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Example Of Symbolism In Night By Elie Wiesel

Decent Essays

“Night is purer than day; it is better for thinking and loving and dreaming. At night everything is more intense, more true. The echo of words that have been spoken during the day takes a new and deeper meaning,” – Elie Wiesel. The tittle night is one example of symbolism. The night stands for suffering and hopelessness and the dark time in Elie’s life. There are many examples of symbolism in the novel Night by Elie Weisel. Three examples that I’m going to discuss are: Elie’s inheritance, the use of fire, and Elie’s use of the word “corpses.” The first example of symbolism is the spoon and knife. When the Jews were taken to Auschwitz they were stripped of all of their belongings. They had nothing. When Elie’s father Chlomo knew he was going to die he gives …show more content…

He says he saw with his own eyes children thrown into flames. Additionally when he saw the young boy hanged next to other men Elie was so disturbed by that, that he said his soup tasted like corpses. Seeing the innocent child hanging there and God was doing nothing to help and, he couldn’t believe that God would allow that. At the end of the story he goes to look at himself in the mirror because he hadn’t seen what he looked like since he was in the ghetto and he says, “From the depths of the mirror, a corpse stared back at me. The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me” (109). Elie’s belief in God was unconditional and he couldn’t imagine living without faith in a divine power. Then when he is taken to Auschwitz he sees the unbelievable cruelty and inhumaneness and wonders why God allows that bestiality to happen. He sees that the Holocaust exposes the selfishness, evil, and cruelty that everyone is capable of. He thus believes God is cruel or doesn’t exist at all and he consequently loses faith in God. Elie’s use of the word “corpses” is his loss in faith in

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