Symbolic Elements In Elie Wiesel's 'Wonder'

In a true-story about more suffering and terror one could ever even attempt to imagine, one man tells his story about learning that just because you’re breathing doesn’t mean you’re living. In the memoir Night, Elie Wiesel uses symbolism to reveal that physical death is not the only way to die.

Elie Wiesel went through some dark times, as a result he uses symbols to describe these trying times. A literary symbol is used to unite an image and an idea to evoke thought. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, night, fire, and silence are used as symbols to describe the darkness of his history. In this article i intend to analyse how night is used to show the darkness of humanity in this time period throughout the novel, how fire represented that they were in hell, and how silence is used to show the loss of faith and fear.

What is pain? What is loss? What is abandonment? It is something that modern most modern humans don’t need or want understand. Elie Wiesel is a 13 year old boy that had to go through the harsh truth of World War II. He is separated from his family, beaten when he is not obedient, and had to go through the loss of his father. Humans always feel the need to give up. The definition of lack of humanity is not humane (kindness of being human). Symbols are used to prove that lack of humanity can drive people to lose their identity and pride.

Night is just one of many memoirs by Elie Wiesel, who survived the Holocaust. Wiesel feels compelled to bear witness to the suffering that he experienced and observed in the concentration camps. In Night he narrates the experience of the deaths of his family members, the death of his adolescence, and the death of his naïve belief in mans innate goodness.

The book Night by: Elie Wiesel is a book that follows Elie Wiesel’s life during the holocaust. The book describes the tragedy first hand from Elie Wiesel. Elie Wiesel got separated from his mother and sisters and only has his father throughout this tragedy. Throughout all of the chapters in the book Night, Elie Wiesel uses the literary device imagery to describe the theme of horror and despair to the reader. By sharing his experiences in the concentration camps during the holocaust.

The Holocaust was the systematic genocide of the Jewish people during World War 2. This was led by the German Nazis and their leader Adolph Hitler. The Nazis gathered millions of Jews and transported them to concentration camps, where were enslaved and murdered by the thousands at a time. Elie Wiesel was only fifteen when he was taken from his home along with his family and sent to Birkenau, the main killing center in the largest concentration camp titled Auschwitz. The holocaust effectively stripped Elie Wiesel of his identity by taking him out of his home, starving and working him to death, killing his family and almost the entire Jewish population, and causing him to question his god.

A woman, a mother without her husband, is beaten to silence by her own neighbors. A boy, not quite old enough to read, is publicly hung for protecting the defenseless. A son and a father, at the end of the rope, are killed for a meager piece of bread. A man is forgotten. 11 million innocent people are murdered in less than a decade. The divide between human and animal is a fragile line. At one point does one lose what makes them human? Elie Wiesel explores the fragility of humanity in his memoir, Night. Through the use of literary devices, primarily symbolism and irony, Wiesel illustrates the horrors he experienced in Auschwitz and his personal accounts of those who have been deprived of their very human rights.

Symbolism is used to represent the deeper meaning of an aspect or rather unnoticeable part of the story. Using symbolism helps further the understanding of the story and it’s meaning. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, symbolism is used to deepen and accentuate the theme of sadness and horridness that has been established throughout the story. Juliek’s violin, selection, and kaddish all show strong symbolism of despair, loss of hope and faith, and attempts to grasp what remains of humanity within oneself.

“Night. No one prayed, so that the night would pass quickly. The stars were only sparks of the fire which devoured us (Wiesel 18)”. This quote comes from the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel. This quote mentions one of the most obvious symbols.

Elie Wiesel titled his book “Night” because it was a dark time in all the Jews lives; the title mirrors the painful feelings of others around him. The Jews were all going through the hardest times of their lives. Fighting for survival and trying to cope with their “new” lives. Elie Wiesel also uses the word night throughout the book numerous times. The word night is used to represent darkness, sadness, and depression.

Elie Wiesel was once a part of a normal Jewish family, raised in the town of Sighet, Transylvania. For a meager difference in religious beliefs, he was torn from his home and family, then forced into one of the biggest human inflicted tragedies in history. Family, which once supported him, soon became a burden as he struggled for his own survival. Changes so extreme made himself unrecognizable. Not so much in the physical state, but mentally, in his faith and Humanity. The Reflection in the mirror so foreign like a new species of human. He was left unable to recite the song of his own childhood because the lyrics were stolen from his mouth by the Germans, silenced. Faith turned to skepticism, feeling

The novel Night by Elie Wiesel, is a tragic memoir of a young Hungarian Jew who survives the concentration camps of Auschwitz. Elie shares every moment from the short time before they are taken down to the end of the tyranny that was the camp itself. Elie shares his journey of how prisoners transforms; daily witness of Hitler’s objective clearly diminishes any hope the jews held on to of surviving. Elie Wiesel's story conveys the emotional distress that the Jews experience during the Holocaust. As Elie shares his story, fear is quickly instilled upon the Jews as they live in an atmosphere of uncertainty. From the fortified windows of the Ghettos, to the frantic warnings of Mrs. Schachter, it is evident that the

In the Novel “Night” written by Elie Wiesel symbolism is used in an abundance of way.

The novel Night records the terrors of a 15 year old Elie Weisel. Elie tells his past of being taken of his home, and put into different concentration camps. These camps include: Birkenau, Auschwitz, Buna, and Gleiwitz. In these camps he is put up to a test that makes him question his faith--and his sanity. These changes in Elie’s life will change not only himself, but the relationships of the people associated with him.

As a character in the novel “Wonder”, Via, Auggie’s older sister, begins her search for her self-identity in two very different communities and as she faces the hardships that sometimes will bring her disorder and loneliness; despite the many obstacles that she faced, she continues to support and love Auggie, despite his facial abnormalities, every step of the way. To begin with, even though Via is aware that her brother, Auggie, and his facial complications require a considerable amount of attention, she constantly feels like she lives in Auggie’s shadows. Although Via shows a strong eagerness to assist her brother, Auggie, in any way she can, she knows that he is the one who receives the most attention, the most care and more often than not,