was pretty radical and extreme. What Malcolm experienced definitely shaped his outlook on life. It also shaped his religious and cultural beliefs. When Malcolm was just about to enter high school after receiving top scores in his middle school, he went to his English teacher for encouragement because he was aspiring to become a lawyer.
His English teacher was of course surprised and meant well when he said, “Don’t misunderstand me now, we all here like you, you know that, but you’ve got to be realistic about being a nigger. A lawyer, that’s not realistic goal for a nigger” (Mr. Ostrowski 118).
It was after that incident that Malcolm changed from being nonchalant about white people making racist remarks, to confronting them about it: “Where ‘nigger’ had slipped off my back before, wherever I heard it now, I stopped and looked at whoever said it. And they looked surprised that I did” (Malcolm 119).
That was when he was barely out of middle school, and that comment resulted in him dropping out of school. As he got older he became more and more familiar with bad influences. His sister, Ella, wanted him to be successful in life and be away from the bad influences that surrounded him. Of course one you start a habit you can’t get out of it till it hits you hard and I think that’s what happened with Malcolm. He got sucked into this world of easy money and was good at it. When he got caught doing something illegal (after being caught hustling, or gambling) he was arrested and put in prison.
That experience definitely changed him because he said, “once a man has been to prison, he never looks at himself or at other people the same again. The ‘squares’ out here whose boat has been in smooth waters all the time turn their noses at an ex con. But an ex con can keep his head up when the ‘squares’ sink” (Malcolm 19).
When he finally was introduced to Islam, he had difficulties actually praying because that meant you were on your knees in front of God: “I had to force to bend my knees. And waves of shame and embarrassment would force me back up.
For evil to bend its knees, admitting its guilt, to implore the forgiveness of God, is the hardest thing in the world. ” (Malcolm 264).
His “baptism to public speaking” was when he entered the prison colony’s weekly debating program (Malcolm 277).
After Malcolm spent time in Africa and went on the Muslim pilgrimage he way of thinking had changed about white people but not to the point of being friendly, “A white man pulled to a stop along side of me at a red light and stuck his hand out of the window, ‘do you mined shaking hands with a white man? just as the light turned green, told him “I don’t mind shaking hands with human beings. Are you one? ” (Malcolm 480).
Malcolm has experienced love, hate, segregation, unity and that all contributed to how his final views were. What I think makes me, “me” is my religion/culture, and experiences because without my religion, I wouldn’t be as modest as I am. My religion is the foundation of how I look at everything in life. It is the most important aspect of my life, because it helps me have common ground when I feel like I am all over the place.
My culture enriches my life with exotic dance, music and food. It is a part of me that is unique and will always be a part of me. Everything I have experienced also played a strong role in molding my outlook in life. It could have been good or bad, it is in my history and it had impacted me in a way that enhances my view on that subject. In conclusion what I think makes you: “you” is your culture, religion, and experiences. Elie went through dramatic changes due to the fact that he was a holocaust victim. He became unfeeling and non religious, which is total opposite of how he was before.
Malcolm went from being a good student, to being a hustler. Then later on he hated anything to do with white people but after experiencing unity with all races in Mecca, he began to just judge people based on their personalities. As for me when I experienced being away from my mom, I knew how it felt being without a mother. And that changed how I look at myself. Whether you are old, young, any race or religion you will be affected by what you experience and what you believe in. What do you think you, “you”?