'Nightfall' By Kalgasth: Literary Analysis

Over 11 million people were killed during the Holocaust, 1.1 million were children and 6 million were Jewish. In the novel titled Night by Elie Wiesel, it tells about a kid name Elie Wiesel and his experience during the Holocaust. This novel will will also explain his thoughts/feelings during this tragic event. During the tragic event, Elie Wiesel lost his mother when the Holocaust started and lost his father at the end of the Holocaust. Three qualities that contributed to Wiesel’s survival was his intelligence, when he hid his left arm, his bravery, when he refused to separate from his father during the selection, and his determination, when he decided to not stop running during the flee.

In the Premature Burial written by Edgar Allan Poe, he explains the frightening fear and terror of being buried alive by using descriptive imagery to appeal to his audience which gives off an eerie feeling. Then later on, the narrator explains his experience with fear. The theme is not letting your fears define who you are. The entire story was based on overcoming your fears or learning to deal with your fears. It’s realizing the problem and driving yourself to fix them. In the story, the main theme is being able to overcome your fears if you face them and don’t let your fears consume you as a whole.

Another way in how human nature is best defined as fear, is shown in the story, “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe. For example, Poe speaks about how individuals can feel fear after losing someone special. In this case, fear can make us not believe in the goodwill of other individuals. We can infer that fear is often involved with people who suffer depression most of the time. At one point, his use of internal rhyme makes the readers question why the the narrator feels a sense of fear when the curtains start to flutter. The author says, “ And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain thrilled me and filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before” (Poe 10). From the words, “thrilled me” we can infer that the speaker is frightened

Fear can motivate you to do something or stop you. One way is when doing something you know someone will do it. Why do people treat people different based off your tragedy Based off the movie Cool Hand Luke’s mom died, his partners gave him respect by leaving the room and the one of boss workers locked Luke in the box to grieve. People just don’t know how to react But we shouldn’t let fear stop us. Like going back to Antigone when Ismene burried her family relative she really didnt know what to do and she just did what was suppose to be done, what her mind told her to.

Oppression, defined as, “unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power” (merriam-webster.com) and prejudice, defined as, “injury or damage resulting from some judgment or action of another in disregard of one's rights” (merriam-webster.com), both actions that have changed people. Some people are changed for the worse and some are changed for the better, but some choose to share their story. Two people named Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and Elie Wiesel did this, they shared their story with the whole world. They both did this by writing autobiographical memoirs, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston wrote Farewell to Manzanar alongside her husband and Elie Wiesel wrote Night, both sharing their experiences during well known events that have happened in the world today. Even though the stories have taken place at different places and different times, the people involved in these event experienced the same things. This does not mean that they were affected in the same way, they were affected differently in their own ways.

One example, is Mr. Stalas, or the bald man. In the beginning, he continuously complains and pleads for death. Yet, he still survived. As time passes, we realize that there is something keeping him from killing himself. He tells Lina, “‘If you want to kill yourself, what’s keeping you?’ I said… ‘Fear’, he said.” (page 323) Fear is a common anxiety people feel when they think about death, such as Mr. Stalas.

‘Wild Thorns’ by Sahar Khalifeh is an insightful commentary that brings to life the Palestinian struggle under the Israeli Occupation and embodies this conflict through the different perspectives brought forth by the contrasting characters. We are primarily shown this strife through the eyes of the principal character, the expatriate Usama, as well as the foil character of his cousin, Adil. Khalifeh skillfully uses literary devices such as emotive language, allusions and positive and negative connotations to highlight life under the Occupation. As the audience, these techniques help encourage us to consider the struggle more in depth, and due to the wide variety of characters, invite us to relate to them.

Renowned American actor David Stiers described the importance of family when he remarked “family means no one gets left behind or forgotten”(Stiers). The importance of family is that they support one another, this is displayed in this remark, and is also seen in Elie Wiesel’s story Night. Night is a story that gives readers a first person account of a fifteen year old boy’s journey through the Holocaust and the struggles that confront him. In his novel, Night, Elie Wiesel expresses the concept that family is the only thing that gets each other through hardships through his use of rhetorical devices such as dialogue, repetition, and elements of tone.

There are several instances of fear discussed in the short story. The first instance deals with the fear that prey feels. A member on the yacht with Rainsford states “I rather think they understand one thing--fear. The fear of pain and the fear of death” (Connell). Rainsford disagreed with this theory until he became the hunted and “fear […began] gripping his heart” (Connell).

In both stories of survival, fear plays a major role. An example of fear from Lord of the flies is when the boys are afraid of the Beast. “And I was frightened and started calling out for Ralph and then I saw something moving among the trees, something big and horrid.” (page 93). The Beast is actually not real and in reality, the boys are more afraid of the unknown than a “beast.” A second example is when Jack starts his own tribe. Ralph and his tribe are afraid of Jack’s tribe, as Jack has become savage and induces fear in everyone. In the Hunger Games, an example of fear in another person would be Katniss, the main character, who is afraid of Cato. She is running away from Cato and his group. Cato is similar to Jack who induces fear because he is power hungry and loves the idea of killing. Lastly, in The Hunger Games,the inexperienced are afraid of dying. Rue is an example because she is a child and does not have a lot of knowledge on how to fight, so she is afraid. In both Lord Of The Flies and The Hunger Games, fear plays a huge role on whether or not someone loses their innocence.

Blood is thicker than water. Many have spoken these words, and many live by them. These words are a promise that family perseveres even in the strongest storms. In Krik? Krak!

The Holocaust is one of, if not the most, well-known genocides in all of history. Families were torn apart, by being separated, killed, or just by deciding that survival was more important than family. In his memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel wrote about his own Holocaust experience with his father. Throughout the book, Elie becomes more interested in his own survival than following his responsibilities as a Jewish son. Elie is silent as his father is maliciously beaten, he becomes tempted to abandon his father,as well as feeling liberated after his father died.

Fear can be given in different reasons, but in this case in a lot of mixed up feelings ending in death. Shakespeare has written literature of many genres. Fear holds the most power for the influence of others during the drama, The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare. The characters revolve around the fear and try to stop it. Shakespeare explains of Macbeth, “Thou shalt not live, that I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies, and sleep in spite of thunder” (IV. i. 84-86).

In the “Night to His Day: Social Construction of Gender” reading, Judith Lorber discusses gender and its unnatural progression through social institution on everyday society. Lorber argues in her reading that gender is a social construction rather than biological. Gender may or may not depend on biological traits, but rather how societies categorize humans as males or females. I found the quote “As a social institution, gender is one of the major ways that human beings organize their lives” (68). This quote made me question how unorganized will humans be without the categorization of gender in our societies.

The online Oxford Dictionary defines fear as ‘an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain or harm’ and then defines a fear of as ‘a feeling of anxiety concerning the outcome of something or the safety of someone’. In To Kill a Mockingbird Scout Jean Louise Finch, the narrator of the novel, states that ‘real fear can only be found in books’ but throughout the story there are several occasions in which one could assume Scout herself felt ‘real fear’. These occasions of fear were produced by real, physical people and situations but also by tall tales and a vague, mystery of a person.