“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
The Holocaust is an unforgettable event to anyone who had to live through the horrors of a concentration camp. Elie Wiesel is no exception. He was taken to a concentration camp in 1944 and lost his mother and father in the concentration camps. Mr. Wiesel was brave enough to step forward and share his experiences during the Holocaust, which he recorded in his book Night. In his book Night, Elie Wiesel uses irony, foreshadowing, and tone to describe the uncertainty of one’s future before going and while in a concentration camp.
"The night seemed endless" (Wiesel 26) on the train to Auschwitz. In the memoir "Night" by Elie Wiesel, Night is symbolic, and its meaning can be interpreted in multiple ways. Night epitomized fear whilst also serving as a haven from the torture in the camp. The horrors Elie witnesses in the camp are relieved, even if it be for a little while, at night. Night is not just a period of respite, but also a time of anxiety for the coming day of torture.
The entire novel Night itself is actually an allusion or a symbol. Night refers to the darkness or the loss of religion throughout the novel. This is from Eliezer, himself, losing his religion throughout the novel and letting the darkness of suffering from the Nazi’s overcome his faith. Eliezer has no remorse for others anymore in the novel and this includes his father. In the novel, the prisoners from the camp are forced to run from the red army that have slowly been gaining on the Nazi’s. Eliezer and his father have to run for miles upon end in the snow without any shoes, food, or rest the entire time. This is when Eliezer realizes that if he leaves his father behind when he becomes to slow that he will survive even if his father doesn’t.
The first and most prevalent example of symbolism in the book is the title itself. By calling the novel “Night” it is apparent to the reader that the Holocaust was a dark experience, full of terror and suffering. The entire novel is filled with “last nights”. Elie experiences the last night withEl his father, the last night in Buna, the last night in the ghetto, and several others throughout the book. The term “night” also references to a life without a God. Wiesel often says that God does not
“Night. No one prayed, so that the night would pass quickly. The stars were only sparks of fire which devoured us. Should that fire die out one day, there would be nothing left in the sky but dead stars, dead eyes” ( Wiesel 18).
About two-thirds of Jewish people living in Europe at the time of World War II were killed by Nazis. Elie Wiesel’s novel, Night, is about a teenage boy who was taken with his family to Auschwitz and through many of the other concentration camps. Night walks you through all the horrible and tragic events that Elie and all the other people had to endure. In Night, Elie Wiesel uses several powerful, sad, and horrifying images to demonstrate some of the horrors that occurred during the holocaust.
Symbolism: the artistic and poetic use of a phrase, object, or relationship to express a deeper idea. Night, by Elie Wiesel, is a retelling of Wiesel’s sacrifices and experiences as a young Jewish boy who had spent many years in concentration camps. Throughout the book, Wiesel uses an overwhelming amount of symbolism to express the deeper thoughts and feelings of the Jewish people as they did all they could to survive. Wiesel’s relationship with his father, Juliek’s violin, and the rations of food the Jews are provided with all symbolize the remnants of humanity that still remain in the Jews, who have been stripped of basically everything.
Elie Wiesel writes a powerful and moving novel titled “Night” detailing his journey throughout what we now know today as the Holocaust while also bringing in elements of symbolism and imagery to strengthen the novel and deliver a story that is not only incredible but impactful as well. Throughout the book Elie slowly begins to lose his faith, his father, and his dignity which is shown through the symbol of night. "We were given no food. We lived on snow; it took place of the bread. The days were like nights, and the nights left the dregs of their darkness in our souls"(Wiesel 94).” In this quote Elie states what the nights would bring to the Jews which is darkness. This reveals his feelings of being alone with no God and the dark of night that
The Holocaust was the mass murder of Jews under the control of Hitler during the period 1941-1945. More than 6 million Jews, as well as members of other groups, such as gypsies and homosexuals, were murdered at concentration camps the biggest camp was Auschwitz. They got tea for their morning meal, for lunch prisoners would be given a litre of soup that was watered down. If they were lucky, they might find a piece of a potato peel. One of the survivors of the holocaust stated “Your bowl was your life, without your bowl you didn’t eat.” (Kitty - Return to Auschwitz, YTV 1979) Hunger caused the Jew inmates to do things they normally wouldn't do.
Elie Wiesel’s Night is about what the Holocaust did, not just to the Jews, but, by extension, to humanity. The disturbing disregard for human beings, or the human body itself, still to this day, exacerbates fear in the hearts of men and women. The animalistic acts by the Nazis has scarred mankind eternally with abhorrence and discrimination.
Imagery is a portrait that is painted in your mind, a portrait that makes you feel you are there. The Holocaust is full of disturbing and horrible images of death. Pictures of inhumanity that just make you sick looking at them. In many images you see the pale, unemotional faces whose lives were changed for eternity, and yet with these images some believe that the Holocaust did not happen. In the Holocaust there was mass genocide of over six million Jews. Also many ethnic Poles, gypsies, Soviet civilians, Soviet prisoners of war, disabled people, homosexual men, and political and religious opponents were targeted by the Nazis to be exterminated. Hitler’s ultimate goal during the Holocaust was to
In the book Night author Elie Wiesel enlightens us into his world and vision he once lived before in a time in which was known as some of Americas worst times. In Elie Wiesel’s book Night gives off very good imagery in which we see in his writing by the precise wording he uses. His emotion in which he gives are a mixed in between frustration, confusion, hope, and etc. An example in which he gives “Jews, listen to me,” she cried. “I see a fire! I see flames, huge flames!” (Wiesel). By this quote shows very well imagery as well as to show emotions such as destruction, death, and damage.
In night by Elie Wiesel, Elie uses symbols to prove lack of humanity drives people to lose their identity or things that were important to them when the soldiers without passion and haste shot
Night occurs when suffering is at its worst, when God's presence cannot be found. The novel Night by Elie Wiesel has many examples of symbolism in it. Today I will be showing different pieces of symbolism such as how fire is viewed. Death, darkness, and corpses can all be viewed with meaning and different descriptions, in the end they all connect.
In the novel Dawn, author Elie Wiesel writes an intriguing story about Elisha, a young man that is just eighteen years of age. Elisha had a plan for starting his life over after leaving Buchenwald and he was going to attend the Sorbonne to study philosophy. As happenstance would have it, a young man by the name of Gad knocked on his door. Though Gad knew everything about him, Elisha knew nothing of this young stranger that made him feel uncomfortable. However, Gad’s intentions were to have Elisha join a group known as the Movement. Here, Elisha would be trained to become a terrorist, a blatant killer for their cause.